Bronzes from the Artemision at Ephesos

The bronzes published in this study were found during the excavations of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in the Artemision of Ephesos between 1965 and 1994. The huge number of votive offerings of different, often very precious materials provides evidence that the sanctuary was an important cultplace already in the 7th century B.C., a long time before the dedication of the first marble temple by the Lydian king Kroisos. The enormous amount of various bronze votive offerings form an unique assemblage of the 7th and early 6th centuries. B.C. and its analysis contributes much to a better understanding of Ionian bronze art, a subject that is not well understood until now. The main focus of the study is the stylistic analysis of the bronzes as well as their chronological and spatial distribution. Most of the bronze votives are attributed to East-Aegean or West-Anatolian metalworking centers. A significant group of bronzes shows uniform stylistic characteristics and is with all likelihood produced by a local workshop. Questions related to local and regional bronze-workshop traditions are discussed and the external influence Ionian metalworking is examined. The Phrygian metal art with its stimulating and long lasting influence on Ionian workshops is of major importance for this query. Ionian workshops produced not only mere Phrygian imitations but also created new and indipendent shapes and motives. The absence of written sources in the early Archaic Artemision makes it necessary to provide other evidence for questions related to cult and votive activities; therefore an entire chapter is dedicated to the analysis of bronzes and their religious significance. The name of the godess workshipped in the early Archaic Artemision is not known, but the huge amount of jewellery and the number of animal figurines show clear features related with female daily life and nature in general. Imports and the general issues of foreign contacts of the Ephesos region in the early Archaic period form another important part of the study. The imports found are mainly restricted to two regions - Phrygia and the area of Northern Greece and Macedonia - whereas imports from the Near East are almost absent. This marks a real contrast to the frequency of Near Eastern imports in the nearby sanctuaries of Samos and Miletos, and may be explained that Ephesos by then was not involved in the exchange networks and trade of the Eastern Mediterranean. The bronze finds of the Artemision at Ephesos enlarge significantly our knownledge of Ionian metalworking and stress the importance of Ionia as a transmitter of technological and formal developments between Anatolia, the Near East, the Aegean and Mainland Greece.