The Stele-Goddess Workshop: Terracottas from Well U 13:1 in the Athenian Agora

Abstract

T HE SETTING OF WELL U 13:1 in a complex of shops or workshops ofthe late 5th and 4th centuries B.C. to the east of the Athenian Agora, deep under the later stoa of the Library of Pantainos that lined the way to the Roman Agora, has been provided by T. Leslie ShearJr.' The terracottas from its upper fill constitute a major find, and the author is greatly indebted to Leslie Shear for this opportunity to try to explain their significance. They range stylistically from the Early Classical period to a quite advanced phase of the Rich Style, chronologically probably from ca. 470-460 B.C. down to a little before the filling of the well shaft itself, placed in ca. 380 B.C. or, at latest, no lower than the 3 70's on conventional ceramic chronology by Alison Adams Dickey, the last person to make a detailed study of its pottery.2 Somewhat fragmentary, these terracottas comprise elements from one archetype (the original model from which molds were taken) and a minimum of forty molds of various kinds,3 as well as parts of at least twenty-one finished figurines4 and six vases in the form of statuettes. They are all from Layer 1 of the upper fill of the well, with the following four exceptions: 1, 8, and part of 28b from Layer 2; 4 from Layer 5. These exceptions, however, tend to confirm the impression given by the pottery that these strata in the upper fill may be of similar source and date. Certainly the other fragments of 28 are from Layer 1, including one making a direct join with that from Layer 2. Also, more tentatively, one may hesitate to separate the Layer 5 mold, 4, from the apparently related contemporary mold from Layer 1, 5. This find, the largest by far of Attic terracotta molds of this date, indicates that some of the material for these layers of the fill was probably from the vicinity of a major terracotta factory. As a result, it sheds significant new light on the way in which these figures were made, some of it quite unexpected, such as the form taken by the Rich Style archetype 3. It is also a very important body of terracottas in its own right, in particular helping to chart