Fragmentation of votive offerings in the sanctuary of Olympia – Research on the background of a ritual practice

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Holger Baitinger
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 466820328

Large numbers of fragmented and intentionally destroyed bronze votive offerings have been retrieved from the site of Olympia and from other Greek sanctuaries. However, no significant attempt to systematically analyse these objects in order to understand if the phenomenon of fragmentation and destruction was a part of a specific ritual, has been made so far. Fragmented bronze objects (scrap metal) played an important role in the study of Prehistoric archaeology and in the analysis of Bronze Age hoards from Europe, resulting in the development of a wide number of methodological and cross-disciplinary approaches. The proposed project aims to study the fragmented bronze objects from Olympia by applying different research approaches to understand the significance of these objects. In particular, the project will focus in understanding their function and significance, how and when these votive offerings were destroyed and the reasons why they were recovered in large numbers. In addition to this, the project aims at identifying specific fragmentation and breakage patterns in selected material groups (e.g. tripods, votive animals, griffin heads, Sicilian-Italian objects) to statistically analyse them according to their measurements and weights, to calculate the degree of fragmentation, and to investigate the spatial distribution of the objects and their relation to specific functional areas (e.g. workshops, altars, temples). Furthermore, the material retrieved from Olympia will be studied from a wider transcultural perspective. The fragmented objects will be compared not only to similar objects recovered in Greek and Western Greek sanctuaries, but also to scrap metal retrieved from Late Bronze/Iron Age hoards all over Europe to identify structural similarities and differences. This will provide new insights on the significance and widespread of the phenomenon of fragmentation in Olympia and in other Greek sanctuaries to better understand the techniques employed to perform the fragmentation and their reasons and to contribute to improve the research on Late Bronze/Iron Age hoards in Europe.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partner: Privatdozent Reinhard Senff, Ph.D.