WORKING PAPER. DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION.

Lolos, Yannis A. Land of Sikyon: archaeology and history of a Greek city-state. Hesperia supplements, 39. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2011. xxviii, 635 p. $75.00. ISBN 9780876615393. William R. Caraher, Department of History, University of North Dakota Yannis Lolos's Land of Sikyon is one of the most awaited volumes to come out of the American School of Classical Studies Press in Princeton, N.J. Submitted in 2005, the manuscript itself had taken on mysterious and monumental proportions as it wend its way throughout publication process. The final result, a handsomely produced and impeccably edited volume, rewards our wait. It includes a massive amount of new information on Sikyon produced over the course of a diachronic, extensive style archaeological survey initiated by Lolos as part of his dissertation research and expanded in subsequent field seasons. Moreover, Lolos's book provides valuable and rather extensive synthesis of past work in the region and a careful study of relevant ancient texts. This work should represent the definitive study of the city and its countryside. A short introduction presents the scope and method of the work. Lolos's survey revisited numerous sites previously documented and identified over two centuries of fieldwork in Sykonia. To discover new sites, Lolos employed the "kapheneion" method first articulated by Y. Pikoulas in his work in the Peloponnesus [[1]]. This involved talking with local people in the kapheneion to secure information on antiquities in the landscape and then finding the "right people" to serve as guides to the most significant finds in the field. Once Lolos visited and confirmed archaeological features or artifact scatters, he then conducted a fine scale artifact collection to define the site and its chronology. This combination of rather traditional extensive survey practices and intensive and systematic artifact collection has obvious limits, and it would have made Lolos's book stronger if he had explored these limits more critically. In fact, after this rather brief treatment of his method, no additional, sustained discussion of method occurs in the books 500+ pages. Considering the recent near-obsession with method among survey archaeologists working in the Eastern Mediterranean, this decision seems unfortunate.
1

WORKING PAPER. DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION.

As is typical for works of this kind, the first substantive chapter examines the "Physical Environment and Resources" available in Sikyonia by providing a detailed description of the topography, geology, climate, flora, fauna, and agricultural resources of the region. The section is thorough and should become the standard citation for many basic details concerning the natural geography of the northern Peloponnesus. Like Lolos's treatment of method, however, this section feels slightly disjointed from the rest of the work. Whereas many intensive survey projects use the geography of the region to guide their sampling of the landscape or to explain the organization of settlement, Lolos's work tends to shy aware from such environmental arguments. It remains unclear, for example, whether the relationship between settlement and arable land, topography, natural water sources, and settlement is a product of his surveys sampling strategy or past land use preferences. All the same, Loloss work confirms the viability of the several ancient authors who celebrated the regions agricultural wealth . The second chapter provides a thorough study of ancient texts related to Sikyonia and a brief, but still informative, discussion of the Medieval and Ottoman history of the region. As dictated by the sources, most of this section emphasizes the military and political events and the status of the region in relation more powerful or larger political entities ranging from the Spartans in the Classical era to the Roman and Byzantine state of later centuries. While it is remarkable that such an apparently wealthy region did not feature more prominently in political history and textual sources, it is also clear that during the Archaic and Hellenistic period Sikyon played a more significant role in regional politics than scholars have sometimes appreciated. Lolos's efforts to continue his study of the history of Sikyon into the post-antique period is commendable, although he is clearly (and understandably) less comfortable with the diverse array of sources for the Late Roman, Medieval, and Ottoman period declines. There is still significant room for work on the post-antique northern Peloponnesus. Chapters 3 to 6 are the heart of this book. Chapter 3 is a detailed study of the ancient, medieval, and early modern roads in the region. For many scholars of the northeast
2

WORKING PAPER. DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION.

Peloponnesus, Lolos's dissertation has stood as a battered and dog-eared companion for the perambulations and re-imaginations of military movements and the routs of ancient and modern travelers through the area. The published version of this text is not only expanded, but also complemented with vivid maps and clear photographs. Lolos identified numerous stretches of previously undocumented wheel ruts and bridges that allowed him to reconstruct at least partially the major ancient routes into the city and its territory. Recent work on the routes through the western Corinthian and the territory of Kleonai now allow scholars to present a rather extensive - if not comprehensive - picture of travel from the Isthmus of Corinth to points west and south. It is unfortunate that Lolos's did not have the opportunity to integrate Jeanie Marchand's recent work on the road network of Kleonai into his study [[2]]. Chapter 4 considers the remains of urban and rural fortifications in Sikyonia. A detailed study of the city's fortification wall addressed the vexing question of whether Sikyon featured a series of long-walls connecting the city to its port like Athens and Corinth. While the evidence for the long walls remains problematic, Lolos argues convincingly on the basis of texts and archaeological remains that a wall of some kind separated the city of Sikyon from its harbor even if evidence remains difficult for long-walls linking the ancient urban core to the port across the plain. On the measure, the evidence for fortifications of the ancient city remains scant and so it would have been particularly useful to know whether Lolos's continued work at the site provided additional, relevant evidence. Lolos's discussion of rural defenses in Sikyonia may be more valuable for scholars. Since the publication of J. Ober's Fortress Attica in 1985 [[3]], the study of rural fortified sites has become a cottage industry among archaeologists interested in the Classical and Hellenistic Greece. Lolos's work continues in the spirit of Ober in arguing that Classical and Hellenistic fortifications in Sikyonia served the interest of the state and protected vulnerable arteries into the territory. His treatment of these fortifications does not take into account recent work on rural fortifications in the Corinthia, however, nor does it address the growing chorus of scholars who have questioned whether such rural
3

WORKING PAPER. DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION.

installations were fortifications coordinated by the state or erected by local communities or even individuals [[4]]. Despite the limited perspectives offered by Lolos's argument, his work to clarify or document that range of rural fortifications in Sikyonia is remarkable. The analysis of settlement patterns form the core of most recent regional studies, and chapter 5 of Lolos's book features a detailed discussion of settlement in Sikyonia. For all the advantages of the "kapheneion method" of survey, it remains unsystematic and there is little discussion of survey method in this chapter. As a result, this section of the book remains appealing as a start to documenting the dynamic character of the countryside, but unconvincing as a model for understanding the structure of ancient settlement on a regional scale. At the same time, the diachronic pattern for settlement in Sicyonia remains familiar to scholars studying the northeastern Peloponnesus: expansion of settlement during the Classical, Late Roman, and Medieval periods and abrupt decline in the number and extent of settlement in Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine periods. Lolos pays particular attention to the continuities with earlier and later periods at each site and the distribution of small, medium, and large sites in the landscape. This work certainly recognizes the importance of these issues in contemporary intensive survey projects, but offers little sophistication in dealing with the sticky issues of site definition, function, and size. To support his identifications, this section includes a nice selection of color photographs and profiles for diagnostic objects. Lolos also provides useful commentary on the few sites mentioned in the ancient textual sources. The final substantial chapter in the volume looks at evidence for the ancient religious landscape. Lolos focuses on both intramural sanctuaries at Sikyon and extra urban sanctuaries in the countryside with a particular emphasis on Pausanias travel through the area. Lolos's treatment of the healing sanctuary at Titane, for example, draws together a tremendous amount of past research at the site and integrates it with new observations on the ground. Other less well-known sites receive similar treatment and detailed study. It is rather unfortunate that Lolos did not extend his understanding of Sacra Sicyonia into later periods. Considering the diachronic character of Lolos's overall
4

WORKING PAPER. DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION.

approach, the rather narrow focus of this chapter stood out in the book and its value as a free-standing chapter was not entirely evident.

The volume concludes with a series of valuable appendices. The first appendix was the register of sites documented by the survey and by far the most substantial. Each site in the register received a short description with information on the location, surface conditions, architecture, small finds, chronology, and function. As throughout, the detailed information in the site register suggests that a greater attention to method and procedure in the fieldwork than the analysis and interpretation revealed. The absence of any quantitative data on the number of artifact, artifact densities, or even the proportion of artifacts from each period evokes earlier, less systematic approaches to documenting surface assemblages. The second appendix is a useful study of tiles from the various sites and offers a framework for a potential typology of roof tiles. Unfortunately permit restrictions made it impossible to collect a study collection or to subject formal observations with more scientific studies of fabrics. Moreover, the absence of stratified controls adds another layer of incompleteness to this work. It remains, however, a start and an important point of departure for more systematic studies of tiles in both excavated and survey assemblages in the region.

Appendix 3 and 4 document the sparse remains of aqueducts in Sikyonia and a horoi inscription that appears to make the boundary of public land. Appendix 5 and 6 present the result of work at the Cave of Lechova where the remains of a sanctuary active from the Archaic to Hellenistic period were found.. Appendix 7 provides a transcription and translation of a 16th century inscription from the church of Ay. Nikolaos in Vasiliko. The use of this inscription to imagine a 16th century revival in religious architecture in the Sikyonia seems a bit tenuous. The book is well-edited as is common to works in the Hesperia Supplement series. It is, however, a bit odd that the author did provide translation of the Ancient Greek
5

WORKING PAPER. DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS PERMISSION.

passages as is typical in Hesperia. To quibble with layout, the vast quantities of white space around the text feels a bit antiquated. Finally, the decision by the author and the press not to update the citations after a significant delay in publication was frustrating. These minor points, however, do not detract in a substantive way from the value of Lolos's work to scholars working in the Northeastern Peloponnesus. The books fits well into the flurry of recent publications on the Corinthian landscape and contributes in a meaningful way to this area as the best understood territory in Ancient Greece, outside of Attica.

[[1]] Y. Pikoulas, . . Athens 1995. [[2]] J. Marchand, Kleonai, the Corinth-Argos Road, and the "Axis of History" Hesperia 78 (2009), 107-163. [[3]] J. Ober, Fortress Attica: defense of the Athenian land frontier, 404-322 B.C. Mnemosyne Supplement 84. Leiden 1985. [[4]] Much of the current debate is summarized in S. P. Morris and J. Papadopoulos, Greek Towers and Slaves: An Archaeology of Exploitation, AJA 109 (2005) 155225.