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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
In 1987 the Manchester team made casts of the skulls of the priest and priestess discovered at Anemospilia (Archanes) by J. A. and E. Sakellarakis, and after careful medical study—which showed that the priestess suffered from anaemia as well as halitosis—reconstructed their faces, according to the technique used on the skull from tomb II at Vergina (Philip II).
1 The team on this occasion comprised AJNWP (project director), RAHN and Mrs Avril Neave (artists), JHM (anatomist), and Mrs D. I. Thimme (conservator). We much appreciate Professor Kondopoulos's generosity in allowing a team of outsiders to work on what he had every right to regard as ‘his’ material, and in facilitating the temporary transfer of the material from the Medical School of the University to the BSA. With his permission, and with the agreement of Dr H. W. Catling, we were able to do all the preliminary work in the relative comfort of the School; for all this took place during the notorious heatwave that stifled Athens during the summer of 1987, and even at this distance of time we remember with gratitude the help and comfort provided by the staff of the School. We should also like to acknowledge with gratitude the help and support of Dr O. T. P. K. Dickinson and Dr E. B. French. The work was funded by grants from the Institute of Aegean Prehistory and the British Academy.
First reports of discovery: Ergon, 1979, 31–2; Catling, H. W., ‘Archaeology in Greece 1979–80’, AR 26 (1979–1980), 50–1Google Scholar; id., ‘Archaeology in Greece 1980–81’, AR 27 (1980–1), 42. Full report by Sakellarakis, J. A. and Sakellarakis, E. in PAE 1979, 347–72Google Scholar (finding of skeletons: pp. 386–90; pl. 184. 2). For a dramatic reconstruction of the event, see Sakellarakis, Y. and Sapouna-Sakellaraki, E., ‘Drama of death in a Minoan temple’, National Geographic, 169 (Feb. 1981), 204–22Google Scholar; now also Sakellarakis, J. and Sakellarakis, E., Archanes (Athens, 1991), esp. 148–56Google Scholar, with full bibliography. A further account of the reconstruction of these heads, in the overall context of the whole reconstruction project, will appear in Neave, R. A. H. and Prag, A. J. N. W., Making Faces (London: British Museum Publications, forthcoming).Google Scholar
2 Prag, A. J. N. W., Neave, R. A. H., and Musgrave, J. H., ‘The skull from tomb II at Vergina: Philip II of Macedon’, JHS 104 (1984), 60–78Google Scholar; Prag, A. J. N. W., ‘Reconstructing king Philip II: the “nice” version’, AJA 94 (1990), 237–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar (reconstructions as ‘three-dimensional reports’, pp. 246–7).
3 Readers interested in this subject should consult especially Grmek's, M. D. encyclopaedic account, Diseases in the Ancient Greek World (trans. Müllner, M. and Müllner, L.; Baltimore and London, 1989)Google Scholar, which contains references to many classic papers on the subject, including those of Haldane, Allis, and Angel. Other discussions will be found in Angel, J. L., ‘Porotic hyperostosis or osteoporosis symmetrica’, in Brothwell, D. and Sandison, A. T. (eds), Diseases in Antiquity (Springfield, 1967), 378–89Google Scholar; Carlson, D. S., Armelagos, G. J., and van Gerven, D. P., ‘Factors influencing the etiology of cribra orbitalia in prehistoric Nubia’, Journal of Human Evolution, 3 (1974), 405–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hillson, S. W., ‘Chronic anaemias in the Nile valley’, MASCA Journal, 1 (1980) 172–4Google Scholar; McGeorge, P. J. P., The Minoans: Demography, Physical Variation and Affinities (unpublished Ph.D. thesis; Univ. of London, 1983)Google Scholar; Moseley, J. E., ‘The paleopathological riddle of “symmetrical osteoporosis“’, American Journal of Roentgenology, 95 (1965), 135–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; J. H. Musgrave, ‘The human remains from the cemeteries’, appendix C (pp. 429–46) in Popham, M. R., Sackett, L. H., and Themelis, P. G. (eds), Lefkandi, i: The Iron Age (BSA supp. vol. 11; 1980)Google Scholar; Ortner, D. J. and Putschar, W. G. J., Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains (Washington, 1985)Google Scholar; Satinoff, M. I., ‘The origins and geographical spread of the thalassaemias and abnormal haemoglobins’, Journal of Human Evolution, 1 (1972), 79–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Steinbock, R. T., Paleopathological Diagnosis and Interpretation (Springfield, 1976).Google Scholar
4 For an excellent discussion of current thinking on congenital versus acquired anaemia, see Stuart-Macadam, P. L., Nutrition and Anaemia in Past Human Populations (Chacmool, 1988), 284–7Google Scholar; id., ‘Nutritional deficiency diseases: a survey of scurvy, rickets, and iron-deficiency anemia’, in Iscan, M. Y. and Kennedy, K. A. R. (eds), Reconstruction of life from the Skeleton (New York, 1989), 201–22.Google Scholar
5 e.g. JHS 104 (1984), 65–8: further refs. are given there and in AJA 94 (1990), 237–8 nn. 1–2. The conservation methods used will be described in a future volume of BSA.
6 See however Marinatos, S., ‘Minoische Porträts’, in Festschrift Max Wegner (Münster, 1962), 9–12.Google Scholar
7 The ‘chanting priest’: e.g. Hood, M. S. F., The Arts in Prehistoric Greece (Pelican History of Art; Harmondsworth, 1978), 224–5, fig. 227.Google Scholar
8 JHS 104 (1984), 61–5, 75–6.
9 Also e.g. Hood (n. 7), 68–9, fig. 52 a, c–d.
10 Harvester vase sistrum-player: e.g. , J. and Sakellarakis, E., Archanes (Athens, 1991), fig. 98.Google Scholar
