Creative Commons

The subject of the present dissertation is the terracotta figurines of Amisos’ workshop which is in its most productive period during Mithridates Eupator kingship. The study has been focused on the figurines in relation with the economic, political and religious life of Amisos. Aim of our research was to find out in what extent the city’s economy and culture as the political circumstances, during the period of its activity, affected the production of the amisian terracotta workshop. Before dealing with the main subject has been considered necessary an introduction concerning the location, the geography, the foundation and the history of Amisos in order to be understood the general historical and cultural context that effected the evolvement and the activity of the terracotta workshop. Moreover, the following analysis of Amisos’ economy as the description of the occupations and the products of the amisians demonstrate on the one hand that the production and the exportation of the terracotta figurines were part of Amisos’ economy and on the other hand that the coroplasts of the amisian workshop represent through the selection of their subjects the city’s economical life. The forth chapter deals with the figurines as products of the amisian workshop. However, the lack of scientific treatment coupled with the fact that the figurines are partly preserved and have been diffused all over the world, impedes their study. Therefore their usage, the exact place and the archeological context where they have been found, remain unknown. Nevertheless, the study of the amisian workshop has reveal information concerning the chronology of its activity, the typology and the subjects of the figurines as the contacts that Amisos had with other Hellenistic terracotta workshops. The catalog of the figurines cited in the dissertation includes sixty examples, which represent all types and subjects manufactured in the workshop –protoms, masks, statuettes, figurines of gods and heroes and figurines with subjects deriving from every day life. The selection of the figurines in the catalog is indicative and representative of the production of the amisian workshop. The study of the coinage, the cults worshiped in Amisos and the royal propaganda of Mithridates Eupator is important for the better understanding of the figurines production. The above led great impact on the selection of the types and subjects produced as the coroplasts were affected by the cultural, economical and political environment they lived in. In conclusion, the study of Amisos’ figurines demonstrates that the production of the workshop part of the cultural, economical and political life of the affluent Greek city and that the amisian workshop was sited among the most important Hellenistic terracotta workshops of Asia Minor.