a ketos in early athens: an archaeology of whales and sea monsters in the greek world

8/13/2019 A Ketos in Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in the Greek World

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A Ketos in Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in the Greek WorldAuthor(s): John K. Papadopoulos and Deborah RuscilloSource: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 106, No. 2 (Apr., 2002), pp. 187-227Published by: Archaeological Institute of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4126243.

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A Ketosin Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whalesand Sea Monsters in the Greek WorldJOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS AND DEBORAH RUSCILLO

AbstractThis article publishes a fragment of a scapula of a finwhale (Balaenopteraphysalus) found in an Early Geomet-ric well in the area of the later Athenian Agora. Derivingfrom the carcass of an immature beached whale, the bonewas brought to Athens and was used probably as a cuttingsurface, before being discarded ca. 850 B.C. The contextof this extraordinary artifact is analyzed and discussed, asare its possible functions. The occurrence of whales inthe Aegean and Mediterranean is reviewed, so too theuse of whales and whalebones in ancient Greece and in

other cultures. Although the incidence of whalebone israre in archaeological contexts in the Aegean, Classicalliterature is full of references to both fantastic sea mon-sters and real whales. The words that the Greeks andRomans used for whales and the language of whales inmythology and natural history reveal a rich and variedtradition. There is a similarly rich and long tradition oficonographic representations in ancient art, particularlyof fabulous sea monsters, one that extends from Aegeanprehistory into the Classical era and well beyond. TheAgora whalebone provides a unique insight into the ar-chaeology of whales and sea monsters in Greek litera-ture, natural history, art, and material culture.*How vain and foolish, then, thought I, for timiduntravelled man to try to comprehend aright thiswondrous whale, by merely poring over his deadattenuated skeleton. Herman Melville, MobyDick.'One of the most enigmatic objects to have beenfound in the heart of Athens is the so-called bone

artifact (Agora inv. BI 115), encountered in an Ear-ly Geometric well (well K 12:2) in the central por-tion of the area that was to become the ClassicalAgora (fig. 1).2 So unique was the object that thewell from which it derived came to be known, for atime, as the "well with the bone artifact." Although

unearthed in 1934, the bone languished, appar-ently forgotten for manyyears,first n the storeroomsof the old Agora dig-house, and later in the uppergalleryof the Stoa of Attalos,above the AgoraMuse-um. The bone is of interest both on account of thefact that it preserves a portion of a scapula of a finwhale, a member of the Balaenopteraenus of whales,the second largest mammal to have inhabited theearth after the blue whale, as well as for the use itwas put to prior to being discarded. The bone, al-though fragmentaryand now preservingonly a smallportion of the original scapula, has a series of cutmarkson its upper, flat surface, and a neat rectan-gular cutting for presumed attachment to anotherelement, now lost. While the exact function of theartifact in the context of the EarlyIron Age settle-ment of Athens is not immediately obvious, analy-sis of the various cuttings, together with the wearon the bone, provide important insights into thelife history of this uncommon find. The compara-tive rarityof whale bones in archaeological contextsin the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean gener-ally, coupled with the use that the bone was put to,warrant ts detailed publication. Moreover,the phys-ical existence of such a bone serves as a useful fo-cus for the more numerous appearances of whalesand other sea monsters in Greek literature, mythol-ogy, natural history,and art.In this article, a detailed description and analysisof the bone is provided, which aims at establishingthe salient details of its life history, including thenature of the leviathan from which it derived andthe context in which it was finally deposited. Fromthere, the incidence of both stranded and sighted

*We gratefully cknowledgeourdebt to our colleagues nthe AthenianAgorafor facilitatingour workand for varioustypesof assistance,particularlyohn McK.CampII,SylvieDu-mont, Anne Hooton, Jan Jordan, and CraigMauzy.We aregrateful o many riendsandcolleaguesforproviding llustra-tions,for allowingaccessto material n theircare,andfor dis-cussion on avarietyof topicsconnectedwith thispaper,espe-cially he following:AphroditeArgyrakis,Mary eanBlasdale,LauraBonomi,DavidClarke,JohnClegg,RogerColten,SimonDavis,PeterDawson,SusanneEbbinghaus, herryFox,MichaelJehle, Hans ChristianKochelmann,Roel Lauwerier,SusanLawrence,Nino Luraghi,Yvonne Marshall,Dave Maxwell,

Adrienne Mayor, Greg Monks, Sarah Morris,Jacqui Mulville,Tom Palaima,StavrosPaspalas,CarolynRiccardelli,RichardSab-in, William Schniedewind, Gianni Siracusano, Aleydis Van deMoortel, Cornelius Vermeule, and Jennifer Webb. We wouldlike to record our special thanks to Adrienne Mayor for herinsightful comments and her great enthusiasm for monstersof the land and sea.1Melville 1851, ch. 103, "Measurement of the Whale's Skel-eton," 494-5.2 For the topography of Athens in the Early Iron Age, seePapadopoulos 1996, 2002.

187AmericanJournal ofArchaeology106 (2002) 187-227

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188 JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS AND DEBORAH RUSCILLO [AJA106

Fig.1. Generalviewof the areaof the AthenianAgora,withtheAkropolis, rom thewest,before the reconstructionof the Stoa of Attalos. (Photo byAlisonFrantz; ourtesyof theAgoraExcavations,American School of ClassicalStudies atAthens)whales in the Aegean and Mediterranean are re-viewed, and a brief overview is provided of the use ofwhales and whalebones in Greece, as well as in othercultures. Next, the words that the Greeks and Ro-mans used for whales and the language of whales inmythology and natural history are discussed. Finally,an analysis is presented on the manner in whichGreek and other artists represented these creaturesof the deep and the iconographic traditions that wereformulated and established in Aegean prehistoryand in Classical archaeology.

Although Classical literature is full of referenc-es to mythical creatures of the deep-as well as toreal whales-and fantastic sea monsters featureprominently in Greek and Roman art, Classicalphilologists and iconographers have been ham-pered in their attempts to link the word and theimage, on the one hand, with the material remainsof actual whales on the other. This is in part theresult of the paucity of verified whalebones in ar-chaeological contexts and the lack of general in-formation with regard to their specific species orgenera, which has sometimes given rise to the mis-taken belief that larger whales, such as blue, fin,and sperm whales were-and are-uncommon inthe Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. It is ouraim in this paper to (re-)establish the link between

once living whales and the rich literary and icono-graphic traditions of kete in the Greek world. Theshoulder blade of the Early Iron Age ketosin Ath-ens, together with discoveries of several other whale-bones in various contexts in the Aegean and Med-iterranean, permit an archaeology of whales andsea monsters in Greek tradition that draws on theevidence not only of philology and iconography,but also faunal remains and material culture.THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT

Before describing Agora BI 115, it is importantto establish the details of its context and its date.The deposit in which the whalebone was found wasone of two early wells that were located near thecenter of the later Agora, beneath the so-called Civ-ic Offices." The stylobate of an Early Roman build-ing intersected one of them, K 12:2 of Early Geo-metric date, in which BI 115 was found; the other,Protogeometric well K 12:1, was located about 2 mto the south (figs. 2-3). The shafts of both wellshad been cut down to the surviving level of the bed-rock by early Roman times. Turkish storage pits over-lay both wells and extended down into the raggedmouth of K 12:1, which opened in bedrock as anirregular pit, ca. 2 x 2.4 m, narrowing to 1-1.2 m atthe bottom. The shaft was about 4.8 m in depth

"The well is noted in Shear1935,362-3.



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2002] AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF WHALES AND SEA MONSTERS IN THE GREEK WORLD 189

Fig. 2. Well K 12:1 in foreground and well K 12:2 (the EarlyGeometric well with the whalebone) incenter during excavationin 1934. View from the south. (Courtesyof the AgoraExcavations,AmericanSchool of ClassicalStudies atAthens)from the level of the surrounding bedrock4 and layunder the porch of the Civic Offices, 17.5 m northof Middle Stoa pier 9 (from the west). The MiddleStoa terrace appears to have been built along theline of an earlier east-west road that may have beenin service during the life of the well, though such aconclusion is speculative. The material from well K12:1 can be assigned to a developed phase of theProtogeometric period.5

Just over 2 m to the north of K 12:1 was well K12:2 (figs. 2-3), also referred to by the excavatoras "Protogeometric."6 There appears to have beenno physical barrier between the two wells until thestylobate of the Civic Offices was built betweenthem. It is worth adding that during excavationpersistent water was met in both wells, even as high

as the level of the first meter below the surround-ing bedrock. The diameter at the mouth of well K12:2 as first exposed was 1.3 m, narrowing to 0.7 mat the bottom. The depth of the well below the topof the overlying wall B was 6.25 m; its depth fromthe preserved level of the surrounding bedrockapproximately 5.3 m (fig. 3). Well K 12:2 was oneof several Early Iron Age wells that were stratified.The lower deposit (period of use) yielded com-plete and almost-complete vessels recovered fromdepths ranging between -4.2 and -5.3 m. Thesevessels, used to draw water, were inadvertentlydropped by their owners; a selection of some ofthe period-of-use pots is presented here (figs. 4-5). The upper deposit, filling the remainder ofthe well, represents the fill dumped into the shaft

4That s,54.45mabovesea level. Section M:well at70/ME.Depositfirstnoted 22 and27 March1934;cleared29 March-14April1934byD. Burr[Thompson].A numberof completevessels rom the deposit, primarily inochoai,mayhave beenpartof the period-of-usematerial,but on account of severaljoins notedthroughoutthedeposit,all of thepotterywas om-bined,without a record of the depth noted. Assuch, it is notpossibleto establishbeyonddoubtwhether the completeves-selswere indeed periodof use,or if the entirefillwasdeposit-ed at one time.5EvelynSmithson'sdivisionof the Early ronAge into dis-tinctphasescoincides with that of Coldstream(1968, 8-28)forEarlyand Middle Geometric.Coldstream'sdivisionof the

GeometricperiodntoEarly,Middle,andLate,withsubsequentphasesfollows hatoriginallydevisedbyEvaBrannandEvelynLordSmithson,eePapadopoulos 998; ee furtherBrann1961,95; Coldstream1968, 4-5; Coldstream1995, 391. Smithsondivided theProtogeometricperiod nto variousphaseson thebasis of the internal evidence provided by the Agora gravesand deposits,particularlyhewelldeposits(wellK12:1wasas-signed by Smithson to PG III). For further notes on thesechronological phases,seePapadopoulos1996,119,n. 34.6SectionM."Protogeometric" ell at 70/MH. Cleared n-termittentlybetween 2 and 26 April 1934 by Dorothy Burr[Thompson]. See also Coldstream1968, 10, 13.



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TERRACE TRENCH CUTTINGeMA

ODPlanS1 2 3 4 MD

- Tr. BTurk. pit cuttingTurkSection-A

K 2 :

Ter,r.

e c t i o n A A e g g

Fig. 3. Plan and section of Agora wells K 12:1 and K 12:2.InkedbyRichardAnderson,aftera sketchin the excavationnotebook. (Courtesyof the Agora Excavations,AmericanSchool of ClassicalStudies at Athens)when the well had gone out of use; a selectionfrom the more numerous and fragmentary materi-al recovered from this level is also presented (fig.6). Nicolas Coldstream lists the lower deposit as

one of the earliest of his significant Early Geomet-ric I deposits;' the upper fill is listed as the earli-est of the Early Geometric II significant depositson the basis of the latest diagnostic material recov-ered from it.' The upper deposit yielded someearlier material, including pottery deriving per-haps from disturbed tombs.9 The chronologicalconsistency of the pottery recovered from the low-er deposit would indicate that the well was openand in use for a relatively short period of time, anobservation supported by the latest material re-covered from the dumped filling comprising theupper deposit. Although the well, with the possi-ble exception of one piece (P 20618), does notcontain any obvious potters' waste, a number ofwhole pots from the period-of-use deposit aresomewhat poorly fired."' These are in addition toseveral handmade cooking vessels or chytrai (fig.5), all clearly fire-stained or burnt from normaldomestic use. The poorly-fired vessels, on the oth-er hand, are all wheelmade and painted and mayindicate that "factory seconds" were commonlyused for more mundane purposes, such as draw-ing water from wells, though it is worth stressingthat damaged vessels sometimes occur in tombs."The whalebone, BI 115 (figs. 7-8), was found inthe upper deposit at a depth of 1.75 m below wallB and, therefore, at least 1 m in the fill as mea-sured from the level of the surrounding bedrock.Such a depth is well below the level of the intru-sive material encountered at the mouth of the well,and the bone artifact may be dated on the basis ofthe diagnostic pottery recovered from the upperfill of well K 12:2. This would indicate the chrono-logical phase Early Geometric II, or ca. 850 B.C. inthe conventional absolute chronology, as a termi-nus post quem for BI 115.12 How long the bone wasin use prior to its having been discarded cannotbe determined. It is worth noting, however, that

7Coldstream1968, 10. Well K 12:2is listed behind AgoragravesC9:8and N 16:4.'Coldstream 1968, 13.9Threevessels,a lekythos(P 3826), a pyxis(P 14207),anda "fruit tand" P 3967), all clearlyProtogeometricand quiteearly, must derive from disturbed burials, perhaps even fromthe same grave; this will be treated in more detail in the forth-coming volume on the Early Iron Age tombs in the AthenianAgoraseries." See Papadopoulos 1996, 2002. P 20618 is a fragment of aone-handled cup preserving less than one-half of body, includ-ing handle scars, but nothing of the base. The clay body is inpart reduced and the paint has mostly fired brown, in placesapproaching black. It is not inconceivable that the fragmentwas once a test-piece. The cup is stylistically earlier than the

other material in the deposit and thus represents earlier resid-ual material dumped into the well. Apart from the inventoriedpieces already noted, there are, among the many sherds fromthe deposit stored in context, a few that are very poorly fired,including some that may even be fragments from possiblewastersor production discards, though their fragmentary stateis such as to render any statement uncertain. The whole potsfrom the period of use that are poorly fired include P 3687, P3688, P 3939; other poorly fired vessels from the lower depositinclude the fragmentary oinochoe P 3941."See Papadopoulos 1998.12Many of the pieces illustrated in figure 5 from the upperfill were recorded as coming from a similar depth as BI 115;others were recorded as coming from a depth down to 1.54 m.



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Fig.4. WellK12:2.Selection of wheelmade and painted potteryfrom the period-of-use deposit: inv.P3938, P 3688, P3687,P 3939.although fragmentary, the state of preservation ofBI 115 as an artifact is such that it is less likely tohave been a residual object, kicking around forany significant length of time. Apart from the threevessels recovered from the upper fill of well K 12:2and believed to derive from disturbed tombs,'3 thevast majority of residual pottery recovered from thisand other Early Iron Age deposits consists of smalland very worn scraps of pottery. The possibility thatBI 115 was deposited in an earlier tomb and sub-sequently disturbed cannot be ruled out, nor canit be verified on account of the unique nature ofthe object. Here it is important to emphasize thatthe whalebone was not the only bone recoveredfrom the fill of well K 12:2. The analysis of thefaunal sample from well K 12:2 reveals a pattern ofbone finds, the interpretation of which may assistin casting light on the use of the whalebone, and

perhaps even of the immediate surrounds, in theEarly Geometric period. Table 1 summarizes thefaunal remains from well K 12:2 as they were pre-served and collected in 1934.

Apart from the whalebone, which is describedmore fully below, at least five other species are rep-resented in the faunal sample from well K 12:2,including canids, bovids, and equids. Most of thespecimens in the sample represent lower extremi-ty skeletal elements with a predominance ofmetapodial bones. The significance of these par-ticular remains is that, with the exception of theEquus mid humerus and acetabulum fragments,there are no meat-bearing skeletal elementspresent.14 There are, for instance, no elements fromthe trunk of the skeleton, such as vertebrae or ribs,that are typical debris from butchered portions ofmeat. Particularly meaty bones like sheep/goat and

Fig. 5. Well K 12:2. Selection of handmade cooking pots (chytrai)from the period-of-usedeposit: inv.P 3760, P 3761.

13See n. 9.4The equidhumerusand acetabulumboneswere neitherbutchered nor burnt;therefore the evidence suggeststhat

these bones were not meal remains. It is generallybelievedthatequidswere not considered a normal source of meat inancient Greece.



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Fig. 8a-c. Front and lateral views of the whale scapula, BI115. (Photos by Craig Mauzy)

also known as the glenoid. The glenoid articu-lates with the proximal humerus in the pectoralgirdle in all mammalian species, and its scapulais commonly referred to as the shoulder blade(fig. 9). Although the piece is badly fragmented,the diagnostic features indicative of a large ma-rine mammal are still clear. The bone is lighterthan one might expect for its size because of theporosity of the spongy trabecular bone, a resultof life in an aquatic environment. Body weight isreduced significantly in saline marine habitatsand the bones of marine mammals acquire in-creased buoyancy rather than the weight-bearingstamina that terrestrial animals develop.

Agora BI 115 was compared with specimensmaintained by the British Museum of Natural His-tory in London, where some 66 individual whaleskeletons from a variety of species are availablefor examination.'6 In terms of classification andnomenclature, whales belong to the order Ceta-cea, from the Greek word ketos (Latin cetus or ce-tos, see below), which includes three suborders:the Archaeoceti, or "ancient whales," extinctforms known only from fossils;" the Mysticeti, or"moustached whales," which include at least 10living species of baleen, or whalebone, whales;and the Odontoceti, or "toothed whales," includ-ing 65 or more living species of dolphins, por-poises, and whales with teeth but no baleen.'sBecause of the fragmentary nature of BI 115, spe-cies identification was not straightforward. Theclassification was further impeded by the fact thatthe scapula originated from an immature indi-vidual, with the result that the diagnostic featuresof the animal had not had a chance to developfully prior to death. The remnants of the juve-nile cortex around the glenoid cavity, as well asthe exposure of the epiphysial surface of the gle-noid, indicates that the bone is underdeveloped(fig. 8b). Through a comparison with modernspecimens, the bone most closely resembles theglenoid of an immature fin whale (Balaenopteraphysalus, Linn. 1758) (fig. 10), a baleen whale ofthe suborder Mysticeti. The individual was ap-proximately two to three years of age at the timeof death.19

16The whalebonecomparative ollection is stored off-sitein WandsworthOutstation.17For useful overview f fossilwhales,seeJones 1999,17-8. The evidence of fossilssuggests hat the distantancestorsofwhaleswere"hyena-likeeastscalledmesonychids, cavengersfor carrionand hunters of fish"(Jones1999, 17). BernadetteArnaud (http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/whale.html)reports hediscovery f a fossilizedwhale,proba-blya baleen,some 18 ft. long, nearBenguelain Angola.This

is evidently he first ime a dismemberedwhale has turnedupat a Paleolithic site.Forexposed Eocene whaleskulls n theMediterranean, ee Mayor2000, 160.8Leatherwoodet al. 1983,2.'9Weare ndebted to RichardSabin, he cetaceanspecialistof the MammalsGroupat the NaturalHistoryMuseum n Lon-don. We gratefullyacknowledgehis assistance n identifyingthe species represented by this bone and his help with theliterature, articularlyor earlierauthors.



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194 JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS AND DEBORAH RUSCILLO [AJA106Table 1. Fauna from Well K 12:2

Species Element Number of IndividualsBalaenoptera (whale) 1 right glenoid fr 1 (BI 115)Canis (dog) 1 left unfused humerus 1Ovis/Capra (sheep/goat) 1 fr metacarpus 12 mid tibiaeBos (cattle) 2 right metatarsi 21 left metatarsus 11 mid metatarsus1 mid metacarpus1 left calcaneum1 right astragalus1 right distal tibiaEquus (horse/donkey) 2 right metatarsi 2 (likely donkeys)2 left metatarsi 2 (another donkey and a horse)2 left metacarpi1 right metacarpus1 distal metapodial2 metapodial frr1 proximal phalanx

1 left tibia1 left radius2 tarsi1 right mid humerus1 fr acetabulum

The fin whale is also known as the CommonRorqual, deriving from the Norwegian word for "fur-row," and refers to the pleated grooves runningfrom its chin to its navel.2" Alternative names in-clude Finback, Finner, Finfish, Razorback, andHerring Whale. As already noted, fin whales arethe second largest mammal on Earth after the bluewhale (Balaenoptera musculus, Linn. 1758); theformer can measure up to 27 m (89 ft.) long, thelatter can reach a length of up to 33 m (109 ft.). Inboth species, female individuals are larger than themales by more than 10%.21 Herman Melville relatesthat in the days of Joseph Banks and Daniel Solan-der, Captain James Cook's naturalists, a Swedishmember of the Academy of Sciences set down cer-tain Iceland whales-reydar-fiskur or Wrinkled Bel-

lies-at 120 yards (or 360 ft.).22 Although likely tobe exaggerated, such a description ("wrinkled bel-lies") can only refer to blue and fin whales. Here itis important to remember that in the days ofMelville, although there were stories of large levia-thans, not least of which was Moby Dick (MochaDick),2" the largest of the whales that could becaught commercially was the sperm whale or cacha-lot, followed by the bowhead and right whales.24 Itwas their size and the quality of their oil-particu-larly the spermaceti-that made the sperm whaleone of the most commercially viable commoditiesof the sea in the modern era, and the lives of thewhalers who hunted them hazardous (fig. 11).25Here it is important to note that 11 of the 80 or soknown kinds of whales and dolphins were discov-

20Leatherwood et al. 1983, 52-6. The throatgrooves, inaddition ostreamliningheshapeof thewhale,allow he throatarea (cavum entrale)o expandconsiderablyduring feeding,thus allowing the intake of tons of food-laden water, which isthen discarded through their baleen plates, leaving the fish orkrill for swallowing. This efficient system enables the largestcreatures to feed on some of the smallest.21 Leatherwood et al. 1983, 52; Wfirtz and Repetto 1998,133.22Melville 1851, 501.23 Melville 1851. For the great white whale of the Pacific,Mocha Dick, which Melville used for his novel, see Reynolds1932. For the story of the whaleship Essexrammed by a sperm

whale in 1820 that inspired the ending of Melville's narrative,see Philbrick 2000. See also Jones 1999, 19.2"Melville 1851, 145-57, 194-203, 493-5.25One of the most highly prized parts of a sperm whale wasambergris, a peculiar substance that occurs in the lower intes-tine in lumps weighing up to 100 kg. It is formed around squidbeaks that remain in the stomach. It was once highly prizedfor avarietyof uses, including as a fixative or base for perfume,in medicine, to spice wine and other foods, and as an aphrodi-siac. In 1912 a 1,003 lb. lump sold for $69,000. See Leather-wood et al. 1983, 87; Reese 1991, 6; Philbrick 2000, 56. For thefavorite meal of the sperm whale-the giant squid-see Ellis1998.



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Fig.9. Skeleton of a bowhead whale (Balaenamysticetus)xhibited at the Royal College of Surgeons, London,after a 19th-centurydrawing.Arrowpoints to scapula.ered in the 20th century.26 Although the fin whalewas known in the earlier 19th century-"a monsterwhich, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout,and Long John, has been seen almost in every seaand is commonly the whale whose distant jet is sooften descried by passengers crossing the Atlan-ic"27-it was considered an unconquerable levi-athian by the whale fishery of the time. Melvilledescribes the "Fin-Back" as a shy and solitary crea-ture, gifted with wondrous power and velocity ofswimming, so much so "as to defy all present pur-suit from man."28

Melville's remark on the velocity of fin whales issupported by modern research, which indicates

that they are one of the fastest of the big whales,possibly reaching burst speeds in excess of 32 kmper hour (sei whales, Balaenoptera borealis, may beslightly faster).29 This is a contributing factor as towhy photographs of this species are rare and per-haps why casual sightings-in antiquity as in thepresent-would have been few and far between.One of the most numerically abundant of the largewhales, the fin whale was the first species to be hunt-ed with the harpoon gun and was heavily exploitedby the whaling industry, particularly in the 20thcentury, its population severely depleted, especial-ly in the southern oceans.30 The head of the finwhale is flattish and can be between one-fifth and

Fig. 10. Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)

26Jones1999, 50.27Melville1851, 150.28Melville851,151.Accordingo Leatherwood tal. (1983,53) finwhalesaresometimes oundsinglyorinpairs,but moreoften in pods of three to seven individuals.29Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 54.30See Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 55-6, 24-30; Connor and

MicklethwaitePeterson1994,202-7. AsJones (1999, 72) hasnoted the steam-powered arpoonappeared n 1864 and thenumber of whales it killed rose from 30 in that year to 66,000in 1961. Pre-whaling estimates suggest that there were300,000-650,000 fin whales swimming the oceans of the world.Current igures suggestthat a mere 123,000animalsare left.



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Fig. 11.Aquatint,afterGarneray, ntitled Pche duCachalot,he WhalingMuseum,NewBedford,Mass.(Courtesyof the WhalingMuseum)one-quarter of the total body length. A distinctlyridged tailstock gave rise to the whalers' name"Razorback."31 Fin whales have twin blowholeswith a single longitudinal ridge extending fromthe blowholes to near the top of the snout. Thebaleen plates in the mouth of fin whales (260-480on each side) reach a maximum length of 0.7-0.9m and a width of 0.2-0.3 m."32Agora BI 115, whenreconstructed to its approximate original dimen-sions, suggests a total body length of an individual10-12 m long. Fin whale calves are born at an ap-proximate length of 6 m."33Accordingly, the indi-vidual represented by BI 115 must have been a calfbetween two and three years of age when it met itsdemise.

The greatest dimensions of the scapula are asfollows: 0.12 m preserved length on the shortestside, 0.16 and 0.195 m on the adjacent sides, and0.22 m on the longest side (fig. 7). The bone is

0.0675 m thick on the articular end (glenoid) and0.015 m thick on the blade (fig. 8c). If reconstruct-ed to its original state, the scapula from this indi-vidual would measure approximately 0.6 x 0.35 m(fig. 12);34 consequently, the preserved portion ofthe scapula represents only about 20% of the orig-inal bone (fig. 12a).The lateral surface of the scapula is marked byfine cuts made by a fine metal instrument (figs. 7,8).3 The marks have no regular orientation andoccur in random directions of varied length mea-suring from 2 mm to 5 cm. The marks form no pat-terns or signs but rather exhibit cut marks fromfine specialized work. The palimpsest nature of themarks seems to suggest work carried out over a pe-riod of time rather than all the marks having beenmade at one time. On account of the irregularity ofthe markings, we can rule out a number of possibleuses of the bone. For instance, a scapula bound to a

"On some animals he white of the rightside can continueonto the upper lip and to the side of the neckgiving t a char-acteristicasymmetrical ppearance."32 eatherwoodet al. 1983,53. The baleen bristlesare softincomparison o the bluewhale andvaryromyellowishwhiteto grayishwhite.1 Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 52.

34Dimensionswere calculatedon the smallestmetricalfig-ures of the Balaenopterascapulasprovided nTrue1904,144." Microscopicanalysisof the cutmarks ndicates thattheywere made bya fine metal instrumentratherthan a chippedstone blade. For the differentiationof metal and stone toolmarkson bone, see Greenfield 1999.



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Fig. 12. Reconstruction of the original shape and size ofthe whale scapula,BI 115, restored withthree hypotheticalcuttingsfor the attachment of legs (a, acromion process;b,glenoid fossa; c, coracoid process). (Drawing by DeborahRuscillo)wooden shaft and used in the fields as a hoe to tillthe ground would exhibit regular markings andscrapes following a dorsal to ventral pattern on thebone surface.36 Although the complete bone wouldhave been large and sturdy, the 0.015 m thicknessof the blade renders the specimen inappropriatefor certain tasks: the blade, for example, could notwithstand blows from a cleaver without snapping.The rectangular cut hole at the articular endmeasures 0.035 x 0.025 m and appears to have beencut by a sharp implement. The shape of the holeand the care with which it was cut suggests that itacted as a juncture between the bone and anotherobject, perhaps a wooden leg, thereby transform-ing the original large scapula into a useful smalltable or working surface. If so, the scapula couldhave had similar cut holes at adjacent points forother wooden legs, no longer preserved (fig. 12).Here it is important to note the other faunal re-mains from the well, discussed above. A whale scap-ula used as a leatherworking surface appears toconform nicely with the possible hide-removalrefuse implied by the other associated faunal finds,

and also accounts both for the fine cut marks onthe flat surface and the rectangular cutting. Theadvantages of such a whalebone in leatherworking,particularly for the cutting of leather, lie in the softand porous yet firm texture of the bone, which pro-vides a good surface on which to cut, but one thatdoes not damage the cutting blade as a stone sur-face might. Moreover, wooden surfaces have a ten-dency to splinter when repeatedly worked uponwith sharp instruments. Bone, however, provides ahard yet elastic surface that will rarely splinter whencut repeatedly by a sharp blade. Bone is also easierto maintain and wash and will not warp when ex-posed to frequent humidity. These traits, along withthe versatility of bone to accommodate many usesin its basic form, make large bones particularly de-sirable commodities. A whale scapula, such as BI115 in its original form, with its ample smooth andflat working surface would have appealed to indus-trial and domestic workers alike, a worthy commod-ity of exchange.Unlike whalebone, the incidence of elasmo-branch or cartilaginous fish, such as shark, ray,skate,sawfish, and guitarfish (evidenced primarily by ver-tebrae), is well known and fully documented in Ae-gean and Cypriot archaeological contexts.37 In re-viewirig the 120 or so such examples collected anddiscussed from approximately 40 sites, and placedin the larger context of fish bone assemblages fromAegean and Cypriot sites, David Reese's impres-sion was that these fish were the result of chancenettings, rather than having been specifically hunt-ed."8 In the case of the few specimens of cetaceansor whalebones that occur in archaeological contextsin the Aegean, it is usually assumed that the mam-mal was stranded close to the settlement in which itwas found;39 many of the larger whales, even imma-ture individuals, would destroy most nets.The possibility that the Agora bone derives froma beached whale appears to be confirmed by its sur-face wear. The edges of the glenoid have been nat-urally worn down and smoothed by wave action andsand friction. There are no tools marks around theglenoid, even microscopically, to suggest that theedges were filed down by human use. The wearfound around the glenoid is typical of bone thathas been tossed around the surf for quite sometime. The coracoid process has been worn down

36Cattle capulaehavebeen knownto be used in ruralAfri-ca ashoes.37Reese1984.Althoughwe refer o sharks npassinghrough-out thisstudy,wehaveavoidedmorespecificdiscussion f these

creatures.Variousypesofsharksarecommon n theMediterra-nean and the bibliography n them is extensive.38Reese 1984, 191.39 ee, e.g., Renfrewet al. 1968, 119.



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Fig. 13. Stranded sperm whale on the shore near Katwyk,Holland in 1598. Engravingby JacobMathamafter an original drawingbyHendrik Goltzius.NewYork, he MetropolitanMuseum ofArt,ElishaWhittelseyFund, 51.501.6056. (Courtesyof the MetropolitanMuseumof.Art)(fig. 12) from the posterior side of the glenoid,and the acromion process broken off. The water-worn edges indicate that the whale was likely nothunted out of the waters, but was washed ashoreafter its death, or else stranded on the beach, whereit subsequently died. The age of the individual rep-resented by BI 115 supports such a hypothesis.Immature whales must maintain a close relation-ship with their mothers, even after nursing for thefirst three or four years of life; otherwise the calfwill have little chance of survival on its own. If thecalf strays away from its mother, it will likely starve orfall prey to predators.40 When a whale dies in water,provided its skin is not punctured, its body expandswith decompositional gases (methane), causing thecarcass to float.41 The carcass can be carried by wa-ter currents until it is ultimately washed up upon ashore. A classic illustration is the engraving, exe-cuted by Jacob Matham after an original drawing byHendrick Goltzius, of a 21 m Sperm whale that wasstranded at Katwyk in Holland in February of 1598(fig. 13).42 The excitement and curiosity around

the stranded creature is evident in the host of spec-tators, from gentlemen on horseback to barefootchildren. When a whale is beached, the body de-generates within weeks, exposing the skeleton tothe elements. During rough weather the skeletonis dismembered by wave action and the bones canbe drawn into the surf. Sea currents can then redis-tribute the bones onto other shores. These bonesare often found and collected for use as tools orkeepsakes, particularly as the time spent in salt waterand on the sand exposed to the sun has minimizedthe fat content of the bone and the pungent scentsassociated with it. A classic example of part of abeached whale skeleton is illustrated in figure 14,showing seven semi-articulated vertebrae of whalestranded on the coast of the Aegean island ofSchoinousa in the 1990s and photographed by Ni-kos Panagiotopoulos.Whale strandings are particularly common innorthwest Europe, and by 1947, Grahame Clark wasable to enumerate some 80 instances of archaeo-logical sites yielding whalebone in prehistoric con-

40RogerCrane,CetaceanSpecialist,researchsupportforIMAXdocumentary,Whales1999).41RichardSabin(pers.comm. 1997).42NewYork, he MetropolitanMuseumofArt,ElishaWhit-telseyFund,51.501.6056.See, e.g., den Broeder 1972, 82-3,no. 80.



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Fig. 14. Seven semi-articulatedvertebrae of a whale beached on the Aegean island of Schoinousa. (Afterthe GreekmagazineTachydromos)texts ranging from the Mesolithic through the IronAge.43 Although scholars have long been aware thatwhales and whale products were extensively utilizedby different peoples on the Atlantic seaboard ofEurope, it is generally assumed that strandedwhales provided the main source of supply in an-tiquity.44 The problem of determining whetherstranded whales were exploited or whether liveanimals were hunted is not straightforward.45 Thisis important to bear in mind, because it is possiblethat coastal cultures in those parts of the worldwhere whales are less common than northwest Eu-rope, such as the Aegean, may have exploited strand-ed whales from time to time. So far as western Eu-rope is concerned, from at least the ninth century

A.D. whaling was widespread along the Channelcoast of France between Normandy and Flanders,and there is evidence of similar activity off the Bis-cay coast of France and Spain.46 The exploitation ofthe whale by the inhabitants of the Atlantic sea-board inspired numerous myths and motifs, but theleviathan also left its mark on the peoples of theMediterranean.LEVIATHANS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

For any reader of the Old Testament, the literaryimage of Leviathan was above all else frightening, abold symbol of evil in Judeo-Christian literature,and a constant reminder of the wrath and omnipo-tence of God. More importantly, these massive sea

4 Clark1947,100-2. AlthoughClarkistedexamplesfromthe British Isles, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands,and France, byfar the more common occurrences were at pre-Viking Iron Age sites in Scotland. Scottish sites have produceda greatvariety of implements made ofwhalebone (see below),and the Firth of Forth hasyielded numerous remains ofwhalesstranded on its shores during the Stone Age (see Clark 1947,92, fig. 3 [Firth of Forth], and pls. I-II for whalebone imple-ments). In addition to these physical remains of whales, pre-historic representations of cetaceans are common in north-west Europe, especially in Norway (see Clark 1947, 94-8, figs.6, 9), and more recently, Whittle (2000) has suggested thatthe motifs on certain Breton menhirs often interpreted as anaxe or axe-plow could be representations of whales.44 See discussion in Childe 1931, esp. 97; 1935, 248; Nord-mann 1936, 127-8. For the view that whales were hunted bythe Erteb6lle, see Mathiassen 1935, 150; 1927. The evidenceand much of the earlier literature isusefully presented in Clark

1947. Similarly, there is little evidence for the practice ofwhal-ing in Anglo-Saxon or later Medieval England, although thevenerable Bede, at the opening of the Historia Ecclesiastica,mentions that seals, dolphins, and sometimes whales werecaught off the coast of Britain (see Gardiner 1997, 173-4; seefurther Wallace-Hadrill 1988, 6).45 In dealing with the archaeology of whaling in southernAustralia and New Zealand, Susan Lawrence and others haveadvocated a more nuanced ethnography of place, one thatmeshes documents and artifacts into an integrated historicalaccount, which is sensitive to local material horizons and cul-tural landscapes very different from our own. See Lawrence1998; Mayne and Lawrence 1999.46The evidence is summarized in Gardiner 1997, 175. For

whaling in Normandy and Flanders see Musset 1964; Lestoc-quoy 1948. For whaling in the Bay of Biscay see Fischer 1881;Jenkins 1971.



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200 JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS AND DEBORAH RUSCILLO [AJA106creatures, whatever their precise nature (see be-low), did not inhabit some far off realm; they repre-sented, if only in a poetic sense, a stark reality of theMediterranean:

Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teams withthings innumerable, living things both small andgreat.There go the ships, and Leviathan which thou didstform to sport in it (Psalms 104:25-26).

In his seminal study on whales as an economicfactor in prehistoric Europe, Clark wrote:Severalspecies of whale penetrate the Mediterraneanand some are at home there, but there is no indica-tion that whales were economically important in an-cient any more than in modern times. Dolphins areparticularly numerous and were commonly depictedby the Minoans, as in the well-known fresco in the"Queen's Megaron" at Knossos; although the bar-barians of the Black Sea used their fat for oil and atetheir flesh salted, the Greeks and Romans regardedDolphins auspiciously as guardians of mariners andrefrained from slaying them, except for medicinalpurposes.47Despite the fact that the Greeks enjoyed dolphin,

especially pickled slices of the mammal, as muchas their "barbarian" neighbors,48 it is clear thatwhales were not systematically exploited in Aegeanprehistory and in Classical antiquity.In modern times, a variety of whales have beenrecorded in the Mediterranean, but our knowledgeis limited by the lack of systematic records.49 SteveJones notes that even today the Mediterranean hasmqre than 3,000 whales.50 Species that have beenidentified in the Mediterranean include the spermwhale (Physetermacrocephalus),with stranded speci-

mens recorded from Tenos, Euboia, and Karpa-thos,51 and, more recently, a number of sperm whalessighted in the Saronic Gulf on 20 May 1998.52Small-er cetacean species in the Mediterranean includethe Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris),which is quite common, as well as the Minke whale(Balaenoptera acutorostrata), pilot whale (Globicepha-la melas), and the killer whale (Orcinus orca), all ofwhich are rather rare.53InJuly 1999, the Greek presscarried a story of a blue whale (Balaenoptera muscu-lus) reportedly spotted in the Gulf of Kavala, head-ing southwest, according to fishermen who said theyalmost collided with the large sea mammal, whichwas moving between the Strymon Gulf and MountAthos.54 The Kavala-based fishermen were fortunatein comparison to Darius's fleet, which in 492 B.C.was wrecked by the storm vividly related by Hero-dotos (6.44) in the waters around Mount Athos.According to Herodotos, the Persians lost 300 shipsand more than 20,000 men, some dashed againstthe rocks, others dying from exposure or drown-ing, while many were carried off by the wild sea-beasts, which abounded in the coasts around Athos( yocEy&p OrqptloEo6rrqq oo60qq iijqzq adooqq-ra6iqq iqqf nepi i v "Ao@v).55 Most recently, inApril 2001, a rare sighting of a humpback whale(Megaptera novaeangliae) was reported off the coastof Tolon in the Argolic Gulf.56As for the larger fin whales, although actual sight-ings of these creatures are not very common in theMediterranean, they are not unknown, so the inci-dence of a Balaenoptera scapula in the Aegean couldbe explained either by a beached whale or by cur-rents carrying the carcass of a dead animal. A fin

47Clark1947, 84, n. 1,with reference to Keller1909-1913,408-10.48Forpickled licesofdolphincarriednamphoras,ee Pritch-ett1956,202-3, n. 192;PapadopoulosandPaspalas 999,177,n. 82. For the consumption of fish in ClassicalAthens, seeDavidson(1997, 8), where it is clear that thedolphinwasnotconsideredamong hegreatpiscifaunal elicacies,uchas una,sea-perch rgrouper, ongereel,gray nd redmullet,gilt-head,sea-bass, ndvariousother ish. Commonspeciesofdolphin nGreece include Delphinus delphis, Tursops runcati,Stenellacoer-uleoalba,and Grampusgriseus.To this list, Ragnar Kinzelbach(1986b) has added Risso's Dolphin (Grampidelphisgriseus),through a specimen found stranded between the mouths ofthe riversVassilipotamosndEurotas, kmsouthwest f Skalain Lakonia,a placefamousforkete (seebelow).49One of thegreatproblems mpedingadetailedanalysis fthedistribution fwhales n the Mediterraneansthe fact that

systematic ecordsof sightingsandstrandingshaveonlybeengatheredannuallysince the early1980s,primarilyn Franceand Spain.In some Mediterranean ountries,as PilleriandPilleri (1982, 49) lament,there are no nationalrecordswhat-soever.

50Jones 1999, 258.51Kinzelbach986a,15;Marchessaux 980,62;Reese1991,3-5. The sperm whale is also recorded in Israel (Aharoni 1944)and Egypt(Flower1932).52Reported n the national news of Greece on thatday.53Forthesespecies,see Marchessaux 980, 61-3; the Cuvi-er'sbeakedwhale salsodiscussed n Bauer1978;Kinzelbach1985,with recordedspecimensfrom variouspartsof Greece(Rhodes,Karpathos, ear Gythion,andTilos),Turkey(near(anakkaleand nearKaratas), gypt Sabkhat l-Bardawil),ndIsrael (Bet Yannay, Ras Haniqra, near Tel Aviv and Tantura[Dor]). For Israel,see further Ilani 1980. In May1996, 12Cuvier's beaked whales were stranded on the coast of theWestern Peloponnesos (Kathimerini6July 1998, 3).54AthensNews 10July 1999, 4. The whale reportedly mea-sured over 20 m in length.55 It was this wretched passage aroundAthos,with its seamonsters, which led to Xerxes' decision to cut the canalthrough the neck of the peninsulaof Akte in 483-481 B.C.(Hdt. 7.22-4).56Reportednthe Greeknewspaper,Kathimerini0-22April2001.



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2002] AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF WHALES AND SEA MONSTERS IN THE GREEK WORLD 201whale, for example, was recorded stranded byLacepiede on St. Marguerite Island off the coast ofFrance in 1798,57 and live fin whales have been spot-ted off the coast of Italy, including a splendid spec-imen of a Balaenoptera physalus photographed be-tween Calvi and San Remo.58 The fin whale is espe-cially common in the western Mediterranean,where it has been recorded all year round, withpeaks in the summer months, particularly betweenCorsica and the French Riviera and around the Ital-ian coasts.59 In Greece, fin whales have been sight-ed primarily in the continental slope area in thesouthern part of the Aegean, and especially aroundRhodes, Karpathos, and Crete, though in 1997 afin whale was found stranded in the harbor of Kav-ala in the north Aegean.60 Stranded fin whales havealso been reported in the eastern and southeast-ern part of the Mediterranean basin.61 Several au-thoritative guides mention the presence of finwhales in the Mediterranean,62 and Whirtz andRepetto not only stress the incidence of Balaenopteraphysalus in the Mediterranean, but assert that Med-iterranean fin whales are genetically isolated fromthe Atlantic population.6" Although they are mostcommon in the Southern Hemisphere, fin whalesinhabit the North Atlantic and North Pacific insmaller populations.64 Most importantly, the finwhale is the only rorqual commonly found in theMediterranean. Consequently, the discovery of a finwhale scapula in the heart of what was to becomehistoric Athens should not be seen as unusual, andit is even possible that the animal represented byBI 115 was stranded along the coast of the Saronic

Gulf not far from the Early Iron Age settlement ofAthens.THE USE OF WHALES AND WHALEBONES INTHE GREEK WORLD AND BEYOND

Archaeological finds of whale remains are un-common in Greece. The earliest extant whaleboneremains from Greece were recovered from the LateNeolithic settlement at Saliagos, now a small isletbetween Paros and Antiparos. The two vertebraeare suspected to have originated from Pilot or Kill-er whales."65 mall cetacean vertebrae have also beenrecorded from the excavations at Torone in Cha-likdike, in mixed levels, but are most likely fromdolphins or small whales.66 The excavations at Phais-tos in Crete also yielded a whale vertebra, discov-ered under the pavement of one of the magazinesof the Minoan palace.67 More recently, a massivepiece of a whale vertebra was seen by one of theauthors (Ruscillo) in the storage area of the Corinthexcavations. No one is sure of its provenance, but itappears to be a modern find, since body oil was stillpresent in the bone. The specimen consists only oftrabecular bone, with no surfaces extant. The di-mensions are approximately 0.45 x 0.35 m (great-est length x width). The surviving trabecular pieceseems too large to originate from a sperm whale,but reconstruction is impossible without any corti-cal surface preservation. Outside of the Aegean,the incidence of whalebone in ancient contexts inthe central and eastern Mediterranean is similarlyrare. Reese describes four sperm whale vertebraefrom the Phoenician colony at Motya in western Sic-

5 Hershovitz 1966, 165-6.58For confirmedsightingsof fin whales off the coast of It-aly, see Van den Brink 1967. For the illustrated fin whale, seePilleri and Pilleri 1982, 54, fig. 4. See further Pilleri and Pilleri1987.59Duguy and Vallon 1977; Marchessaux 1980, 62-3.

60 Carpentieri et al. 1999, 72. The authorsfurther note thatthe relativelyhigh frequencyof sightingsof all typesof whalesbetween Rhodes and Karpathoscould be related to the up-welling phenomenon, discussed by Panucci-Papadopoulou etal. (1992), that occurs in this area at various times of the year.Marchessaux (1980, 63) lists two specimens of fin whales thatwere observed and photographed near the island of Gavdos,south of Crete.61Marchessaux and Duguy 1979; Marchessaux (1980, 63)notes a fin whale of 16.5 m length found stranded at AskeloninJanuary 1956; he further notes that Israeli fishermen some-times pick up fin whale mandibles in their dragnets. See fur-ther Carpentieri et al. 1999, 72. At least two stranded fin whaleshave been reported on the coast of Egypt: one near Alexan-dria in 1860 (see Paulus 1966), another near Mersa Matruh inDecember 1926 (see Flower 1932).

62Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 55;Notarbartolodi SciaraandDemma1994,61, 69;Ridgway nd Harrison1985,176;Tinker1988, 288. We owe manyof these references to RichardSab-in.63Wfirtzand Repetto 1998, 133. For the differences be-tweenthescapulaeof Europeanand Americanfinwhales,seeTrue 1904, 142, figs. 33-6.6 See Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 55. Some populationsmi-gratebetweenwarm, ow latitude wintermating groundsandcooler,highlatitude ummer eedinggrounds,but theirmove-ments are lesspredictablethan other largewhales.Some low-er latitudepopulations,such as in the Gulf of California Seaof Cortez) and Mexico seem to be resident yearround. Finwhalesare least common in the tropicsand will enter polarwaters,but not as often as Minke or Bluewhales.65See Renfrew et al. 1968, 119. Dr. Frazer of the BritishMuseumwrites hat t isimpossibleto giveaspecific dentifica-tion to these two vertebrae.66The dentificationof these wasmadebythe late Dr.San-dorBkonyi.67Pernier1935, 119;Reese 1991, 5.



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Fig. 15. Campanian red-figure krater from Lipari,now inthe Museo Mandralisca,Cefalui, depicting a fishmongerslicing a large fish for a customer on a table conceivablymade of a whale vertebra. Name vase of the Tunny-sellerPainter.(Photo byJohn Papadopoulos)ily dating from the sixth to fifth centuries B.C. anda few possible additional fragments found at IsolaLunga near Motya.68It is important to note that allof these finds are vertebrae (cf. fig. 14), and similarwhale vertebrae used as chopping blocks are wellknown in British sites, such as Maidencastle, and inCanadian British Columbia.69 Although there areno attested whale vertebrae chopping blocks in theAegean, a number of Archaic and Classical repre-sentations depicting fishmongers chopping or slic-ing large fish may show tables, the upper parts of

which are composed of a whale vertebra. Scenes ofthe butchering of fish are relatively rare in Greekvase painting. We know of only four examples: ablack-figure olpe in Berlin with two wreathed menpreparing to cut up a tuna,70 and three representa-tions which depict a fish, invariably large, placedon a small table, which stands either on three legs(fig. 15) or else on a conical support (fig. 16).71 Inall three cases, the upper part of the table, that onwhich the fish is actually placed, is a circular disk ofvarying thickness that could very well be part of alarge whale vertebra.Be that as it may, the few examples of whalebonefinds in the Aegean listed above, together withAgora BI 115, represent the sum total of whalebonefound in archaeological contexts in Greece. It isgenerally assumed that all are likely to have derivedfrom stranded whales, though the possibility thatsome may have been hunted, perhaps accidentally,cannot be ruled out. In this context, the evidencefrom Neolithic Saliagos is potentially informative.There, large scombridae (tunny and albacore) ac-count for 97% of the fish bones identified.72 Thesetuna bones from Saliagos are from fish measuringbetween two and six feet in length (a five foot tunacan weigh up to 800 lbs.), and thus represent asubstantial source of food.73 The killing was per-formed by spears with obsidian spearheads, thoughit is possible that nets, perhaps strengthened withleather, were used to corral the fish during theirannual migration.74 In the light of this information,it is not too difficult to imagine the occasional smallwhale speared off the coast of Antiparos.

Against the backdrop of these few whalebonesfrom Aegean sites, Agora BI 115 stands out both bythe fact that it is a scapula, as opposed to the morecommon vertebrae, and for the fine cut marks onthe flat side, suggesting that it was used as a cuttingsurface. Such a use for a whale scapula is rare even

68Reese1991, 1-2, 5. The IsolaLungapiece comprisedtwoteeth identified asprobably roma false killerwhale (Pseudor-cacrassidens,wen1846)associatedwith hethird-century .C.Punic shipwreck; ee furtherRyder1975, 213, fig. 1. For theincidence of falsekillerwhales n theMediterranean,ee Evans1987, 94.69We aregrateful o SimonDavisof theAncientMonumentsLaboratoryfEnglishHeritage or nformation,ncluding llus-trations,of a whalevertebra romMaidencastlewithchoppingmarkson it.YvonneMarshall f the DepartmentofArchaeolo-gy,SouthamptonUniversity, nd GregMonks of the Depart-ment ofAnthropology t the University f Manitobaboth gen-erouslyoffered nformationon whalevertebraeused aschop-pingblocks romvarious ites on the westcoastof Canada.70Durand1979, 28, fig. 9.

71The hree vases nclude: a Campanianred-figurekraterfromLipari fig. 15), Trendall1967,207-8 (thenamevase ofthe Tunny-sellerPainter;Tullioin Consolo et al. 1991, 68-9,fig.55);a south Italianred-figurekraternaprivate ollection,Bielefeld1966, 253, fig. 1;and a black-figurekylix(TypeC),theJ. Paul GettyMuseum, nv. 96.AE.96(fig. 16), True andHamma1994, 92-4, no. 38.72Renfrew et al. 1968, 118-21.73Renfrewet al. 1968, 119.74The storyof the annualfishingof tunabythe tonnarotifFavignana, small slandoff the coast ofSicily-and its associ-atedwayoflife, sdramaticallyelatedbyTheresaMaggio 2000)in her account of the mattanza. or the tuna runs n the Atlan-tic near Gibraltar,ee Brown1968,56-61.



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Fig. 16. Detail of Athenian black-figure kylix showing a fishmonger cutting up a fish on a biconicaltable, perhaps with a whale vertebra at the top. Malibu, the J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. 96.AE.96.(Courtesyof theJ. Paul GettyMuseum)in cultures that extensively exploited whales andwhalebones. Indeed, the only comparandum wehave been able to find for this type of working sur-face is a scapula from a humpback whale (Megapteranovaeangliae) found on the west coast of Canada atthe pre-contact period site of T'uukw'aa (1200B.P.), a site believed to have been settled by theNootka people. Five pieces of a left scapula bladewere identified with fine cut marks over the later-al surface, with additional cut marks on the medi-al surface (fig. 17).75 The cut marks do not appearto be oriented in any particular direction, and theglenoid has been removed. Although clearly usedas cutting surfaces, the Athenian and west Cana-dian scapulae could not have been used as chop-ping blocks-unlike the whale vertebrae notedabove-on account of the thinness of the cortexand the fragility of the spongy trabecular bone.Leatherworking has been suggested for BI 115,

and a similar function is possible for the T'uukw'aascapula.The use of whale products by cultures with ac-cess to the creatures, whether stranded or hunted,is wide ranging, since whales have an enormousnumber of usable parts. Whale meat was used asfood both for human and animal consumption,whale oil was burned for light, as well as for lubrica-tion and soap, and even the skin of cetaceans wasused.76 Of the toothed whales, particularly thesperm whale, the teeth were used for elaborate carv-ing (scrimshaw), while the jaws were worked in afashion similar to ivory. In certain cultures, such asthe Arctic populations of Alaska, Canada, Russia,and Greenland, whale meat was a subsistence sta-ple, as it was in the Azores and Madeira island groupsin the Atlantic, or in the Lembata and Solor Islandsof Indonesia and parts of the Philippines." In oth-er cultures, at certain times, whale meat enjoyed a

75Weare mostgratefulto GregMonks of the DepartmentofAnthropologyat theUniversity f Manitoba or sharing hisinformation with us and for providingthe photographillus-trated n figure17, nowpublishedin Monks2001, 143,fig.4.76Melville(1851) givesa wonderfuloverviewof the enor-mous numberof usablepartsof a whale and the varioususes of

whaleproductsin the 19thcentury.For the curingof whalemeatbythe Basques,see Kurlansky 997, 19-22.77ConnorandMicklethwaiteeterson1994,208.Elsewhere,in the FaroeIslands, orexample,the huntingof whale wasamore seasonalactivity, articularly uring he summermonths(see Connor and MicklethwaitePeterson1994,207-8).



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Fig. 17. Detail of the left scapula of a humpback whale(Megaptera ovaeangliae), howing fine cut marks on thelateralsurface,from the site of T'uukw'aaon the west coastof Canada(ca. 1200 B.P.).symbolic value considerably greater than a subsis-tence resource. Mark Gardiner has argued thatstranded whales in Medieval England were claimedby the king as "royal fish," and he goes on to notethat the possession and consumption of cetaceans-whales, porpoises, and dolphins-was one arenain which social tensions and the aspirations ofgroups competing for power were worked out.78

The use of whalebones, as opposed to the skinand flesh of the animal, is even more varied and farless ephemeral in archaeological contexts. Manycoastal cultures exploited whalebones in architec-ture. Whalebone houses, for example, can befound in abundance in the Canadian High Arctic,where alternative building resources are scarce.79The Thule Inuit culture, ca. 1,000 years ago, builtsemi-subterranean houses using whale mandibu-lae and ribs as rafters,80 whereas whale scapulaewere often set upright in the foundations to keepthe ribs and jaws stable.8s For Europe, Jacqui Mul-

ville discusses the various instances where whale-bone has been incorporated into Neolithic and IronAge sites in Scotland, especially at Skara Brae, DunVulan, Freswick, Cheardach Mhor, and ScallowaySmith, and part of a blue whale humerus was incor-porated into a stone wall at a building at the Norsesite at Kilpheder.82 Although there does not appearto be a clear pattern of bone usage at these sites,whalebones seem to have been used opportunisti-cally rather than strategically, and, in some cases,for display effect. In this context it is important tonote the testimony of Pliny the Elder, who men-tions that the "admirals of the fleets of Alexander[see below] have stated that the Gedrosi [the in-habitants of modern Makan] who live by the riverArabis [either the Purali or the Habb] make thedoorways in their houses out of the monster's jawand use their bones for roof-beams, many of themhaving been found that were 60 feet long."83Whale-bones were similarly used in other parts of the world.A.B. Smith and J. Kinahan review the use of whale-bones by the indigenous coastal peoples of west-ern and southern Africa, who exploited whales forfood and housing materials.84Although most of thewhalebones used for building material in the cul-tures noted above are typically the ready-to-use ribs,mandibulae, and maxillae, the scapula enjoys asmall but important role in the archaeologicalrecord for shelter construction in a number of dif-ferent cultures.

Several other uses for whale scapulae have beendocumented in the archaeological and ethnograph-ic literature. In the Channel Islands of southernCalifornia, for example, whale scapulae were usedas tomb covers and grave markers.85 In Ameland,off the northern coast of the Netherlands, whalescapulae were used as doorstops and signboardson the houses of whalers in the 17th and 18th cen-turies.86 Whale scapulae, as well as ribs and man-dibulae, were also hung outside town halls in whal-ing societies in the Netherlands as a sign of policyand wisdom of the authorities.87 Scapulae of vari-ous other animals, including cattle, rhinoceros, and

7"Gardiner1997, esp. 173, 188-9.79 See Dawson2001;Habu and Savelle1994;Kershaw t al.1995;McCartney 979;Mathiassen1928;Savelle1997;Taylor1960.80Mathiassen1927, 132-55; Dawson2001. The curvatureof these elementsboundtogetherat thetopresultedna dome-shapedhouse that wascoveredwithskins, urf,and moss.81A similaruse of whalebones can be observedat archaeo-

logicalsites on the Canadianwest coast.82Mulville2002.83Plinythe Elder9.2.7 (H. Rackham ranslation).See also

the passage nArrian, ndica, ited below.84 Smithand Kinahan 1984. It is likelythatPolynesianandcoastalAustralianndigenouspeoplesalsousedwhalebones nshelter construction,and it is worth adding that there arenumerousrepresentationsof whales n AustralianAboriginalrockart,particularlyn the SydneyBasin(seeCampbell1899,esp. 34-5, pl. 13,fig.4;McCarthy 941-1947; 1954-1962,esp.23-4, fig. 9A).85Walker 952;Bryan1970.86Lauwerier1983.87Brongers1995, 15.



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2002] AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF WHALES AND SEA MONSTERS IN THE GREEK WORLD 205mammoth, have been found in archaeological con-texts around the world, used by different culturesat various times. At prehistoric Langhnaj, in Gujar-at, India, a rhinoceros shoulder blade, with a vari-ety of cut marks and small notches or pits, appearsto have been used as an anvil of sorts by a microlith-maker.88 Experiments conducted with the shoul-der blade of a modern horse suggest that the rhi-noceros scapula may have been used between theknees of microlith-maker, thus leaving the handsto be freely used. The small notches on the surfaceof the bone were interpreted as being the placeswhere the blades were struck, and the cuts on theedge the places where the "backing" operation wascarried out.89 In their book on mammoths, AdrianLister and Paul Bahn enumerate some of the usesof large scapulae found in archaeological sites, asanvils (indicated by dents and notches not unlikethose on the Langhnaj shoulder blade), percus-sion instruments, and as tomb covers."9 In China,cattle scapulae were used at various times as oraclebones,91 and a related function for incised cattleshoulder blades, for necromancy, was known in an-cient Cyprus.92In discussing the Cypriot ox scapu-lae, Jennifer Webb adduces examples from variousparts of the ancient Near East (Tell Arpachiyah,Byblos, Tabara el Akrad, G6zlfi Kule [Tarsos], Nuzi,among others), as well as Italy and various Cypriotsites of the later Bronze and Iron Ages, down intothe Classical period.93 In Greece, Michael Psellusdescribed the method of divination (Opionca--TOOKornIEca),current in the 11th century A.D., byinspecting shoulder blades, and John CuthbertLawson traced the same practice in parts of Greeceinto the 19th and 20th centuries.94

There is also the story, recorded in Pausanias(5.13.1-7), that the Akhaians would never captureTroy until they brought a bone of the legendaryPelops to the besieged city. The bone that was ac-cordingly sent from Pisa was a shoulder blade (-rv

60o-v litponX6Irqv),and the Greek victory was thusassured. On its return from Troy to Greece, the shipcarrying Pelop's scapula was wrecked by a storm offthe coast of Euboia, but it was not until many yearslater that a certain Damarmenos, a local fishermanfrom Eretria, happened to haul up the bone in hisnets. Staggered by its size, Damarmenos hid the bonein the sand, but his conscience got the better of himand led him to Delphi to enquire as to whose bonethis was and what he should do with it. AdrienneMayor speculates that the huge bone that Damar-menos netted off Euboia belonged to a Neogenemastodon, and she provides a sketch indicating itsapproximate size to that of the fisherman.95 Given itsaquatic associations, might it not be possible that thecreature whose bone Damarmenos retrieved was awhale, as George Huxley first suggested?96Whalebones could also be used as tools or as rawmaterial for tool production, and we wonder howmany bone tools in Greece that have not been ana-lyzed with regard to the animal from which theyderive may be of cetaceans (whales or dolphins).In Scottish, Norse, and Arctic populations, whale-bone was fashioned to make a variety of tools, rang-ing from fine needles to the heftier blades used asblubber mattocks.97 In Iron Age Scotland and inthe Orkney, Shetland, Caithness, and the HebridesIslands, as Clark notes, cetacean bone was used,among many others things, for "weaving-combs,perforated mallet-heads, knife-handles and copiesof metal hair-combs, keys, harness-pieces and thelike" (fig. 18). Vertebral epiphyses have been inter-preted as "pot-lids" from Scottish sites, and hol-lowed-out vertebrae have been identified as vesselsor lamps."9 Whale ribs and mandibulae were alsoused at various Medieval coastal European sites asyokes and harnesses for traction animals.99 In addi-tion to the bone, the baleen itself served many pur-poses, though this rarely survives in the archaeo-logical record. Among the Inuit it is employed for a

" Zeuner 1952.89Zeuner 1952, esp. 182-3.90Lister and Bahn 1994, 108-10. In the United States,attheLange-Fergusonite nSouthDakota, womammothswerebutcheredusing heavycleaver-choppersmade from the flatpartof a mammothscapula10,670yearsago (see ListerandBahn 1994, 110).91See, e.g., Chou 1976,wherea widevarietyof suchoraclebones are illustrated.For furtherdiscussion,withreferences,see Webb 1977, 79.92 See esp. Webb 1977, 1985.93Webb 1977, 76-9.94Lawson1964,321.AdrienneMayor nforms us that sheheard roma nativeof Samos hata lambscapulawasreadat his

birth n the 1940sandpredictedhis nameandoccupation,anincidentthat showsthe persistenceof scapulaoraclesto themodem era.It is also worthaddingthatone of the oldest en-gravedbones,found in ca. 70,000-year-oldMiddleStoneAgelevels at Blombos Cavein South Africa,probably derives from amandibularfragment, ratherthan ascapulafragment (see Hen-shilwood and Sealy 1997; d'Errico et al. 2001, esp. 313-8).95Mayor2000, 109, fig. 3.3, 268.96 Huxley 1975, 45; 1979, 147; Mayor 2000, 300, n. 4.97Clark1947, 95, 99, pl. I;MacGregor1985;Hall6n1994;Mulville 2002.98Childe 1931;Hamilton 1968;Hedges 1987;Campbell1991;Smith1998;Mulville2002.99Brongers 1995.



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Fig. 18. Objects of cetacean bone from Scottish Iron Agesites. (AfterClark1947;courtesyof the National Museumsof Antiquitiesof Scotland)

multitude of purposes, and was used in ancientIreland for making saddle-trees, sieve-bottoms, andeven hoops for small vessels.'00 The versatility ofwhalebones, together with baleen, have made thema valuable resource throughout human history foruse as tools, construction materials, objects of per-sonal adornment, and everyday items.FROM KETOS TO PHALLAINA:HE LANGUAGEOF WHALES IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

Despite the rarity of whales in the Mediterraneanas opposed to the Atlantic seaboard of Europe andthe great oceans of the northern and southernhemispheres, it is not uncommon to find referenc-es to whales in Classical literature. We even knowthe personal name of one particularly belligerentlater Roman whale-Porphyrios ("Purple")-a wor-

thy successor of Hesione's ketos that terrorized thecoast near Troy (see below). Porphyrios, accordingto Procopius (7.29.9-16), annoyed the city of Byz-antion and neighboring towns for some 50 years,"eluding all means devised by the Emperor Justin-ian for its capture.""'' Procopius adds that Porphy-rios's reign of terror was not continuous; the whaleoccasionally disappeared for long periods of time.In the end, however, the great Porphyrios met hisdemise: pursuing a large group of dolphins thathad gathered near the mouth of the Euxine Seaone day, the whale came too close to land, founditself stranded in deep mud, and was dragged toshore by the local people and finally killed. Thecarcass of the creature was placed on wagons, and itwas found to be 30 cubits (about 15 m or 45 ft.) longand 10 cubits (5 m or 15 ft.) broad. Its length andcolor could refer to any number of whales, includ-ing mysticeti, uch as blue or fin whales, or odontoceti,such as sperm whales. Porphyrios's size, longevity,color, and temperament are all, however, in keep-ing with male sperm whales, which can reach alength of 18 m, with current averages of slightlymore than 15 m, and are characteristically a darkbrownish gray.102 Identifying Porphyrios, however,as a male sperm whale remains, at best, a tentativeguess, since Procopius's account gives no more use-ful details to assist in determining species or ge-nus, but Melville himself was strongly inclined tobelieve that Porphyrios was a sperm whale.'03 Theincidence of whales in the area of Istanbul is alsorecorded by later authors, not least of which is Ev-liya Qelebi, the 17th-century Ottoman Pausanias,also known as Dervi? Mehmed Zilli. In his descrip-tion of the fishmongers of the city (Bailiksatajian),Evliya (elebi writes: "The fishermen [many of whomare Greeks from Kaissarieh, Nikdeh, and Mania]adorn their shops on litters with many thousandfish, amongst which many monsters of the sea are tobe seen. They exhibit dolphins in chains, sea-hors-es, beavers, whales, and other kind of fish of greatsize, which they catch."'04In describing the antics of Porphyrios, the wordthat Procopius uses to describe the creature is ketos(I6K?IoS; plural KlIl- or Kfl[Ea). It is from theGreek word ketos (Latin cetus) that the order Ceta-cea-referring to both whales and dolphins-is de-

100Clark1947, 99; see alsoJoyce 1903,288.'01 The storyof Porphyrios s eloquently told byJocelynToynbee (1973, 208).102 Leatherwood t al. 1983,84-6. For he character f spermwhales, ee furtherPhilbrick 000,passim, sp.xiii,for aspermwhale with the vindictivenessandguile of a man,and 224-5.

10'Melville 1851, 228-9.104EvliyaQelebi,section 14 (210), see von Hammer 1834,160. We aregratefulto SperosVryonis, r.for assistancewithEvliyaCelebiand forallowingustouse hisforthcomingpaperon the Greeksand sea (Vryonis orthcoming) prior o itspub-lication.



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Fig.19. Detail of Corinthianblack-figure mphora,depictingAndromedaand the ketos,with Perseus o the rescue.Berlin,StaatlicheMuseen,F 1652, from Cerveteri.Second quarterof the 6th centuryB.C. (Drawingafter Pfuhl 1923, fig. 190)rived. The word is found in Greek literature as earlyas Homer, and normally refers to any sea monster orhuge fish. In his account of Odysseus's adventureswith the Sirens, Skylla and Charybdis, Homer pro-vides a particularly gory description of Skylla (Odys-sey 12.85-100). In that description we hear of"6eA(iv6q IcT KiUVq ITE, KCtt Ei no0t PieTov iEnKqTlOCq"("dolphins and dogfish or anything bigger,some sea monster").105 A similar usage of ketos isfound elsewhere in Homer, both in the OdysseyandIliad.o06 In one only Homeric passage (Odyssey4.446,452), the word ketos s used specifically for seals, butthis is for poetic effect, and the normal word for aseal in Homer, as in Greek generally, is phoke((46K'jq).107 Ketos is also the sea monster to which An-dromeda was exposed, a story that led to no shortageof iconographic depictions of beauty and the beast,ranging from the Archaic (fig. 19) through Roman(fig. 20) periods and into the modern era (fig. 21).~10The association of the sea monster and Andromedaextends to the very heavens, for KIf[OC in Greek wasalso the name of a constellation.'09 In Hesiod's Theog-ony (238) we find a certain fair-cheeked Keto(Kqr(ib), who, when paired with Phorkys, begat such

quintessential Greek monsters as the Gorgons and,in subsequent generations, Kerberos, Hydra, Pegas-os, Chimaira, Sphinx, and the Nemean lion, to men-tion only a few."1As for a huge fish, as opposed to a sea monster,the word ketos s sometimes used to refer to a tuna,as in Archestratos (Fr. 34.3). Oppian, writing in thethird century A.D., in his Halieutica (or Fishing)uses the word ketos to refer generally to any large

Fig. 20. Andromeda exposed to the ketos, with Perseus flyingto the rescue. Roman wall painting from Pompeii (1.7.7).(After Blanckenhagen 1987, pl. XXVII:2)

105 Od.12.96-97.106 Od. 5.421; Il. 20.147.107LSJ sv xOjKq.108See, e.g., Euripides, Fragmenta 121;Aristophanes, Clouds,556;Thesmophoriasouzai033.For heiconography fAndrom-eda and the ketos, see Schauenburg 1981. Figure 19 is a detailof a Corinthian black-figure amphora from Cerveteri, now inBerlin, Staaliche Museen, F 1652; see Pfuhl 1923, fig. 190;Boardman1987,pl.XXIV topleft).Forthe Romanwallpaint-ing fromPompeii (fig.20), see von Blanckenhagen1987, 85,note 4 (=Pompeii 1.7.7). Andromeda and the ketos is apopulartheme in European art from the 16th century on. Rubenspainted a version in 1636 (see Held 1980, 291-2, no. 209, pl.

218) and Van Dyck in 1637-1638 (see Price 1988, 74), bothof which appear to have been inspired by Titian's PerseusandAndromeda,of ca. 1562, now in the Wallace Collection in Lon-don (fig. 21; see Wallace Collection1968, 318-22, P11).109SeeAratus354;Eudoxus (Astronomus) apud Hipparchos(Astronomicus) 1.2.20. See further Manilius AstromicaBookV, and esp. Coleman 1983.1"oAsWest (1966, 235) notes, Kqrxb s probably formed sim-ply from KqTflO(Apollodoros1.2.7 actually has a Nereid calledKeto). As for genealogy of the offspring of Keto and Phorkys,the details are not quite certain, but West (1966, 244) pro-vides one likely stemma.



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Fig.21.Andromeda and the ketos byTitian,painted for PhilipIIabout 1562,now in the WallaceCollection, London. (Courtesyof the WallaceCollection)

creatures of the sea."' These include a variety ofwhales (among which are the dashing Physaloi), aswell as a number of large fish, some of which arespecifically named (e.g., tuna, sawfish, the Lamna,and the Maltha), as well as different types of sharks,dogfish, and rays, including ycakeot."2 Oppian alsoincludes among his kete those animals that leavethe salt water and come forth upon the land, suchas eels, turtles, and seals."31In Classical literature, two locations of kete arepreeminent in Greek-especially Aegean-geog-raphy: Athos and "hollow Lakedaimon." With re-gard to the former, Emily Vermeule wrote: "As inthe sad tale of the Deacon and the Shark, an en-counter the abbots of Mount Athos remember well,though it happened in the ninth century-A.D. orB.C.?-certain places were always hunted by theria,the wild animals of the sea. Herodotos knew thatthe waters off Mount Athos were packed with sea-

monsters, long before the deacon took hisplunge."114The monster-infested waters around Athos arewell reflected in a series of engravings (XaAKo-ypa(qiS) depicting the various monasteries of theHoly Mountain."15 Of the many such paper icons,we present here only one example, dating to 1850and illustrating the Monastery of Esphigmenou, onthe east coast of the Akte peninsula (fig. 22). Itdepicts, in the lower left corner, a sea-creature de-scribed as a "fantastic ketos.""6 The kete on some ofthe Athos engravings are truly fantastic creatures ofthe imagination; others, however, more closely re-semble real whales. The double spouting creaturein figure 22, with its huge body, strange mouth, andflukes takes certain elements from the real world,others from a more imaginary realm.The second geographical topos for kete in theAegean is the Lakonian Gulf between Malea and

"1 Halieutica 1.48, 1.360-408; 5.21, 5.71.112Halieutica 1.360-82.113Halieutica 1.394-408.

114 ermeule 1979, 183.115or hese,generally, eeMylonas 963;Papastratou 990.11"6Baltogianne1997, 86-7, no. 36 (inv.XAE3052).



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Fig.22. Papericon depicting the Monasteryof Esphigmenou on the Mt. AthosPeninsula,with a whalein the left corner,ca. 1850,ByzantineMuseum,Athens,XAE3052 (0.42 x 0.27 m). (Courtesyof the ByzantineMuseum)Tainaron. In the Homeric poems, the kingdom ofMenelaos is twice introduced with a formulaic de-scription that has inspired scholarly comment sinceantiquity."117In the Catalogue of Ships (Iliad 2.581)the allies of Menelaos are introduced thus:

Oi 68'EtXOV KOLfrlv AQaKXt4POV KrflTOoa(VThe same line, with a change of verb, announcedthe arrival of Telemachos and Peisistratos at Sparta

(Odyssey4.1):Oi 6' ikov KoiArlv AaKE.citaOV KlrTO[oavonp6S 8'pa 6px 1a' AyovMevwAXoU KUClhi1pOlOAs Sarah Morris has shown, the prevailing inter-

pretation derives from an understanding of KohAqv

as the "hollow" valley of the Eurotas River, and stan-dard translations provide variations of "hollow Lake-daimon." Rather than "hollow," Morris goes on toshow that the passage refers to the sea monster-bound shores (Kqr-feoocuv) of Lakedaimon."11As Emily Vermeule so cogently expressed, theHomeric kete, like Herodotos's theria, soundedmore dangerous for not having specific names; theywere nameless monsters, which perhaps grew lessthreatening as the science of marine biology devel-oped, studying, classifying, and perhaps dissectingthem."9 It is not until the fourth century B.C., how-ever, that we find the word ketosassociated with nat-ural history, generically referring, in the modern

"117orris 1984, 1-2.118Morris 1984.

I"Vermeule 1979, 183.



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210 JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS AND DEBORAH RUSCILLO [AJA106sense, to the spouting cetacea.Aristotle, in his Histo-ria Animalium (6.12 [566b, 2]), writes:

AAXtiAq&6K' 4dXkLXACtlvQIi Icl t Axc Kflrl, 6ocLpil~EXtpdPYXta&AXA Uorlrppc, (cOOIOKOOOlV....The dolphin, the whale, and the other Cetacea, asmany as have no gills but a blowhole instead, are vi-viparous. ...

Elsewhere in Aristotle we read:avcxnvi 6E t piv nE_(J ndv-rc, ivta F Kc't iJVFv'L6p(ov, oiov 6XAhhctvca ai 5EA ic KXi Ttvac+uo~vizrt KlyTl ndHvca"All land animals breathe, as do some of the wateranimals, such as the whale, the dolphin, and all thespouting cetacea.'"2

Although the ketos is used to refer to all thespouting cetecea, the word that Aristotle uses spe-cifically for whale is phallaina ( 6AAactva or46Atxtvcx), hence the Latin bal(l)aena (whale), andultimately baleen. From the fourth century B.C. on-ward, phallaina is a common wor

a ketos in early athens: an archaeology of whales and sea monsters in the greek world

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