Networks of Cult and Monetary Images: The Role of the Peloponnesian Sanctuaries of Poseidon in the Creation and Dissemination of His Iconography to Apoikiai in the Archaic Period.

• Grant number: 24/19223-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Archeology - Historical Archaeology
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Nicolau Kormikiari
• Grantee: Vinícius Bonifácio Guimarães
• Host Institution: Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In our scientific initiation research, we found a significant correlation between the earliest representations of Poseidon in painted ceramics and votive sculptures produced in certain sanctuaries dedicated to the god in the Peloponnese, and the first monetary images of this deity, which were minted precisely by the apoikiai founded by the cities that controlled these sanctuaries. In this research, our objective is to investigate to what extent the Peloponnesian sanctuaries of Penteskouphia and Isthmia, in the Isthmus region, Calauria and Troizen in Argolis, and Helike in Achaia, were responsible, during the archaic period, for the creation and/or dissemination of certain representations of the god Poseidon, which, through the metropolis-colony relationship, were spread to the apoikiai of Potidaea in Chalcidice, Sybaris and Posidonia in Magna Graecia, where they were used as emblems on coins. Potidaea was founded by Corinth, which controlled the sanctuaries of Isthmia and Penteskouphia; Sybaris was founded by Achaeans, who controlled the sanctuary of Helice, and also by Trezenians, who controlled the sanctuary of Calauria, in addition to having two sanctuaries dedicated to the god in Troizen, while Posidonia was founded by troizenean colonists from Sybaris. To this end, we will collect all types of representations of the god Poseidon produced by these sacred areas (cult statues and other types of votive objects) in order to correlate them with the monetary types issued by the apoikiai in Magna Graecia and Chalcidice. Ultimately, our intention, primarily based on numismatic documentation correlated with that produced by the sanctuaries, is to understand the role of the cult of Poseidon in these centers of worship, in the poleis that controlled them, and in their respective foundations, in the creation of political networks and identity through metropolis-colony interaction.