1Tegea in eastern Arcadia1 was one of the most important ancient cities of the Peloponnese and is renowned for the temple of Athena Alea, whose architect was the Classical Greek sculptor Skopas.2 An extramural sanctuary situated on the NW slope of the Haghios Sostis hill, and possibly identified with a sanctuary of Demeter and Kore karpophoroi (Pausanias 8.53.7) was perfunctorily excavated in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries and yielded a great number of terracotta figurines.3 This project concerns the study and publication of the material kept in the Tegea and Tripolis Museums. These are the terracottas excavated by K.Α. Rhomaios in 1909 and 19104 and are being studied with the consent of the Archaeological Society at Athens and the 39^th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities (Tripolis). 5

2The questions to be addressed involve the chronological range of the material, which seems to extend at least from the 7^th century BC down to the Hellenistic period, the figurine repertory, which includes figurines of a more generic type, as well as figurines of a character more specific to the local cult, and finally the interrelations between a possibly local workshop and major production centers in the Peloponnese and beyond. The impact of the Argive and the Corinthian workshops has been already postulated,6 while the results of a recent archaeological survey conducted in the region of ancient Tegea attest to a flourishing local pottery production during Classical and Hellenistic times;7 the latter could well be an indication in favour of locally manufactured terracottas.

3The general publication project will study the terracotta figurines along with the other finds from the Haghios Sostis sanctuary (lamps, bronze statuettes, and vessels, inscribed roof tiles – among them examples naming Kore, Asklepios and Tyche8 – marble reliefs, pottery, miniature pottery). A special find is a bronze cut-out relief now in Athens showing possibly the Eleusinian Kore, who holds a torch and a phiale.9 Moreover, of great interest is the discovery of several parts of clay figures and heads of almost life size reported by Rhomaios (fig. 1).10 The research will possibly incorporate the results of a new excavation planned in the region, in order to locate the structures uncovered during the 1909-1910 excavations, mainly remnants of retaining and precinct walls and traces of at least one building, to the existence of which attest the numerous roof tiles. The fact that Rhomaios found the bulk of his finds in a natural chasm in the bedrock, the perishable material of the constructions he recovered,11 the types of the clay figurines and the location of the sanctuary outside the walls of Tegea, on a hill, as well as the iconography of Classical votive reliefs coming from the region, compel modern research to recognize the sanctuary as a Thesmophorion.12 The publication of the finds of the early 20^th century excavations of the Archeological Society at Athens will help to establish ultimately the character of the cult practiced at the site.

Fig. 1. – Haghios Sostis (Museum of Tegea). Head in human size.

4The clay figurines from the Rhomaios excavations will be studied further in relation to the material found at the same site during the first excavation of the Archaeological Society in 1862, which is currently kept in the National Archaeological Museum at Athens, as well in several European museums.13 This will make a significant contribution towards the formation of a corpus of the Haghios Sostis sanctuary terracotta figurines known today. Moreover it will contribute towards the safe attributions of the European museums material with a disputed provenance to this corpus.

5The majority of the material from the Haghios Sostis sanctuary consists of female deities or votaries, mostly fragmentary, but still of distinct types. From the late 7^th to the 5^th century BC begin to appear more generic and well-known types, such as the figurines in the Argive Style with applied necklaces, the earliest with bird-like faces (figs. 2-3),14 or the enthroned females with polos holding flowers or fruits (fig. 4), often with one hand on the breast. Hydrophoroi and women carrying piglets, sometimes figurines combining both attributes (figs. 5-6),15 occur exclusively in the period from the late 5^th century BC to early Hellenistic times. Women carrying piglets make up the earliest of these two groups in Tegea, which continues down to the 3^rd century BC. Both types are known from Demeter and Kore sanctuaries across the Mediterranean, but the hydrophoroi are also attested in other sanctuaries of female goddesses of fertility. Are these iconographical types from Haghios Sostis identical to those from other Greek, Italian, or Asia Minor sanctuaries, or do they represent a local school?

Fig. 2. – Haghios Sostis (Museum of Tegea). Argive Style figurines.

Fig. 3. – Haghios Sostis (Museum of Tegea). Argive Style figurines.

Fig. 4. – Haghios Sostis (Museum of Tegea). Enthroned figurines.

Fig. 5. – Haghios Sostis (Museum of Tegea). Hydrophoroi figurines.

Fig. 6. – Haghios Sostis (Museum of Tegea). Women carrying piglets.

6Attributes such as the pig and the hydria are characteristic of the female worshippers, and not of deities or priestesses, as long as they wear no polos.16 The devotees are often gracefully presenting themselves to the deities by lifting the edges of their garments (fig. 7), 17 or present to the goddesses offerings in a pyxis (fig. 8). The enthroned female deities venerated in the sanctuary, often bearing fruits or flowers, and often with one hand raised to the breast in a well-known gesture of fecundity, can be identified as the karpophoroi deities Demeter and Kore.18 Interestingly, this quality is reflected in a female worshipper carrying a vessel on her head and fruit offerings in her lap,19 attesting to the reciprocal process between deities and mortals.

Fig. 7. – Haghios Sostis (Museum of Tegea). Figurines of female devotees.

Fig. 8. – Haghios Sostis (Museum of Tegea). Figurine of a woman with pyxis.

7Artemis and Aphrodite, possibly the Oriental Ourania, represented as the camel riding goddess,20 are also attested, as well as some male figurines, like that of Pan, dancing females, and mythological themes, animals, especially pigs, cocks, lions, and birds, models of fruits, such as the pomegranate, flowers, and limbs of the so-called articulated dolls. Such finds shed further light on various aspects of the cult exercised in the specific sanctuary, but also in neighboring minor sanctuaries of kindred cults situated on the Haghios Sostis hill.21 Finally, a special problem intimately related to this context is the typological assimilation of the terracotta figurines from Haghios Sostis to other figurines excavated by Rhomaios in 1907 at (Arvanito) Kerasia south of ancient Tegeatis, where another sanctuary of Demeter seems to have existed.22