Juror's Ticket, Dikast Pinakion, Allotment Plate

1930.01.0001

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Basic Information

Artifact Identification Juror's Ticket, Dikast Pinakion, Allotment Plate   (1930.01.0001)
Classification/
Nomenclature
  1. Communication Artifacts
  2. :
  3. Documentary Artifacts
  4. :
  5. Administrative Records
Artist/Maker None
Geographic Location
Period/Date Classical Period, Ca. 378 - 350 BCE
Culture Greek
Location On Exhibitin the Ancient Mediterranean exhibit

Physical Analysis

Dimension 1 (Length) 11.7 cm
Dimension 2 (Width) 2.1 cm
Dimension 3 (Depth) 0.2 cm
Weight 40 g
Measuring Remarks None
Materials Metal--Bronze
Manufacturing Processes Forging, Incising
Munsell Color Information Olive Gray (5Y 3/1) -ns

Research Remarks

Published Description

"This ticket was reused at least three times after it was first inscribed. The latest inscription reads: TIMOPHON PAIANI[EUS], declaring that the ticket once belonged to Timophon of the deme of Paiania, which was part of the Tribe (Phyle) Pandionis. He voted in the third division of the courts indicated by the raised letter gamma (= three) in the incuse square at the left. At the right are stamped symbols. The larger is a single owl full face with folded wings standing between olive branches with the letters alpha, theta, and eta, the abbreviation for Athenaion or “[officially] by the Athenian people.” This is the seal of the state. The smaller official seal just after the name is a double-bodied owl, indicating that this juror’s ticket was later authenticated by the state for additional use in the annual election by lot of the Council of Five Hundred and the other magistrates who ran the Athenian government. Every citizen (all males) was eligible for selection to almost every state office from the age of twenty. The next-to-last inscription has been erased although enough letters can be read to restore the name as Phaidimos. In the second line the first four letters are clearly PAIA, showing that Phaidimos was also from the deme of Paiania, part of the Tribe (Phyle) Pandionis. This is followed by the beginning of the name of his father, PHANO[—?]. Only the deme name, Ar[a]ph[en]ios, can be reconstructed from the second usage with this deme a part of the Tribe (Phyle) Aigeis. Only three letters of the first use are partially legible. Before cleaning, only two uses could be read and, if fully cleaned, more of the earliest two names of the first and second usage might be read. The earliest inscription was written shortly after ca. 378/7 BCE. The other three times this bronze was inscribed occurred between ca. 370/ca. 362 and ca. 350 when bronze tickets were replaced by wooden ones. When the Athenian democracy temporarily ended in 322 BCE, neither bronze nor wooden tickets were used. Literary sources say that when the democracy was restored only wood was used. No wooden examples have survived. The complete tickets come from graves while the fragments are found in habitation debris such as that from the Agora (market place) in Athens where they were lost. Since these were official state documents, they were regularly recalled, later erased, and reissued with new names. So our whole one came from the burial of an Athenian who was so proud of his citizenship that he did not return his allotment name badge but had it buried with him. Unlike the Spurlock example, the cemetery where many of these are found is near the Piraeus (harbor town of Athens) where the poorer citizens were buried. Very few tickets have been found in the Kerameikos cemetery just outside the walls of Athens where the wealthier citizens were buried. Unlike the poorer citizens, these elite probably did not feel much need to emphasize their citizenship status. This ticket is one of nearly two hundred surviving examples, two-thirds of which are fragmentary. Most of these are in Athens with some in other parts of Greece. Beyond that, including our example, there are only four in the Western Hemisphere: two in New York City and one in Toronto. There are forty-two in Europe. Over a dozen have vanished since they were first recorded, some destroyed in World War II." "The principle inscription is a palimsest and now reads, Timophon Paiani[eus], indicating that the tiket once belonged to Timophon of the deme of Paiania. He voted in the third division of the courts indicated by the raised letter gamma in the incuse square at the left. At the right are the usual symbols, the double-bodied owl and the single owl full face with folded wings which are the official seals of the Attic state. The latter owl stands between olive brances and has the letter Alpha, Theta and Heta = Athe[naion] . The earlier inscription has been thorougly erased by some letters can be read and the named restored as Philo[ny]m[o]s. In the second line the first four letters are clearly PAIA showing the Philonymos was also from the deme of Paiania." - Vanderpool, 293-294. Bronze plate, Liopesi in Attica (ca. 350 BC) ABAP 124-126 no 18; BE 173 no. 24, juror's token. - J. Bodel and S. Tracy, eds. Greek and Roman Inscriptions in the U.S.A., American Academy in Rome, 1997. Before cleaning only two uses could be read and, if fully cleaned, more of the earliest two names of the first and second usage might be read. Kroll 1972, 125. Kroll, John H. 1984. “More Athenian Bronze Allotment Plates,” in Studies Presented to Sterling Dow on His Eightieth Birthday. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Monographs 10. Durham: Duke University, 165–71.

Description N/A
Comparanda N/A
Bibliography

Bodel, John, & Stephen Tracy, eds. Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the USA: A Checklist. Rome: American Academy, 1997. Bulletin Epigraphique, Revue des Etudes Grecs, 173, no. 24. Kroll, John. Athenian Bronze Allotment Plates . Cambridge, MA, 1972, pp. 124-126 no. 18. Kroll, John H. 1984. “More Athenian Bronze Allotment Plates,” in Studies Presented to Sterling Dow on His Eightieth Birthday. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Monographs 10. Durham: Duke University, 165–71. Traill, John S. 2007. Persons of Ancient Athens, vol. 16, 412, #890095, Toronto. Traill, John S. 2008. Persons of Ancient Athens, vol. 17, 44, #911590, Toronto. Traill, John S. 2011. Persons of Ancient Athens, vol. 20, 38–39, #018027, Toronto. Vanderpool, Eugene. “An Athenian Dikast’s Ticket” American Journal of Archaeology, 36 (1932): 293-94, “fig. 1 (photo before cleaning)”.

Artifact History

Archaeological Data N/A
Credit Line/Dedication Classical Museum Purchase
Reproduction No
Reproduction Information N/A

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