'I was brought away from the horrible clash of Ares': Weapon dedications in the Archaic sanctuary of Oisyme

This paper presents a small but significant corpus of weaponry, which was brought to light in the acropolis sanctuary of Oisyme between 1987 and 1990. This corpus includes ‘Thracian’ weaponry, which predates the foundation of the Greek colony on-site. However, most weapons were recovered from an Archaic destruction layer, on which the Classical sanctuary terrace and temple were built.These weapons are primarily offensive arms (a spearhead, sword, dagger and several arrowheads), but they also include fragments of defensive armaments. Of note are the rim fragments of an ‘Argive’-type shield and the fragmentarily preserved bronze shield-band of a similar shield. Their style clearly marks them as influenced by the production of mid-6th century BC Peloponnesian (likely Corinthian) workshops. These finds can be added to the extensive corpus of imported pottery from the site, as further evidence for the inclusion of the Thasian peraea in the Archaic maritime trading networks of the Aegean.With regards to the cult, statistical analyses of weaponry from other Greek sanctuaries that were dedicated to goddesses show that the weapons found in Oisyme are insufficient for us to identify a ‘warlike’ aspect of the worshipped deity. It is unlikely that the dedication of weapons was an integral part of the local cult; for instance, there is little to no evidence for rites de passage involving young warriors. Instead, the recovered weaponry perfectly fits the established paradigm for poliad deities of small Greek poleis. The weapon dedications in Oisyme should be interpreted as personal offerings from private citizens to the patron goddess of their community, either after a victorious battle or at the end of their service as hoplites of the polis.
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