UW Press: Architectural Networks in the North Aegean

Architectural Networks in the North Aegean
Thasos, Samothrace, and the Formation of Hellenistic Design
Edited by William Aylward, Jacques des Courtils, and Bonna D. Wescoat

“A wealth of excellent scholarship. This is the first significant study of both ancient North Aegean architecture and its network of interconnections. Every chapter is indispensable, presenting an essential contribution to our understanding of Greek architecture in the region.”
—John R. Senseny, author of The Art of Building in the Classical World

Examining a region that made a substantial mark on Hellenistic architecture

During the Hellenistic period, the North Aegean Sea was a dynamic and diverse area, linked by robust trading networks and sometimes precarious political allegiances. The islands of Thasos, Samothrace, and Lesbos in particular played crucial roles in their position between Anatolia, Macedonia, Thrace, and Greece. Migration, trade, and politics—not to mention the specifics of sites and climate—shaped the development of architecture, which pioneered many innovations that subsequently spread across the Mediterranean.

Employing the idea of networks to effectively describe the interconnectedness of design, materials, technology, religion, and politics, the contributors to this volume establish the need to understand this important region holistically and on its own terms. Taking a close look at major buildings and monuments—while considering technique, design, and decoration as elements of a vigorous web—this volume offers important insights about the area’s significance in the history of Hellenistic architecture, including lasting innovations in architectural illusion, Ionic entablature, and groundbreaking uses of marble and plaster. From the North Aegean, such principles and tactics were transmitted to the rest of the Hellenistic world, influencing Roman architecture and, from there, Western architectural history.

William Aylward, a professor of classics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is the editor of Excavations at Zeugma: Conducted by Oxford Archaeology.

Jacques des Courtils is a professor of art history and archaeology at the Université de Bordeaux–Montaigne. He is the author of Guide de Xanthos et du Letoon and a coeditor of Basiliques et agoras de Grece et d’Asie Mineure.

Bonna D. Wescoat is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Art History at Emory University and the director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She is the author of The Temple of Athena at Assos and Samothrace, vol. IX, The Monuments of the Eastern Hill, and a coeditor of Architecture of the Sacred: Space, Ritual, and Experience from Classical Greece to Byzantium.

“These studies reveal a world of signature buildings set in dramatic landscapes. We learn how ancient architects managed essential challenges — moving stone, managing water — and how they put ideas into practice to monumentalize and beautify place.”
—Andrea M. Berlin, Boston University

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction: Thasos, Samothrace, and Macedonia in the Formation of Hellenistic and Roman Design
Part 1. Sanctuaries and Monuments
1. Commemorating the Sea in the Hellenistic North Aegean
Philip Katz
2. The Messon Temple on the Island of Lesbos: The Pseudo-dipteral Ionic Temple of Hera, Zeus, and Dionysus
Yannis Kourtzellis
3. The Ancient Theater of Aigai at Vergina: Previous Excavations and New Observations
Stella Drougou
4. The Ancient Theater at Maroneia in Thrace
Chryssa Karadima, Costas Zambas, Nikos Chatzidakis, Gerasimos Thomas, and Eirini Doudoumi
5. Sanctuaries of Athena in the Northern Aegean
Alice Ognier
Part 2. Technique and Design
6. Putting the Marble Back in the Quarry: Visualizing the Thasian-Samothracian Network That Built the Propylon of Ptolemy II
Samuel Holzman
7. Particularities of the Northwest Stoa in the Agora of Thasos
Tony Koželj and Manuela Wurch-Koželj
8. Water Management and Monumentality on Thasos and Samothrace
Andrew Farinholt Ward and Vincent Baillet
9. The Window in Northern Aegean Architecture: Integration of Openings in Thasian and Samothracian Buildings
Marietta Dromain
10. Technical Innovation and Building Policy in the North Aegean
Jacques des Courtils
Part 3. Ornament
11. Architecture and Ornamentation in the North Aegean: Specificities, Connections, Interactions
Laurence Cavalier
12. The Lesbian Kyma in Northern Greece
Vincent Baillet
13. The Gorgon in the Architectural Decoration of the North Aegean
Madeleine Glennon
14. Bucrania: The Samothracian Origins of a Significant Hellenistic Ornament
Cassandre Mbonyo-Kiefer

References
Contributors
Index

Of Related Interest
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