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    of 8

    Valeria Tito

    VOTIVE ANCHORS, SACRED STONES AND NAVIGATION: ANCIENT ANICONIC CULTS BETWEEN ARCHAEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS - ANTHROPOLOGY
    VOTIVE ANCHORS, SACRED STONES
    AND NAVIGATION: ANCIENT ANICONIC
    CULTS BETWEEN ARCHAEOLOGY AND
    RELIGIOUS - ANTHROPOLOGY

    Valeria Tito (Siracusa 1982)


    Master Degree in Classical Archaeology at University of Catania.
    Postgraduate Diploma in Archaeological Heritage
    at University of Rome “La Sapienza”.
    Today she is an Art history teacher in high schools of Pistoia.
    Her interests are: Ancient Topography, Underwater Archaeology,
    in particular: votive anchors, amphorae, ancient shipwrecks and
    anthropological-religious aspects link
    to the navigation in Antiquity.

    [email protected]
    [email protected]

    ISBN 978-88-99686-15-4

    € 15,00 9 788899 686154 AirAli


    Valeria Tito

    VOTIVE ANCHORS, SACRED STONES


    AND NAVIGATION: ANCIENT ANICONIC
    CULTS BETWEEN ARCHAEOLOGY AND
    RELIGIOUS – ANTHROPOLOGY

    AirAli
    This book was published thanks to the contribution
    of the Honor Frost Foundation – London

    This book was published thanks to the contribution of the Honor Frost Foundation – London

    Collana: Eterne Tracce


    Autori: Tito Valeria
    Impaginazione: Cristina Vennero
    Copertina: Cristina Vennero
    Immagine copertina: Autori

    Copyright: autori © 2018


    Licenza per l’edizione Italiana
    Marchio editoriale: AIRALI srl
    Copyright © 2018 - AIRALI srl
    Via Montorsoli, 52
    53036 Poggibonsi (Si)
    mail: [email protected]

    ISBN 978-88-99686-15-4

    Prima edizione Aprile 2018

    AIRALI srl © tutti i diritti riservati. È vietata qualsiasi riproduzione, anche parziale di quest’opera, poiché
    tale atto costituisce una contraffazione ai sensi della Legge del 22 Aprile 1941 n. 633 e successive modifi-
    che per la tutela dei diritti d’autore.
    2

    To the memory of Honor Frost
    INDEX

    Foreword by Dr. Paola Rendini 5


    1. Introduction: Honor Frost and the first study
    of ancient votive anchors 9
    1.1 Votive anchors and archaeological contexts (sacred and funerary) 10
    1.1.2 Lebanon, Byblos: The Temple of the Obelisks, the Sacred Enclosure
    and the Tower-Temple 10
    1.1.3 Siria, Ugarit: the Temple of Baal 12
    1.1.4 Cyprus: the Sacred Areas of Kition and Hala Sultan Tekke 13
    1.1.5 Israel: the Shfifonim of Tel Beit Yerah and other contexts around
    the Sea of Galilee 14
    1.1.6 Egypt, Saqqara: the Mastaba of Mereruka and others monuments 15
    1.1.7 Egypt, Mersa Gawasis: the Funerary Monuments of Ankhow
    and Antefoker 16
    1.1.8 Crete and Malta: The Palace of Minos and the Megalithic
    Tarxien Temples 17
    2 Votive anchors, lightning and stones in written sources:
    some links to litolatry and aniconism 18
    3 Cippi, stele, argoi lithoi and votive anchors in various archaeological
    contexts 28
    3.1 Anathemata and votive stocks of anchors. The archaeological contexts:
    Greece, Magna Graecia, and Etruria 29
    3.2 Semata and cippi with an unclear significance. The archaeological contexts:
    Greece, Magna Graecia, and Etruria 38
    3.3 The unique case, Tarquinia: the stock of anchor which was a votive object
    and a semata in a residential context 41
    4 Cults of sacred stones: their connection to navigation and the symbol of
    lightning 43
    4.1 Archaeological structures link to the cult of lightning, aniconic stones and
    stelai: comparisons and possible meanings 50
    5. Cults and traces of rituals related to navigation: from votive anchors
    to sacred stones and lightning, passing through the memory of the
    ancestors 59
    6. Conclusions 72
    7. Illustrations 88
    8 Bibliography 107
    ABSTRACT
    The anchor is a nautical instrument par excellence. Through the centuries, the an-
    chor assumed a magical-religious meaning. Primitive examples have been found in
    sanctuaries located in Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, Israel, Greece and Malta.
    The dedication of anchors was probably part of practices which the “maritime socie-
    ty” has preserved, repeating them in the same way over time. More recent examples,
    in particular the lithic stocks of anchors have been documented in sacred areas of
    southern Italy, for example in Selinunte and in Metaponto, in association with rough
    stones.
    On the basis of the discoveries of archaeological contexts, anchors and stones verti-
    cally embedded in the ground have been interpreted not only as votive dedications,
    but also as funerary markings; even in some sites it has been proposed the double
    value: for example, in Egypt for the Monument of Ankhow in Mersa Gawasis and in
    Italy about the so-called Tomb of the ancestor in Tarquinia.
    Death in the sea could occur from adverse weather conditions or naval battles and
    it was the worst imaginable for the ancients, in particular for the unavailability of
    a body to be buried. The symbol of the lightning could refer to the storm, probably
    intended as a sign of divine punishment.
    Considering the collected data, it has been possible to point out that some cenotaphs
    (empty tombs), may have been linked to high social rank figures perished at sea, or
    to generic ancestors, founders of the “western greek polis”. The archaeological finds
    support these hypotheses and they refer to possible collective rituals of identity ma-
    trix.

    KEYWORDS
    Votive anchors; sacred stones; death in the sea; lightning; battleship; memory and
    cult of the ancestors; identity rituals; religious faith; superstitious acts.

    7
    VOTIVE ANCHORS, SACRED STONES AND NAVIGATION:
    ANCIENT ANICONIC CULTS BETWEEN ARCHAEOLOGY
    AND RELIGIOUS – ANTHROPOLOGY

    1. Ms Honor Frost. First study on ancient votive anchors.

    This study is focused on sacred contexts of the Mediterranean characterized


    by the presence of votive anchors and sacred stones. As we well know, an-
    chors were important nautical instruments, but they also had symbolic and
    magic-religious meanings1.
    In her Under the Mediterranean, Honor Frost wrote that the study of the votive
    anchors through the various civilization was interesting2. In her opinion the
    anchors could be studied in two different points of view. Firstly to make a
    typological table of anchors discovered in underwater contexts, as signs of
    commercial routes traceable already from the Bronze Age. Secondly to deep-
    ening the symbolic-religious meanings attributed to the anchors, both on the
    basis of the literary, epigraphic sources and on the basis of their frequent
    attestation even in sacred places and buildings, therefore as probable expres-
    sions of a particular religious and special faith3.
    Ms Frost had studied primitive stone anchors founds in marine sanctuaries in
    the Middle East, such as Byblos in Lebanon, Ugarit in Syria, Kition and Hala
    Sultan Tekke in Cyprus. She also known the votive anchor with octopus in re-
    lief discovered by Arthur Evans at Knossos in the Palace of Minos, and others of
    Tarxien temple and megalithic temple of Ta Hagrat in Malta (1600-1500 B. C.)4.
    In the case of the temple of Baal in Ugarit, she had highlighted the link with
    divinities of the weather5.
    The discovery of anchors or parts of them (like composite anchors or only
    lead stocks) in sanctuaries near the sea is sustained over time. In fact, similar
    dedications come from other several places of worship all over the Mediter-
    ranean, for example, from Greece at Aegina and Corfu; also in the West, in the
    South of Italy at Selinunte, Metaponto, Locri, Crotone and also in the Etrus-
    can area of Gravisca and in the temple of Antas in Sardinia6.

    1
    I’m deeply grateful to Dr. Paola Rendini and Prof. Enrico Felici for believing in this project
    when it was still just an idea.
    2
    FROST 1963, p.45.
    3
    FROST 1979, p. 138.
    4
    FROST 1963, pp. 45-47.
    5
    FELICI 2011, p. 13.
    6
    GIANFROTTA – POMEY 1981, p. 302; BOETTO 1997, p. 53 with further bibliography.

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