Finds from the Stoa Plateau

Resting upon a plateau at the top of the Western Hill of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace is a Doric stoa; at ca. 104 meters in length, it is easily the largest structure in the sanctuary. American Excavations Samothrace’s initial excavation of the Stoa plateau under James McCredie took place from 1962–1968 and continued in 1971–1972. In recent seasons under the directorship of Bonna D. Wescoat, this area has received renewed study in an effort to better understand the ancient building and the activities that took place in and around it. This virtual exhibition presents objects of varying type and date found on the Stoa plateau. Through these objects, we glean critical insight into how this area was used from the Hellenistic to the late Roman period. 

Over 80 years of fieldwork, American Excavations Samothrace have uncovered thousands of objects that help us understand the ancient sanctuary, its development, and its use; roughly one-quarter (about 10,000) of these objects came from the Stoa plateau. These objects range in date; some predate the erection of the building in the mid-3rd century BCE while others document the Stoa plateau’s continued use into the late Roman and post-antique periods. A diversity of materials is also reflected in these objects: ceramic, terracotta, marble, glass, and various metals. Each object tells a small but important piece of the Stoa’s story. Ceramic and glass vessels attest to dining activities in and near the building; iron nails reveal aspects of the building’s construction; marble monument fragments and inscriptions record the activities of illustrious individuals; sculptural fragments illustrate regional influences; and coins provide key reference points for dating archaeological contexts.

The findspots of all objects found on the Stoa plateau are keyed to a grid which was overlaid the state plan of the Stoa and whose 0,0 point is located at the inner northeast corner of the Stoa foundation. Findspots identified in this exhibition include coordinates to this grid plan. We greatly improved our understanding of this building and the area around it by three-dimensionally plotting each object excavated from the Stoa plateau onto this grid plan, using its findspot location for the X and Y values and its elevation for the Z value. By examining different types of objects together, especially those found in concentrated areas or elevations, we gain richer insight into how this building functioned over time. Certain objects, such as pottery and coins, are particularly helpful not only for distinguishing the building’s function(s) but also its chronology. Identifying where disparate objects cluster reveals how the building’s use changed over time and where and when certain activities occurred.

Our research into the archaeological contexts of the Stoa plateau is ongoing, but we have identified several significant contexts that document the construction of the Stoa terrace, followed by the building itself, and then various phases of the Stoa’s use. Between 300 and 250 BCE, dirt from other areas of the Sanctuary was brought in to extend the Stoa plateau to the north and east to form the terrace upon which the Stoa was constructed. This fill contained fragments of vessels and other discarded objects that had been used in the sanctuary during the 4th century BCE. Finds from within the building itself or immediately outside it document the Stoa’s period of use, from the end of the 3rd century BCE into the 4th century CE. 

More than 200 fragments of Attic figure-decorated vases have been found in the Stoa area in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace. Among these ceramic fragments, many belong to kraters, the most common wine-mixing vessels in the Greek world. Some of these painted fragments were found with burnt earth and bits of pebbled mosaic, which suggests that these imported Attic vessels were once used in drinking and dining facilities in the Sanctuary. In addition, several Attic kraters found in this area are particularly significant due to their rare signatures and complex painted scenes. Attic kraters, while fragmentary and predating the building of the Stoa, bear crucial witness to the cultic activities in the Samothracian sanctuary from the 6th to the early 4th century BCE.  

Investigations in the Stoa and the surrounding area have brought to light an abundance of pottery. These are mostly local products, but a limited number of imports, such as from Athens, can be identified as well. Although the examination of the pottery from the Stoa is ongoing, there is a clear predominance of drinking vessels, bowls, plates, and saucers. Drinking vessels, in particular, appear in a variety of shapes, such as skyphoi (Attic type and bolsals), kantharoi, and Hexamilia mugs. Vases for food, however, comprise the most common type among the entire pottery assemblage. Among these, bowls with an incurved rim, saucers, and plates with a rilled or rolled rim are most prevalent. On the other hand, domestic pottery, represented mainly by lekanes (basins) and cooking vessels, such as lopades and chytrai, are also fairly well represented, although all are fragmentary.

This ceramic evidence suggests frequent drinking and dining activities, but perhaps not directly involving the Stoa and its surrounding area. Most of the dated vessels are placed in the late 5th and the first half of the 4th centuries BCE, with a smaller group from the transition from the 4th to the 3rd century BCE, and are thus earlier than the construction date of the Stoa (3rd century BCE). The largest portion of the pottery recovered was therefore part of the massive fill brought to this area from a different part of the sanctuary to raise the elevation of the northern part of the Stoa plateau.

In the Samothracian mysteries, with their nocturnal rites of initiation and revelatory nature, flickering light undoubtedly played an important symbolic role. On a practical level, navigating the steep and uneven terrain of the Sanctuary at night must have required a light source. Unsurprisingly then, the archaeological and textual record of the Sanctuary contains abundant evidence of lamps and torches. The forty ceramic oil lamps and lamp fragments discovered in excavations of the Stoa and its terrace should be considered in the context of the numerous imported and locally produced ceramic and marble lamps found in other areas of the Sanctuary, such as the Theatral Circle, the so-called Sacristy, and the Rotunda of Arsinoe. Such lamps were hand modeled, thrown on a potter’s wheel, or cast in molds. Examples from Stoa contexts range in date from the late fourth century BCE to the early fourth century CE or later. Ceramic oil lamps required a filling hole for pouring oil into an internal cavity and a wick hole to hold the wick for lighting. Each initiate may have held his or her own lamp during the rites of initiation. The oil lamps from the Sanctuary are small and portable, easily held in one hand, making them ideal for visitors to light their way as they navigated steep and narrow paths or open terraces.

The broad area in front of the Stoa was an excellent space for display, ideal for exhibiting honors to individuals and votive objects dedicated to gods, especially the Great Gods. In this area, too, to attract the attention of both human visitors and the local gods, initiates announced their initiations by displaying their names in lists on marble slabs called stelai, sometimes with the precise date of their initiation. These stelai were also regarded as dedications, demonstrating to the Great Gods the initiates' piety (eusebeia); in the lists, the initiates are called "pious" (eusebeis). Initiate lists have been found elsewhere on the island, most likely taken from the Stoa plateau and reused as building material.

Despite the large number of objects found during the excavations of the Stoa, sculptural fragments are some of the rarest, with only 26 fragments of bronze sculpture and 14 fragments of terracotta figurines recovered. Large-scale bronze sculptures decorated the Stoa plateau as grand Hellenistic dedicatory monuments. Today, only the marble bases of these monuments remain, but each would have supported life-sized or larger bronze figures. Little evidence of these statues survives due to looting and reuse of the material, but what does remain is of high quality and speaks to the significance of the sanctuary, its patrons, and its initiates. The few fragments of terracotta figurines were found throughout the Stoa and are of the same types found on the Eastern Hill. Draped males, females wearing the polos crown, and reclining figures are present, which evoke both the initiates of the mysteries and the gods of the Sanctuary. It is a small body of evidence, but these pieces provide a glimpse into the sorts of figural objects, both minuscule and monumental, that were crafted and dedicated to the Great Gods.

In 1971, excavators found a group of 16 bronze fragments down the eastern slope of the Stoa plateau. Despite their singular findspot, it is unclear whether all the fragments came from the same monument, were buried together purposefully, or are a chance assemblage. The style and technique of these bronze fragments point to a date in the Hellenistic period and therefore contemporaneous with the use of the Stoa plateau. Of these 16, two are of particular interest.

At least 625 fragments of bronze, iron, lead, silver, and gold objects were recovered from excavations on the Stoa terrace in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace. Metal finds range from architectural components, hardware, and tools to vessel parts, cosmetic implements, and jewelry. In addition to (at least partially) intact finds, large quantities of hammered bronze sheet fragments and other small, unrecognizable bits attest to the widespread use of metal in this part of the Sanctuary. Although large quantities remain, the surviving fragments surely represent a small fraction of the metals once employed here due to the heavy post-antique use of the Western Hill and the relocation of so many movable components of all materials. Small and valuable metals would have been particularly vulnerable to recycling and repurposing. None of these metal finds were intentionally deposited treasures or permanent installations discovered in situ. Even in their diminished state, however, these surviving metal objects support our architectural reconstructions of the Stoa, aid in understanding how the area was used, and recall the experiences of visitors in the ancient Sanctuary.

The 108 coins discovered during excavation of the Stoa plateau range in date from the early 4th century BCE to the Ottoman period. Approximately two-thirds were minted on Samothrace during the Hellenistic period and early Roman empire. The bronze coins selected for this exhibition provide evidence for the Stoa’s construction in the first half of the 3rd century BCE and for activity relating to a small, two-room structure immediately west of the Stoa in the early 4th century CE.

The first four coins illustrate the most common reverse types minted on Samothrace during the Hellenistic period: the prow of a ship, a ram’s head, a half-ram, and a seated goddess. The reverses of these coins include Greek inscriptions identifying Samothrace as the issuing mint and the local official (magistrate) in charge of the minting. The obverse of each coin features the head of Athena, the island’s patron goddess, wearing a Corinthian helmet pushed back on her head. The fifth coin is a nummus issued at Lugdunum (Lyons) by the Roman emperor Licinius, who ruled between 308 and 324 CE.

Blown glass vessels known through 265 extant fragments found on the Stoa plateau attest to the continued use in the region. While some forms came into style at different times, glass shapes changed little over the Roman period. These glass fragments from the Stoa belong to forms popular between the 1st–4th century CE and are fairly utilitarian shapes made for common use. Almost all of these fragments came from beakers, as well as a few dishes, indicating that this area of the sanctuary remained connected to drinking and dining into the 4th century CE. Glass is made by melting sand with natron and lime, accessible materials which make it inexpensive to produce, yet its translucent qualities are highly valued and beautiful. Glass objects have been produced since the late Bronze Age, but the blown glass technique, in which molten glass is inflated on the end of a blowtube, was invented in the later 1st century BCE and became very popular during the Roman period.

This exhibition was made possible by all the American Excavations Samothrace team members who have worked on the Stoa plateau from 1962–2021.