Fragmentation of votive offerings in the sanctuary of Olympia – Research on the background of a ritual practice

从奥林匹亚遗址和其他希腊圣地找回了大量支离破碎和被故意破坏的青铜许愿祭品。然而，到目前为止，还没有人试图系统地分析这些物品，以了解支离破碎和破坏的现象是否是特定仪式的一部分。碎裂的青铜制品(废金属)在史前考古学研究和欧洲青铜时代囤积的分析中发挥了重要作用，导致了许多方法和跨学科方法的发展。拟议的项目旨在通过应用不同的研究方法来研究奥林匹亚的青铜器碎片，以了解这些物品的意义。特别是，该项目将侧重于了解它们的功能和意义、这些许愿祭品是如何以及何时被销毁的，以及它们被大量找回的原因。此外，该项目旨在确定选定材料组(如三脚架、神兽、狮鹫头像、西西里-意大利物品)中的具体碎裂和破碎模式，根据其尺寸和重量对其进行统计分析，计算碎裂程度，并调查物品的空间分布及其与特定功能区(如作坊、祭坛、寺庙)的关系。此外，从奥林匹亚取回的材料将从更广泛的跨文化角度进行研究。这些碎裂的物品不仅将与在希腊和西方希腊避难所发现的类似物品进行比较，还将与从欧洲各地青铜/铁器时代晚期囤积的废金属进行比较，以确定结构上的相似和差异。这将对奥林匹亚和其他希腊圣地中碎片化现象的重要性和普遍存在提供新的见解，以更好地了解执行碎片化的技术及其原因，并有助于改进对欧洲青铜/铁器时代晚期囤积的研究。

Large numbers of fragmented and intentionally destroyed bronze votive offerings have been retrieved from the site of Olympia and from other Greek sanctuaries. However, no significant attempt to systematically analyse these objects in order to understand if the phenomenon of fragmentation and destruction was a part of a specific ritual, has been made so far. Fragmented bronze objects (scrap metal) played an important role in the study of Prehistoric archaeology and in the analysis of Bronze Age hoards from Europe, resulting in the development of a wide number of methodological and cross-disciplinary approaches. The proposed project aims to study the fragmented bronze objects from Olympia by applying different research approaches to understand the significance of these objects. In particular, the project will focus in understanding their function and significance, how and when these votive offerings were destroyed and the reasons why they were recovered in large numbers. In addition to this, the project aims at identifying specific fragmentation and breakage patterns in selected material groups (e.g. tripods, votive animals, griffin heads, Sicilian-Italian objects) to statistically analyse them according to their measurements and weights, to calculate the degree of fragmentation, and to investigate the spatial distribution of the objects and their relation to specific functional areas (e.g. workshops, altars, temples). Furthermore, the material retrieved from Olympia will be studied from a wider transcultural perspective. The fragmented objects will be compared not only to similar objects recovered in Greek and Western Greek sanctuaries, but also to scrap metal retrieved from Late Bronze/Iron Age hoards all over Europe to identify structural similarities and differences. This will provide new insights on the significance and widespread of the phenomenon of fragmentation in Olympia and in other Greek sanctuaries to better understand the techniques employed to perform the fragmentation and their reasons and to contribute to improve the research on Late Bronze/Iron Age hoards in Europe.