In the fourth century b.c.e., the Athenians introduced to the sacred isle of Delos the habit of making marble inscriptions that noted "inventories" of goods in religious precincts. These inscriptions are now quite damaged and badly preserved, but they offer a trove of information about religious practice on this most unusual island. Richard Hamilton has tackled the difficult task of examining and analyzing these inscriptions, and his new book provides a fund of information about the inventories and their island.
The volume is important and innovative in that it offers detailed insight into the workings of one of the most important Greek sanctuaries. Treasure Map brings together information that is otherwise widely scattered in a number of languages, modern and ancient. It offers translations of the inventories in English for the first time, and it presents extensive notes on objects recorded, on how the inventories were listed and weighed, and on aspects of Delian life and politics.
Treasure Map will be a major resource for scholars and students of Greek religion and history, epigraphy, ancient economics, and politics.
Richard Hamilton is Paul Shorey Professor of Greek, Bryn Mawr College, and the author of Choes and Anthesteria, also published by the University of Michigan Press.
