Articles by Jan-Mathieu Carbon
A. Cazemier and S. Skaltsa (eds.) Associations and Religion in Context: The Hellenistic and Roman Eastern Mediterranean, 2022
L' ASIE MINEURE OCCIDENTALE AU IIIe SIÈCLE A.C., 2021
Pierre Fröhlich, Aigai d'Éolide et Colophon d'Ionie : observations sur les relations extérieures ... more Pierre Fröhlich, Aigai d'Éolide et Colophon d'Ionie : observations sur les relations extérieures de deux cités dans l'Asie Mineure du iii e siècle ..
Greek Epigraphy and Religion, Papers in Memory of Sara B. Aleshire from the Second North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, 2021
This essay provides a contribution to the relatively abstruse subject of ancient Greek butchery, ... more This essay provides a contribution to the relatively abstruse subject of ancient Greek butchery, specifically the butchering of domestic animals-usually sheep, goats, pigs, and bovines-during sacrifice.1 After an introduction briefly setting out the state of current research on Greek sacrifice, an attempt is made to understand a few of the mechanisms of sacrificial butchery through an analysis of textual sources. In particular, inscriptions-usually called "sacred laws"-that stipulate the repartition of priestly or other honorific portions of meat can sometimes reveal important technical details about butchery. On the one hand, such inscriptions can be understood to describe norms of "good" rather than "bad" butchery. As exemplified by a case-study focussing on the hind leg, the practice involved "cutting at the seams"-a careful effort to sever the carcass at the natural joints and to preserve anatomically "intact" portions. On the other hand, these inscriptions were manifestly concerned with awarding honored participants-usually the cult personnel-their due: substantial portions of meat and bone for consumption. A second case-study, discussing the tail, provides evidence for the occasional division of this part of the animal. Similarly to the femur and the thigh, but through severing rather than deboning, the tail, comprised of the appendage and the sacrum, could be shared between gods and humans. These two studies on the epigraphy of sacrificial butchery serve to further our understanding of Greek sacrifice as a whole, emphasising the anatomical interconnection of the parts consumed by the principal participants (gods and humans), and expressing one of the functions of sacrifice as a ritual of honor and commensality. In the latter half of the 20th century, scholarship on the subject of Greek sacrifice (usually: thysia, θυσία) seldom engaged in detail with its practical aspects. Instead, it emphasised the role of butchers and cooks as comic figures, sacrifice as a form of 'cuisine' , or the sociological aspects of the division of portions
PRIVATE ASSOCIATIONS IN THE ANCIENT GREEK WORLD Regulations and the Creation of Group Identity, 2021
This chapter proposes to look in some detail at a few evocative cases, primarily from the Helleni... more This chapter proposes to look in some detail at a few evocative cases, primarily from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, where associations or other groups, such as bands of worshippers, were especially concerned with purity or where they published inscribed rules of purity. Limited in number partly due to the vicissitudes of epigraphic preservation, partly due to the geographic and chronological specificities of this materialpost-Classical Asia Minor and the Aegeanother factors may also explain their scarcity and warrant further investigation. Leading such an investigation entails probing the often-murky background and motivations for the publication of inscriptions regulating cult practice. These have traditionally been called 'sacred laws'-a questionable designation, since the documents are not always laws, nor 'sacred' in and of themselves. A newer proposal is to view such inscriptions as representative of 'ritual norms'. These are a heterogeneous group of inscribed documents that defined, prescribed and/or codified norms for Greek ritual practices, such as purification. The context for the passing of such rules is not often explicitly defined and, indeed, this is usually the case with rules of purity. * The writing of this chapter formed a part of my work as a member of the Copenhagen Associations Project (CAP) during -, an opportunity for which I continue to be deeply thankful. I am also grateful to the anonymous peer reviewers for their constructive remarks as well as to the editors for their diligence and extensive patience. Edward Harris kindly provided useful guidance and feedback. As always, Stella Skaltsa provided acute comments on my work, from which I greatly benefitted. The chapter was revised and partly updated in and . A subject not discussed in the excellent recent survey and legal classification of 'sacred laws' in Harris , but see esp. - on rules of associations (and cf. now the online appendices to this article by Harris with Carbon at https://journals.openedition.org/kernos/). On the question of the terminology and criteria for identifying cultic regulations, see recently Carbon and Pirenne-Delforge ; Zimmermann ; Petrovic . Cf. also Harris : esp. -, who attractively distinguishes between laws or decrees regarding sacred matters and other more informal rules or summaries of formal rules, preferring to call the latter 'signs'. After the volumes of Sokolowski (LSAM; LSCG Suppl.; LSCG) and Lupu (NGSL), for a new online collection of 'sacred laws', see now CGRN.
Epigraphica Anatolica, 2021
An inscribed fragment (13.5 high x 28 wide x 16.5 cm thick) of an originally substantial wallbloc... more An inscribed fragment (13.5 high x 28 wide x 16.5 cm thick) of an originally substantial wallblock now lies in the Bodrum Museum (inv. 5138; fig. 1). 1 In publishing the text, its first and only editors, Şahin and Engelman, assigned it to Halikarnassos. They observed, however, that while the inventory of the Museum assigned the provenance to Bodrum (i.e. Halikarnassos), the formulary of the inscription could be seen to imply that it originates from Mylasa. 2 Though these reasonable doubts were to some degree taken into account, the inscription was not included by Wolfgang Blümel in the corpus of Mylasa and it has remained tied to Halikarnassos. 3 The inventory of the Bodrum Museum actually reports that the fragment came from the grounds of the City Hall of Bodrum (Bodrum Belediyesi) to the nearby Museum of Underwater Archeology (located in the Castle of the Knights of St. John). The garden of the City Hall of Bodrum functioned as a place to display inscriptions and other monuments prior to the official inauguration of the Castle as the central Museum in 1962. 4 The provenance given in the inventory can therefore not be connected to any excavation or form of reuse in the city of Bodrum. Here, we would like to revisit the text in order to clarify its understanding and to make the attribution to Mylasa stronger. The block is of medium-grained, light-greyish marble. Except for the partly preserved front and bottom, it is broken on all sides. The surface of the front is somewhat worn with no toolmarks preserved. The underside of the block (fig. 2) has an anathyrosis band along the front (ca. 4.5-5.1 cm in width) with distinct traces from the use of a tooth chisel. Behind this, the surface was roughly worked with a pick. A narrow band (ca. 1.2-1.3 cm in width) has been worked with a flat chisel to a slightly lower level along part of the front; this is reminiscent of a relieving sca
Karia and the Dodekanese Vol. II, 2021
Karia and the Dodekanese, Vol. II, presents new research that highlights cultural interrelations ... more Karia and the Dodekanese, Vol. II, presents new research that highlights cultural interrelations and connectivity in the Southeast Aegean and western Asia Minor over a period of more than 700 years. Th roughout Antiquity, this region was a dynamic meeting place for eastern and western civilizations.
Bibliotheca Isiaca IV, 2020
Axon, 2019
Launched in 2017, the Collection of Greek Ritual Norms provides an openaccess commentary on selec... more Launched in 2017, the Collection of Greek Ritual Norms provides an openaccess commentary on selected ancient Greek inscriptions which define parameters of ritual practice. These short notes address two issues superficially concerning the name of the Collection of Greek Ritual Norms, but more deeply engaging with what one means by the notion of 'ritual norm' and what one implies in considering such norms 'Greek'. A term like 'cult regulation' might conveniently be used to replace the misnomer 'sacred law', but this encompasses a similarly broad and miscellaneous group of inscriptions. By contrast, the category of 'ritual norm' aims to reframe the discussion by focussing on normativity-paradigms and exceptions-with regard to two key rituals, sacrifice and purification. It thus only partly reprises the corpus of 'sacred laws', while also including other inscriptions or excerpts from them. Calling such norms 'Greek' is not intended as an 'ethnic' designation of the rituals they describe but rather as a reference to the language of the inscriptions. The label 'Greek ritual norms' is thus programmatic, allowing for a wider investigation of the normative characteristics of rituals within the religious 'middle grounds' of the ancient Greek world.
Des dieux et des plantes, Monde végétal et religion en Grèce ancienne, 2019
Dimitri raïos, Du μῶλυ de l'Odyssée à la mauve de Lucien : l'art parodique d'un sophiste protéifo... more Dimitri raïos, Du μῶλυ de l'Odyssée à la mauve de Lucien : l'art parodique d'un sophiste protéiforme .
Feasting and Polis Institutions, eds. F. van den Eijnde, J.H. Blok, and R. Strootman, 2018
This paper attempts to survey a somewhat neglected subject: the shares of sacrificial meat grante... more This paper attempts to survey a somewhat neglected subject: the shares of sacrificial meat granted to the recipients of honorific decrees, primarily in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. A majority of the honors consists of simple portions (μερίς or μοῖρα), and thus appears aimed at fostering the equal participation of the honorand in the community’s rites. Sometimes, however, priestly or other substantial prerogatives (γέρας, etc.) were granted. Honorific shares therefore played with a dialectic of hierarchy and equality that is characteristic of Greek sacrifice as a whole: some honors particularly stressed sharing and commensality, while others emphasized privilege and a special relationship with the god and the ritual; occasionally, both aspects could be at play.
Shares of meat were almost inextricably connected to localized rituals of sacrifice and feasting, but some portions could also be sent away to honorands if they were absent. This seemingly contradictory practice is a further instance of a flexible dialectic. In some cases, personal presence was a sine qua non requirement for obtaining a share, cementing the actual commensality of the feast; in others, the physical absence of the honored individual was apparently viewed as inevitable and the city therefore undertook the shipping of the portion (sometimes over long distances) as a means of fulfilling the act of sharing the meat.
The honorific mechanisms varied from place to place, molded by a given polis or community to suit its needs, but the commensal ideology was essentially the same. Sacrificial meat was a gift with tangible substance ready for consumption and with intangible value as part of a divine offering, yet it was also an honor that was meant to be shared and eaten together. The hearth of the community received its members and welcomed guests—or meat was sent to the hearth of a distant household. A commensal bond was thus elaborated, linked to the heart of the wider network of honors.
in: S. Hitch and I. Rutherford (eds.), Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Greek World, Cambridge: 151-177, 2017
The butchering of the sacrificial animal and the post-sacrificial division of meat forms an impor... more The butchering of the sacrificial animal and the post-sacrificial division of meat forms an important but only impartially understood facet of the study of Greek sacrifice. Part of the evidence for this subject comes from the fairly abundant group of inscriptions, such as sacrificial calendars and priestly contracts, which form the core of the epigraphical collection known as ‘sacred laws’. These texts provide detailed information concern- ing portions of meat granted to priests and other individuals, as well as those portions set on the altar or cult-table for the god, two categories which were closely connected or even considerably overlapped.
In what follows, it will be possible to provide at least a partial synopsis of priestly perquisites, attested in these inscriptions according to a fascinat- ingly diverse but coherent anatomical nomenclature. The overall theme of this chapter will be, on the one hand, the commonalities manifest in Greek sacrificial division, and on the other, the variety of declensions of meaty perks observable in different locations (principally Athens and Ionian Asia Minor). In particular, the essential priestly portion deserves to be viewed in a wide perspective, and its correspondence with the divine share in the sacrifice needs to be emphasised anew. The observations and reconsi- derations offered here yield a clearer picture of the topology of the sacri- ficial animal and can lead to a better understanding of the ways in which the divine and priestly portions were arranged and interrelated in the carcass.
CHS Research Bulletin 5.2
The paper seeks to reassess some of the evidence for the offering of portions to the gods during ... more The paper seeks to reassess some of the evidence for the offering of portions to the gods during animal sacrifice. Starting from a brief consideration of the myths relating to Prometheus and other figures, it is argued that these depict gods who could partake in feasts and who were manifestly interested in offerings of savoury animal parts, even meat. Myths of sacrifice certainly elaborated a hierarchy between gods and mortals, but this is not the whole picture. They also provided the scope for honouring the gods and opening communication with them, and this was effected through various forms of consumption and commensality during the rituals. Specific portions of the animal—not only the so-called “inedible” bones wrapped in fat, but also morsels of meat and additional parts—were burned for the divine recipients on the altar, releasing pleasing smoke and good omens, while others (the tail, the entrails) were roasted, performing similar functions; the same portions or anatomically related ones would then be consumed by privileged human participants. Still further parts could be set aside and displayed, or used and sampled for the divine offerings, while eventually also being eaten as a meal or in a feast. Sharing the sacrificial animal with the gods was both the modus operandi and an essential function of the rituals.
ZPE 201, 2017
A new honorific inscription from first-century BC Halikarnassos (I.Halikarnassos *294), inscribed... more A new honorific inscription from first-century BC Halikarnassos (I.Halikarnassos *294), inscribed on a cylindrical monument together with a four-line funerary epigram, is published here. Celebrating a woman called Athenodote, the funerary altar containing this inscription was probably erected by the city and by the gerousia after Athenodote’s death. The article discusses the woman in question, the multiple roles as priestess that she held during her lifetime, and the overall context and date of the monument. In particular, the inscription provides valuable new information about the diversity of cults in Halikarnassos, the development of the institution of the gerousia in the city during the first century BC, and, more obliquely and surprisingly, about the impact of the festival of the Leukophryena from Magnesia-on-the-Maeander on the cults of neighbouring cities in this period. In the Appendix, a further, roughly contemporary inscription concerning a priestess (I.Halikarnassos *297) is also edited here.
Kernos, 2016
In 2015, a tablet containing an archaic inscription of considerable length from Arkadia, which ha... more In 2015, a tablet containing an archaic inscription of considerable length from Arkadia, which had appeared on the antiquities market, was “pre-published”. The present article offers: (1) a new edition of the text from autopsy and two photographs, along with (2) an English translation. Since the inscription contains many unusual linguistic and ritual details, an extensive line-by-line commentary on the text (3), as well as a study of the script and dialect (4), are also proposed. Developing this commentary, a further section (5) offers an analysis of the typology of the text, identifying it as a calendar for a threeday (τριανβρ ς) festival, which recurred in different cycles (annual, biennial/trieteric, and enneateric). This festival was concerned with multiple communities, sanctuaries, and deities, perhaps especially with Zeus. By way of conclusion (Envoi), an attempt at a general appraisal of the tablet is presented: issuing perhaps from the sanctuary of Mount Lykaion or from Methydrion, the regulation was closely linked to the Arkadian myths of the birth of Zeus. Every eight years in particular, the armed defense of his mother Rhea was celebrated (the Hoplodmia), announcing the rise of the new king of the gods.
Kernos, 2016
Following the publication of the stele from Larisa/Marmarini in the previous volume of Kernos (28... more Following the publication of the stele from Larisa/Marmarini in the previous volume of Kernos (28, 2015), this article proposes to focus on a pair of important aspects of this new and unique inscription. Alongside a brief survey of the document and more particularly a study of the typology of its contents, the task is twofold: rst (1), a systematic analysis of the two principal festivals mentioned in the regulations, the Nisanaia and Aloulaia, which also enables some revisions of the rst edition of the text; and second (2), with the use of epigraphic parallels, a wider consideration of the character and context of the inscription as a whole, and more speci cally of the body which might be presumed to have issued it.
The important work undertaken by the team of the Inscriptiones Graecae towards new editions of th... more The important work undertaken by the team of the Inscriptiones Graecae towards new editions of the inscriptions of Chios (IG XII, 6.3) has already produced numerous useful outcomes in the form of revisions and preliminary publications of the material; its final results remain eagerly anticipated.2 As a small contribution to this ongoing effort, I propose the following short notes on two inscriptions from Chios concerned with ritual norms.
Epigraphica Anatolica 49 (2016) 67-69.
This short note proposes a few alternative readings for the decree in honour of Theodoros son of ... more This short note proposes a few alternative readings for the decree in honour of Theodoros son of Hegyllos (I. Iasos 52), now reedited by Roberta Fabiani (2015b). Specifically, this includes brief discussions of: the possible month missing in the preamble of the decree, during which it was enacted; the priesthood of Zeus Idrieus and Hera; and lastly, the concluding clause of the decree, which can be restored as a formula extending all the privileges granted to Theodoros to his descendants in perpetuity. Building on Fabiani’s text, a new state of the inscription is presented in fine.
Epigraphica Anatolica 49 (2016) 70-72.
Two late second century AD graffiti from the House of Poseidon at Zeugma (SEG 55, 1547 and 1565) ... more Two late second century AD graffiti from the House of Poseidon at Zeugma (SEG 55, 1547 and 1565) are analysed in this paper. Both deal with the theme of food and its related connotations. The first graffito places an emphasis on the pleasures of a small portion (“microsizing”), but probably also develops a sexual metaphor. Building on the interpretation of Angelos Chaniotis, the second graffito is read as a humorous comment on the extraordinary dietary habits (“supersizing”) of a man called Xanthos, who is claimed to have eaten an immense oven-bread (phornites), along with four small portions of mallow (molochia) as a digestive aid.
Grammateion 4 (2015) 73-87.
In light of the recent publication of the new corpus of oracular tablets from Dodona (mostly dati... more In light of the recent publication of the new corpus of oracular tablets from Dodona (mostly dating to the Classical and Hellenistic periods), this paper analyses whether these documents sometimes record answers from the oracle. Particularly interesting are short records of answers from the oracle, attesting to the prescribed necessity of worshipping certain gods, making specific offerings, and performing particular sacrifices. Only a handful of such answers are preserved, some of which are quite detailed (5 examples are discussed here). These texts attest to the authority of the oracle in answering the often vague or general questions of petitioners ("to which gods should I sacrifice?"). They also begin to yield insights into the mechanisms through which the oracle operated at Dodona: sortition, alongside other modes of divination and consultation. Revisiting these tablets containing prescriptive answers with lists of sacrifices and offerings also broaches the wider issue of the role of the oracle in the expression and development of Greek polytheism, notably in the shaping of different configurations of deities to be worshipped for specific concerns.
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Articles by Jan-Mathieu Carbon
Shares of meat were almost inextricably connected to localized rituals of sacrifice and feasting, but some portions could also be sent away to honorands if they were absent. This seemingly contradictory practice is a further instance of a flexible dialectic. In some cases, personal presence was a sine qua non requirement for obtaining a share, cementing the actual commensality of the feast; in others, the physical absence of the honored individual was apparently viewed as inevitable and the city therefore undertook the shipping of the portion (sometimes over long distances) as a means of fulfilling the act of sharing the meat.
The honorific mechanisms varied from place to place, molded by a given polis or community to suit its needs, but the commensal ideology was essentially the same. Sacrificial meat was a gift with tangible substance ready for consumption and with intangible value as part of a divine offering, yet it was also an honor that was meant to be shared and eaten together. The hearth of the community received its members and welcomed guests—or meat was sent to the hearth of a distant household. A commensal bond was thus elaborated, linked to the heart of the wider network of honors.
In what follows, it will be possible to provide at least a partial synopsis of priestly perquisites, attested in these inscriptions according to a fascinat- ingly diverse but coherent anatomical nomenclature. The overall theme of this chapter will be, on the one hand, the commonalities manifest in Greek sacrificial division, and on the other, the variety of declensions of meaty perks observable in different locations (principally Athens and Ionian Asia Minor). In particular, the essential priestly portion deserves to be viewed in a wide perspective, and its correspondence with the divine share in the sacrifice needs to be emphasised anew. The observations and reconsi- derations offered here yield a clearer picture of the topology of the sacri- ficial animal and can lead to a better understanding of the ways in which the divine and priestly portions were arranged and interrelated in the carcass.
Shares of meat were almost inextricably connected to localized rituals of sacrifice and feasting, but some portions could also be sent away to honorands if they were absent. This seemingly contradictory practice is a further instance of a flexible dialectic. In some cases, personal presence was a sine qua non requirement for obtaining a share, cementing the actual commensality of the feast; in others, the physical absence of the honored individual was apparently viewed as inevitable and the city therefore undertook the shipping of the portion (sometimes over long distances) as a means of fulfilling the act of sharing the meat.
The honorific mechanisms varied from place to place, molded by a given polis or community to suit its needs, but the commensal ideology was essentially the same. Sacrificial meat was a gift with tangible substance ready for consumption and with intangible value as part of a divine offering, yet it was also an honor that was meant to be shared and eaten together. The hearth of the community received its members and welcomed guests—or meat was sent to the hearth of a distant household. A commensal bond was thus elaborated, linked to the heart of the wider network of honors.
In what follows, it will be possible to provide at least a partial synopsis of priestly perquisites, attested in these inscriptions according to a fascinat- ingly diverse but coherent anatomical nomenclature. The overall theme of this chapter will be, on the one hand, the commonalities manifest in Greek sacrificial division, and on the other, the variety of declensions of meaty perks observable in different locations (principally Athens and Ionian Asia Minor). In particular, the essential priestly portion deserves to be viewed in a wide perspective, and its correspondence with the divine share in the sacrifice needs to be emphasised anew. The observations and reconsi- derations offered here yield a clearer picture of the topology of the sacri- ficial animal and can lead to a better understanding of the ways in which the divine and priestly portions were arranged and interrelated in the carcass.
The conference From snout to tail brings together 20 internationally well-known scholars with profound knowledge of the ancient source material and ancient Greek religion to explore the handling of the different parts of the animal, from snout to tail. The aim is a better understanding of the use and meaning of the animal’s body within sacrificial ritual through a thorough interpretation of the complex Greek sacrificial terminology, representations of ritual preserved on pottery and reliefs and animal bones found in Greek sanctuaries. The results will provide new insights as to how animal sacrifice worked as a means to communicate with the gods and establish the world order. The understanding of animal sacrifice in Greek antiquity is central for the understanding ancient individuals, their society and relation to the divine.
The main methodological aim is to integrate all kinds of extant ancient sources: texts, inscriptions, images, archaeological material and preserved animal bones. It is only through such an approach that that we may grasp the complex ritual reality. From a methodological perspective, this empirical width is innovative and creative, as scholars tend to stick to their own fields. A zooarchaeologist rarely knows ancient Greek while a philologist rarely has competence in the interpretation of images or identification of animal bones. Therefore, the conference wants to highlight and develop the importance of a work mode that makes use of the ancient evidence as fully as possible through cross-disciplinary dialogue, but also to stimulate and establish collaboration between scholars across disciplines.
15.00: a special double seminar focusing on aspects of sacred
regulations:
Jan-Mathieu Carbon (Copenhagen): "Greek Cultic Associations, Ritual Norms
and Calendars"
and
Edward Harris (Durham and Edinburgh): "Toward a Typology of Greek Sacred
Regulations: A Legal Approach"