Reichert Verlag

The Heraion on Samos has been known since excavations began in the early nineteen hundreds as the find place of exotic and unusual objects brought as gifts for the goddess Hera from regions outside Greek lands, both East and West, dedicated in the sanctuary and finally buried in deposits of ex-votos. This long awaited study of the objects made of faience complements previous major studies in the Samos series on Cypriot limestone and terracottas (Schmidt) and Egyptian and Near Eastern bronzes (Jantzen). Faience is a colourful and attractive material used for both perfume vessels, figurines, and amulets, but its manufacture is alien to Archaic Greece. Thus it forms part of the interchange of imported technologies and styles which characterises the Orientalising movement in Greece, and it illuminates new routes of contact between Greece and the old world of Egypt and the Near East. Faience objects of unmistakable Egyptian origin come from the Heraion (though they are in the minority). But the greatest number are those which belong to the first two phases of the faience industry, established in East Greece in the second half of the seventh century: in particular they include a large body of figurines which clearly reference foreign cult. The strongest influence on these faience objects comes from the Egyptian sphere, although the exact path this took is still unclear, and other probably Near Eastern influences are also detectable. Samos has already yielded a large number of high quality Egyptian bronzes of XXV/XXVIth Dynasty date, which are the subject of much discussion as to their purpose and dedication. Virginia Webb has an unrivalled knowledge of the faience objects and their context in the East Greek and Egyptian worlds and this book promises to expand our knowledge of this important but up to now little known aspect of foreign dedications.

Virginia Webb

I studied Classical Archaeology at the University of Oxford under Professor John Boardman, and gained my DPhil, which I published as 'Archaic Greek Faience' (Warminster 1978) a comprehensive study of Late Period Faience objects from the Greek world and their links with Egyptian faience, culture and technology. I have published a large number of articles on related topics. I am now working on the Naukratis project in the British Museum, and on cataloguing newly excavated faience finds from both the Heraion on Samos, and the Aphrodite Temple sanctuary at Miletus. I am also commissioned to contribute to a joint Greek and International project to assemble all Egyptian and Egyptianising objects from Greece and have undertaken to publish the objects from Rhodes.

Auf der Insel Samos unmittelbar vor der Westküste Kleinasiens finden besonders zwei Stätten archäologische Aufmerksamkeit. Zum ersten ist hier die gleichnamige antike Stadt Samos mit ihrer Blütezeit in der archaischen Periode und der Wasserleitung des Eupalinos aus dem 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. als einem Meisterwerk antiker Ingenieurskunst zu nennen.
Zum anderen liegt in der Nähe der antiken Stadt Samos das überregional bedeutende Heiligtum der Göttin Hera.
Der Kultbereich mit seinen Siedlungsspuren, die bis in die frühe Bronzezeit zurückreichen, ist ein äußert ergiebiger Fundplatz für Zeugnisse der Anfänge und ersten monumentalen Ausformung der ionischen Architektur und Plastik. Daneben gibt es zahlreiche Funde aus Bronze und Elfenbein sowie Schnitzereien aus Holz, die sich im sumpfigen Gelände des Heiligtums in für Griechenland fast einzigartiger Weise erhalten haben und die internationalen Beziehungen des Heiligtums widerspiegeln.
Die Ergebnisse der seit 1925 auf der Insel durchgeführten Ausgrabungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts werden in der Samos-Reihe vorgelegt.