Architectural Networks in the North Aegean: Thasos, Samothrace, and the Formation of Hellenistic Design

During the Hellenistic period, the North Aegean Sea was a dynamic and diverse area, linked by robust trading networks and sometimes precarious political allegiances. The islands of Thasos, Samothrace, and Lesbos in particular played crucial roles in their position between Anatolia, Macedonia, Thrace, and Greece. Migration, trade, and politics--not to mention the specifics of sites and climate--shaped the development of architecture. The region pioneered many innovations that subsequently spread across the Mediterranean.

Employing the idea of networks to effectively describe the interconnectedness of design, materials, technology, religion, and politics, the contributors to this volume establish the need to understand this important region holistically and on its own terms. Taking a close look at major buildings and monuments--while considering technique, design, and decoration as elements of a vigorous web--this volume offers important insights about the area’s significance in the history of Hellenistic architecture, including lasting innovations in architectural illusion, Ionic entablature, and groundbreaking uses of marble and plaster. From the North Aegean, such principles and tactics were transmitted to the rest of the Hellenistic world, influencing Roman architecture and, from there, Western architectural history.

William Aylward, a professor of classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the editor of Excavations at Zeugma: Conducted by Oxford Archaeology.

Jacques des Courtils is a professor of art history and archaeology at the Université de Bordeaux-Montaigne. He is the author of Guide de Xanthos et du Letoon and a coeditor of Basiliques et agoras de Grece et d’Asie Mineure.

Bonna D. Wescoat is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Art History at Emory University and the director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She is the author of The Temple of Athena at Assos and Samothrace, vol. IX, The Monuments of the Eastern Hill, and a coeditor of Architecture of the Sacred: Space, Ritual, and Experience from Classical Greece to Byzantium.