Gunnel Ekroth, Uppsala University

The project had two aims. First of all, to establish in detail how ancient Greek animal sacrifice was performed in practice ca 700-200 BC by integrating texts, inscriptions, iconography, archaeology, osteology and practical experiments. Secondly, to orient the rituals within a socio-historical context and investigate how they were used to define the relation between gods and men, and between individuals and groups in Greek society. The starting point is that we first have to know what the Greeks actually did, before we can ask the question why. The project has followed the plan.

RESULTS

Animal bones have previously only been used as a source for Greek religion to a limited extent, but the project demonstrates that the osteological evidence is fundamental for our understanding of sacrifice in practice. The bone material is the only source which is constantly increasing and provides information which complements, explains or even contradicts the written and iconographical sources. We have to remember that texts, inscriptions and images are descriptions of the cult, while the bones can reflect what was actually done.

Written and iconographical sources make clear that cattle, sheep, goats and pigs were sacrificed and eaten, but the animal bones from sanctuaries show that there are distinctions between the species that were burnt on the altar and those consumed at meals after sacrifices. In the altar deposits are made up almost excludingly of cattle and sheep/goats, while pigs are missing. Cattle, sheep and goats dominate in the dinner debris, but here are found also pigs, dogs, horses, donkeys and game. All these animals were not necessarily sacrificed or even killed in the sanctuary. Such distinctions suggest that the concept "sacrifice" and "sacrificial victim" must be questioned, as well as that the notion that all meat eaten in Greek antiquity was strictly liked to the religion. Meat had differed degrees of sacredness and can be oriented on a scale running from full-scale sacrifice of animals at the altar at one end, to the consumption of dogs, worn-out horses, game and even animals dead by natural causes at the other.

The osteological evidence indicates that most of the meat eaten in sanctuaries must have been boiled, a cooking method which erased any distinctions between different kinds of meat. In the communal casserole were placed not only the sacrificial victims but also the meat from animals that had been slaughtered, though not sacrificed, in the sanctuary, at home, in the market or killed at hunts. Boiled in the pot, all meat, no matter its origins, became "sacred" meat.

The bones also give a better understanding of what parts of the sacrificial victim were burnt at a thysia sacrifice, the principal ritual in Greek cult. Written sources mainly mention thighbones (meria) wrapped in fat, while the iconographical material depicts tails (osphys). The osteological evidence shows that thighbones must be considered as the oldest and most common form of burnt sacrifice, though in the Archaic period tails also came to be used. The preference for thighbones may be a practice inherited from the Late Bronze Age, as this part is found in Mycenaean sacrificial deposits and also mentioned in Homer. The burning of tails could have been influenced by Israelite cult practices, which show many similarities in the execution of rituals with the Greek sacrifices. The adoption of eastern rituals probably took place in the Late Iron Age-early Archaic period, a period of intense contacts with the Near East.

Interestingly, the altars deposits rarely or never contain tails of sheep, goats or pigs. Practical experiments show that such tails behave exactly in the same way as cattle tails when placed in a fire, i.e. they rise and curl. The explanation of the lack of tails from these species at real sacrifices must therefore be sought elsewhere. The experiments also demonstrate that vase-paintings depicting tails in the altar fire closely correspond to the reactions of real tails. The animal parts shown on the vases have to be considered as distinct and meaningful, and not only as generic references to "sacrifice".

Modern theories have focused on the burning of the bones and how the sacrificial smoke emphasized the immortality of the gods and their distance to men. Still, Greek sacrificial ritual has to be studied as a whole consisting of different ritual elements, which underline both distinctions and similarities between immortals and mortals. The gods were often given gifts of raw or cooked meat (trapezomata and theoxenia) placed on a table near the altar and later consumed. The act of deposition, covered by the verb "paratithemi", was an alternative way of communicating with the divine sphere. To transform the offerings to smoke was not a prerequisite for the gods to enjoy them. Offerings of food recalled the mythic past when men and gods dined together. The central concept within this ritual was honour, "timê". To give the gods meat may have been inspired by how kings and heroes were honoured by meat gifts, a practice we encounter already in Homer. The increase in importance of this ritual can be linked to how banquets were used in Archaic society to express status and hierarchies through "xenia", guest-friendship. Meals and gifts of meat for the gods have previously been evidenced in inscriptions, but can also be demonstrated in the archaeological and osteological material from sanctuaries.

NEW QUESTIONS

Among the new questions raised by the project is the need to study Greek sacrifices within a wider geographical and chronological context. Greek sacrificial ritual did not develop in a vacuum and it is of great interest to investigate what may have been inherited from the Bronze Age and what may have been influenced by neighbouring cultures in Anatolia and the Near East. The Linear-B tablets show that the same gods were worshipped in Greece during the Bronze Age as in the historical period, but were the same rituals used? The handling of piglets and offering pits seem to have been taken over from the Hittites, while the practice of burning specific parts such as thighs and tails resembles the Israelite practices outlined in the OT. The increased importance of meat gifts for the gods may also have been inspired by eastern religious practices, where meals were the principal offerings for the gods.

The question is how this possible transferral of rituals happened, in which direction it worked and in what historical, social and political context the influences may have been passed on. Were the ritual actions as well as their contents adopted, or were similar actions performed though given a different meaning? What is most important at such a major comparison between periods and cultures, the similarities or the differences?

MAIN PUBLICATIONS

The project has generated 14 articles, four contributions to encyclopaedias and sex reviews. The editing of a conference volume is in progress (see below). The two main publications are 'Bare bones: osteology and Greek sacrificial ritual', in Animal sacrifice in the ancient world, eds. S. Hitch & I. Rutherford, Cambridge University Press, and 'Castration, cult and agriculture. Perspectives on Greek animal sacrifice', in Aspects of religion and food production in the ancient Greek world. A conference to the memory of Berit Wells, eds. A. Penttinen & J. Wallensten, both in press.

'Bare bones' analyses the importance of the osteological evidence for Greek cult from an empirical and methodological perspective. The article explores the actions that can be traced in the bone evidence (sacrifice, meals, slaughter) and discusses in particular altar deposits containing a wider selection of bones that the generic thighbones and tails, which are suggested to represent a previously unrecognized variant of food offerings and also explain a complex passage in a sacrificial inscription. Finally, it is discussed how the bones suggest that we are to distinguish between animals that were really sacrificed at the altar at thysia rituals and those killed to be eaten, and that the use of the term "inedible" species should be questioned.

The study of castration and cult brings out the project's aim to integrate different kinds of sources, as they reflect different kinds of realities. In the inscriptions listing sacrificial victims in sanctuaries females and castrated males dominate, while few uncastrated males are mentioned, a pattern confirmed by the osteological evidence and reflecting the actual composition of the flocks. In the vase-paintings and literary texts, on the other hand, bulls, rams, billy goats and boars are prolific, even in representations of myths where female animals would be expected. The uncastrated male seems to have been the ideal or the norm when an animal was depicted, though in real cult such victims were used at sacrifices of a particular kids, for example in war, at oaths and purifications. In the literary tradition grandiose sacrifices of bulls and rams mark the mythological and unrealistic dimension of an event.

OTHER MEANS OF CONVEYING THE RESULTS

The project has mainly been carried in Paris, at the Centre ANHIMA, where I am membre associé since 2007, which has given me the opportunity to present my work and results in an international scholarly environment. I have been invited to eight conferences (England, France, Germany and USA) and four more are upcoming for 2011-2012. I was a professeur invité at Université Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne in February 2009 and have also given lectures at various other institutions in Paris, as well as at universities in Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Brussels, Liège, Erfurt and Utrecht. An international conference on the theme Bones, behaviour and belief. The osteological evidence as a source for Greek ritual practice was organised by myself and a colleague at the Swedish Institute at Athens in September 2009.