Lateres Signati Graeci II.1: Peloponnesus. Corinthus et Sparta

Lateres Signati Graeci ΙΙ.1. Corinthus et Sparta is the first sylloge of the Peloponnesian brickstamps, signs, signatures or initials, consisting of one or more names, placed on building materials before firing with a movable punch or die. Stamps are an important chronological and topographical indicator especial- ly when considered in their context of discovery. Moreover, brickstamps provide information about the public or private nature of the buildings in which they were placed, the status of the owners or producers whose names they bear, the production process of the bricks in the factory and their distribution in the markets. This book collects and examines all the published and partly unpublished evidence from the cities of Corinth and Sparta, the two most significant centres of the Peloponnese for craft production and building sites between the Hellenistic and Roman periods (3rd century BC – 3rd century CE). The work consists of two specular parts, each one dedicated to a city and structured in four sections. The first one is the catalogue of the stamps, which contains all the data relative to the stamped support (de- scription, conservation, measurements), the topographical and archaeological context of its discovery and the inscription (cartouche, transcription and remarks and bibliography). The second section is dedicated to the prosopographical and epigraphical study of the stamps, in which first the series, types and variants documented by bibliographical, archival or storage study are examined, followed by the distinction of pub- lic and private production based on the stamps or matrices. In the third part, brickstamps are examined according to the archaeological contexts of their discovery in urban and extra-urban areas. In particular, the identified series are connected to the construction phases of the buildings they came from, in an at- tempt to attribute the destination of the productions they marked to specific building complexes. In the last section, a general picture of the system of production, sale, distribution and laying of bricks in Corinth and Sparta in the Hellenistic and Roman periods is sketched out on the basis of the categories identified on the stamps. Following the two parts dedicated to the two centres examined, are tables summarising the catalogued stamps and the contexts in which they were found, and Greek words and emblems indexes. The volume closes with a complete overview of the attestations from Corinth and Sparta, and a series of synoptic tables with the digital survey of the documented series, types and variants.'