143-182

The funerary monuments of ancient Stryme

• Τερζοπούλου, Δόμνα

Stryme, the only colony of Thasos, to the east of the river Nestos was founded in the 7th c. BC. It was a small, farming and trading city that enjoyed only a limited life. Professor Bakalakis identified the few ruins preserved on the Molyvoti peninsula, 25 km north-west of Komotini, with ancient Stryme. The identification has been generally accepted by scholars, but no epigraphic confirmation of it has been forthcoming to date. The first excavations of the site were conducted by Professor Bakalakis in the 1950s, and 1992 saw the beginning of a new period of investigation of the ancient city and its cemeteries, which extend to the north and west of the fortification walls. The site of the cemeteries became known at a fairly early date, thanks to the relief grave stelai that began to be found just after the Second World War. As time went on, the Collection of the Komotini Museum was enriched by a large number of inscribed grave stelai that were brought to light by th e use of the mechanical plough on farms.The assembling and recording of all the inscribed grave stelai in preparation for the publication of the Corpus of Greek and Roman Inscriptions of Aegean Thrace by the Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity of the National Research Foundation seemed an appropriate occasion for a comprehensive presentation of the funerary monuments of ancient Stryme. These included tombstones, funerary altars, sculptures, reliefs and inscribed grave stelai. Most of the reliefs from ancient Stryme were published in the past by Professor Bakalakis and other scholars. In contrast, few of the inscribed stelai, whether intact or preserved in fragments, have been published fully.The stelai of ancient Stryme form a large group of Classical funerary monuments from the area of Aegean Thrace. Their study furnishes valuable evidence both for the influences exerted on North Aegean sculpture by the large artistic centres of the ancient world, and for the prosopography of the period. The earliest relief grave stele dates from the last quarter of the 6th c. BC. A few relief and inscribed stelai date from the 5th c. BC, but the majority of the inscribed stelai are from the 4th c. BC. A few fragments of relief stelai also date from this century.Typologically, the stelai may be divided into two categories: plain, rectangular stelai made of poros with no crowning, and marble stelai with a crowning. Apart from an epigram dating from the 5th c. BC, the inscriptions on the rest of the stelai are short, usually consisting of the name and patronymic of the deceased, or the ethnikon in cases where he or she came from a different city. Of the total of 69 names that have been assembled, 58 are of men and 11 of women. Most of them are common names falling within the tradition of the Ionian world, and are known both at Thasos and at other cities on the Thracian coast.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)
• Επιγραφές

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