DODONA - A RELIGIOUS AND HISTORICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SANCTUARY OF ZEUS AND ITS DEVELOPMENT THROUGH HISTORY

On a plateau 600m above sea level in the wild and bare region of northwest Greece, the site of Dodona still conveys an impression of the magic of it’s distant past. Research on an entire sanctuary with it’s finds is naturally associated with a certain degree of simplification and information gaps. On the other hand, Dodona offers material and written sources of a quality comparable to Delos or Delphi ex. but of a size that still allows one to overview and successfully analyze it. There is no overall research on Dodona yet done, only publications on single finds and researches on limited questions. The aim of this work is therefore to critically collect these isolated informations, enrich them by the analysis of recent finds and from this develop new hypotheses.

For methodological reasons the different categories of historical sources are treated here separately: first the written material, then the archaeological finds. Thirdly, solid conclusions can be drawn by combining both. The chronological sequence chosen here is also non conventional: I begin with the era between 400 BC. and the Roman conquest which is documented by great architectural remains as well as a wide stream of literary sources. Then I present the earlier centuries which are documented from a smaller amount of written sources and no architecture at all, rather from a large corpus of votive offerings. By this I procede from the richly documented era to the earlier and less concrete stages of the sanctuary. My study concludes with considerations about the status and the religious significance of Dodona during the 2nd millenium BC.

The literary sources span 2000 years from Homer to the Byzantine commentators. They support the notion that Dodona was an oracle of Zeus with an oak at it’s center from 800 BC. and remained so until 400 AD. Dodona was, initially, not a sanctuary of great political significance in the sense of playing a role in internal or external state affairs. It only developped into such a state under the rule of Pyrrhos. It was however a place of great importance for the "smaller people", ex. farmers and shepards of the community. Consequently, the majority of the summons are written on small lead tablets and were of personal matters. In this respect Dodona attained significance for the people all over Greece and even in Italy.

The difficult question of the start of cult activities at this place is discussed on the basis of Bronze age material. Since no finds of documented context exist for this era, any conclusions can only be drawn from the analysis of the isolated objects themselves. By this the existance of an oracle of Zeus in the 2nd millenium cannot with certainty be established. Also the continous use of the place for cult practice from the Bronze age down to the geometric period, when Dodona is affirmed as the holy oracle of Zeus, remains uncertain. If any religious link between these epochs is to be seen it can be found in the oak tree as a gathering center for the inhabitants of Epirus. The existence of this tree possibly initiated the reestablishment or the new founding of the sanctuary in the 9th or early 8th century BC and through all times associated it with nature and wildness.