Archaeology

La phase céramique Lerma a été identifiée pour la première fois dans les années 1980 dans le cadre d’un projet archéologique  dirigé par Shirley Gorenstein (Projet Acambaro). Centré sur la Moyenne vallée du río Lerma, dans le centre Nord du Mexique, elle vient s’intercaler entre les phases Mixtlán (100-300 AD) et Acámbaro (1450- 1520 AD). La synthèse présentée en 2000 dans le cadre de sa thèse de doctorant par Christine Hernandez (Projet Zinapecuaro) est la plus récente. La regrouper et la simplifier en une base de données File Maker (BDD Lerma) a constitué l’essentiel du travail de première année de Master

Ce travail de deuxième année a été orienté dans le but d’ancrer la phase céramique Lerma de manière plus contrôlée. Pour ce faire le corpus a été complété par l’étude de différentes campagnes du projet Chupícuaro et par l’analyse minutieuse du complexe céramique San Cayetano, retrouvé en contexte préservé. Il apporte des données typologiques nouvelles, mais son importance prend de l’ampleur par la datation radiocarbone qui l’accompagne. Ce complexe situé entre 656 et 627AD a ainsi pu être comparé au corpus de la phase Lerma qui s’étend actuellement entre 200 et 1000AD. Selon cette date, le complexe San Cayetano aurait dû se rapprocher du complexe Terminal Perales daté entre 600 et 800AD. Néanmoins, la majorité ont été rapprochés de types du complexe antérieur, le complexe Perales (400-600AD). Parmi ces types Perales a pu être mise en évidence l’association très représentative des types Buena Vista, Garita Black/Brown et Cantinas Red Orange.  . Le complexe San Cayetano permet d’accrocher ses types de manière plus précise dans la chronologie de la phase Lerma. Il est évident ici que ces deux années de Master apparaissent comme l’amorce d’un travail en profondeur sur cette période.

The subject is part of my doctoral thesis on ‘Childhood at play’ in the classical Greek world under the direction of Prof. Véronique Dasen at the University of Fribourg, as part of the ERC project ‘Locus Ludi. The cultural fabric of play and games in classical antiquity’.
The presentation will be based on my catalogue of depictions of children at play in Classical Greek art, in particular on a type of miniature wine jug called chous (plural choes), as well as on other types of vessels with similar depictions of children. On these objects, produced in Athens in the second half of the fifth and fourth centuries BC, many scenes show children – boys and girls – of various ages – from the crawling toddler to the teenager – who engage in playful activities, alone or in small groups. Many of these children manipulate a small cart with wheels, often a simple wooden stick used as a handle connected to a disc as wheel. More complex carts are also present, some being miniature chariots driven by small animals (dogs, goats, etc.).
The function of this toy, its fabrication and context of use, is debated by many modern authors. For Lesley Beaumont (Childhood in Ancient Athens: Iconography and Social History, 2012), the wheeled stick is to associate with the ritual context of these scenes, and marks the participation of the child to his/her first religious festival, probably the Anthesteria. In other words, this particular toy would be used by the vase painters to distinguish the children who have already celebrated this transition from early childhood to the next stage of life from those who have not.
Starting from this theory, other questions will be asked: how can the wheel cart be related to a religious event? Were they offered on this occasion? Can it be considered as a gender marker, reserved to little boys as on the funerary stelae of the same period, where no girls are depicted with such toy (as opposed to vases where girls use them)? Is it an age class identifier, used to evoke the learning of walking by the little ones? The comparison of iconographic, textual and archaeological sources will throw another light on the nature and function of this object.

Sur les choés attiques, ou cruches miniatures, nombreuses sont les scènes où des enfants s’adonnent à des activités qui semblent s’inscrire dans un contexte festif. Ces jeunes filles et jeunes garçons y manipulent des objets caractéristiques des rites religieux athéniens. Régulièrement associées au deuxième jour de la fête des Anthestéries, les images décorant les choés peuvent-elles néanmoins faire référence à d’autres célébrations religieuses, où les activités ludiques des enfants se mêleraient à celles des fêtes communautaires des adultes? Ces questionnements soulèvent alors les modalités de la participation des enfants à ces rites religieux.

A significant number of Greek vases from the classical period, produced in Athens in the second half of the fifth and fourth centuries BC, depict children of various ages – from the crawling toddler to the teenager – who engage in playful activities. In particular on a type of miniature wine jug called chous (plural choes), as well as on other types of vessels with similar depictions. On these scenes, some children are clearly identifiable as little boys: their nudity often reveals male sexual parts, and at the same time gender markers as hairdressing and clothing allow us to identify little girls.
The playful activities depicted on these objects, often involving particular types of toys, are a moment of interaction between children. As a matter of fact, if some of them are playing alone, vase painting depicts children playing in small groups from two to four participants. Therefore, playing becomes a privileged moment of interaction between children of different ages as well as between little girls and little boys.
The presentation will focus on these interactions: is there a specific way to play between girls and boys? Are there types of games / types of toys exclusively reserved for boys / for girls? What about the children, mainly toddlers, who seem to be voluntarily depicted without obvious gender markers? We will reconsider the criteria for the identification of boys and girls, already debated by many modern authors. We will also rise the issue of bad and good way of playing for one gender and the other. Through the study of this catalog as well as textual and archaeological sources, we hope to help understand if specific ways of playing are related to gender identification in classical Greek iconography.