A Toast to History: 500 Years of Wine Drinking Cups Mark Social Shifts in Ancient Greece

University of Cincinnati ^ | January 3, 2011 | M.B. Reilly

[decimon]

University of Cincinnati research examines a timeline of wine drinking cups over a 500-year period in ancient Athens. Changes in cup form and design point to political, social and economic shifts.

How commonly used items – like wine drinking cups – change through time can tell us a lot about those times, according to University of Cincinnati research to be presented Jan. 7 by Kathleen Lynch, UC associate professor of classics, at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Lynch will present the research at the event’s Gold Medal Session, when archaeology’s most distinguished honor will be bestowed on her mentor, Susan Rotroff of Washington University.

UC’s Lynch will present a timeline of wine drinking cups used in ancient Athens from 800 B.C. to 323 B.C. and will discuss how changes to the drinking cups marked political, social and economic shifts.

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Why study these items? “Because,” stated Lynch, “People’s things tell you about those people and their times. In the same way that the coffee mug with ‘World’s Greatest Golfer’ in your kitchen cabinet speaks to your values and your culture, so too do the commonly used objects of the past tell us about that past. And, often, by studying the past, we learn about ourselves.”

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[decimon]

This three-foot-high Iron Age gravemarker is in the form of a mixing vessel (water and wine) used at symposia. It signals the importance of the symposia in Athenian society. People wanted to be remembered for their ability to sponsor these gatherings.

[decimon]

Greece in its cups ping.

[2banana]

I like the “Victory at Marathon” Commemorative Wine Glasses myself.

[SC_Pete]

From the 1920s to World War II, the University of Cincnnati’s Department of Classics was arguably the finest in the country. Dept. Head Semple and his wife (a Taft), used their personal fortunes to fund expeditions (most notably the excavation of Troy) and to attract some of the top scholars in the US.

[Verginius Rufus]

I believe the UC Classics Department is still housed in the Blegen Library Building, named for Carl Blegen, who excavated at Troy from 1932 to 1938 and then discovered the Palace of Nestor at Pylos in 1939. Right near that building there is a statue of William Howard Taft, Chief Justice of the United States (and earlier President).

The Archaeological Institute of America meeting will be in San Antonio from Jan. 7 to Jan. 9. Registration for non-members is $215 but one-day passes are available for $105.

Kathleen Lynch's paper is scheduled to be read at 3:40 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 7.

Vamos!

[SunkenCiv]

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[married21]

I’ve actually been to Nestor’s Palace at Pylos. Back in the 1970s, when I was a kid. We were in Greece visiting my brother, who was stationed there in the military, when my mom struck up a conversation with a woman who turned out to be a classics professor from Georgetown U. We accompanied her on her trip to Nestor’s tomb. She was visiting it because it had been mentioned in Homer’s Iliad, I believe. It was the first archeological ruin I ever visited. Nearby was a tomb called Hera’s tomb, built in an igloo pattern of stacked blocks.

I didn’t know about Blegen, and that it was an important discovery.

[Verginius Rufus]

Blegen found a palace there--the only reason for saying it was Nestor's is that Homer says he ruled in sandy Pylos. In the Odyssey Telemachus travels around trying to find out if anyone has heard what had happened to his father, and one of the places he visits is Pylos, so the palace is described in that work. Homer says Telemachus was given a bath, and a bathtub was discovered at Pylos.

Blegen was lucky to find the archive room with a large number of tablets in Linear B shortly after the dig started--that was a critical discovery leading to the decipherment of Linear B in 1952 with the help of those tablets. (There was a larger number of tablets found at Knossos but apparently Sir Arthur Evans had hoarded them trying to be the one to decipher the script.) After 1939 they couldn't go back again until 1951 or so because of World War II and then the Greek Civil War.

[Silentgypsy]

What does switching from saucer champagne glasses to flutes indicate besides you won’t spill so much and more bubbles tickle your nose for a longer time?