Bothros
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A Bothros ( ancient Greek βόθρος , plural Bothroi ) denotes in ancient Greece an artificially created or artificially created depression in the ground that could serve various purposes. In archeology , corresponding deepenings are also addressed as bothros and, depending on the context, interpreted as a cult, sacrificial or storage pit.
In Homer , bothros means a depression or pit in the ground. In the Odyssey , the maids of the Nausicaa use a bothros to stamp the laundry in it. In the 10th song of the Odyssey , a Bothros dug by Odysseus serves to offer libations which, on the advice of Kirke, he should donate for the dead in the underworld: first honey and milk, then wine, then water. Bothroi also ingested the blood of sacrificial animals that were killed above them. In Homeric imagination, the dead, drawn to blood, lived under such Bothroi.
Archaeologically recorded findings referred to as Bothros are often round or D-shaped, sometimes lined with stones in a complicated shape and very different in size and shape. Depending on the findings and the context of the find, there are three types of archaeological Bothroi: 1. domestic, 2. sepulcral, 3. sacred. Bothroi of the group standing in a house context are interpreted as fire places, as ovens or as storage pits for the storage of grain and food. Bothroi of the second and third groups were mostly sacrificial pits with the corresponding remains of ceramics and bones or objects that were deliberately laid down.
Bothroi are mainly found on sites from the early Bronze Age and the Iron Age in Greece . Important sites are Korakou , Gonia , Aetopetra and Zygouries around Corinth , at Asine and in Lerna in the Argolis , in Eutresis and Orchomenos in Boeotia , where so many were found that the excavator spoke of Bothroi Levels . But they also occur in the Greek colonies of southern Italy, in Etruria , Dacia and Macedonia .
Since Bothroi, which were used in a sacred context for sacrifices, were often in use for many generations, the finds and findings made in them represent a special archaeological value: the sequence of findings from the most recent and therefore above finds to the older, deeper ones The lying finds provide important clues for the relative chronology of the objects found.
In the Italian area, these pits are called favissa (plural favissae ).
literature
- Richard W. Hutchinson: Bothroi. In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies 55, 1935, pp. 1-19.
- Elisa Lissi: Bothros. In: Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica Vol. 2, Rome 1959 ( full text ).
- Thomas Strasser: Bothroi in the Early Aegean Bronze Age . In: Aegaeum. Aannales d'archéologie égéenne de l'Université de Liège 20, 1999, pp. 813–817 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Image of a Bothros in Durankulak , Bulgaria