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AMORGOS Greece.

Island SE of Naxos with three areas of habitation, centering on Aigiale (modern Vigla), Minoa (Katapola), and Arkesine (Kastri). Many Early Bronze Age burials and rich grave goods have been known since the 19th c., and recently neighboring islets, Ano Kouphonesi, Donousa, Herakleia, Keros, and Schoinoussa have yielded extensive finds. Donousa also had a fortified Geometric settlement.

The Greek inhabitants may have come from Samos and perhaps Naxos. The Amorgians participated collectively in the Athenian Empire from 437 B.C. on, and in the Second Athenian Confederacy (Athens garrisoned Arkesine ca. 357); they issued coins (cf. Lambros) and certified amphoras, and their cloth was especially fine. The Battle of Amorgos ended the Lamian War in 322. Amorgos belonged at various times to the Island League, and was later attached to the Roman province of Asia, though the island enjoyed autonomy which was reaffirmed by Antoninus Pius. It was a place of exile under the Julio-Claudian emperors. Each of the three cities had an independent constitution and magistrates at least from the 4th c. on, and in the late 3d c. B.C. a Samian settlement existed at Minoa and a Milesian settlement at Aigiale. The Naxian settlement at Arkesine is not certainly attested until Imperial times.

Extensive remains have been recorded: architectural, sculptural, ceramic, and epigraphic, from prehistoric to late Roman times, and finds continue. So-called Hellenic towers and Roman tombs appear especially in the center and E of the island, while at Arkesine, in the W, Greek walls surround an acropolis. Remains of temples are cited from Minoa and. Aigiale, but no systematic descriptions have been published. Some finds, are in the Katapola museum, others in Syros or Athens.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

SIG 193; Tac. Ann. 4.13,30; Plut., Dem. 11.3; Poll. 7.74; St. B & Souda S.V.; schol. Dionys. Per. 525; P. Lambros, “Sur un Symbole . . . ,” BCH 1 (1877) 216-19, cf. ArchEph (1870) 352-58; T. Bent, Aegean Greece (1885) 469-501; G. Deschamps, “Fouilles dans l'île d'Amorgos,” BCH 12 (1888) 324-27; cf. 13 (1889) 40-47; C. Tsountas, “Kykladika,” ArchEph (1898) 137-212I; BSA 12 (1905-6) 157I (Hellenic towers); J. Delamarre, IG 12, 7 (with bibl.); W. Ruppel, “Zur Verfassung und Verwaltung der amorginischen Städte,” KIio 21 (1927) 313-39; L. Robert, “Les Asklepieis de l'Archipel,” REG 46 (1933) 423-42, esp. 437; J. Vanseveren, “Inscriptions d'Amorgos et de Chios,” RevPhil 11 (1937) 313-47I; P. Zapheiropoulou, AAA 4 (1971) 210-16PI; id., Deltion 24 (1969) Chronika 390-93P; C. Renfrew, The Emergence of Civilization (1972) 520-23, 534-35, cf. 509. For reports of finds: JHS 71 (1951) 251; ibid. 82 (1962) Arch. Rep. 22; AthMitt 76 (1961) 115-20, cf. n. 1; Praktika 1960 (=1966) 268-72.

M. B. WALLACE

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