We are pleased to announce the publication of Hesperia 95.1! Topics in this issue include an engraving of a warrior from LMB IIIA Ayia Irini on Kea, the relationship between inscriptions and images in Archaic Greece, four new pinakion fragments from the Athenian Agora, the colossus of Porto Raphti, and the account of the martyrdom of St. Demetrios and what it reveals about gladiatorial events and the stadium in Roman Thessaloniki.

Subscribers can read the issue online at Project MUSE, which now hosts current issues of Hesperia as well as an archive of past volumes dating to 2002. Hesperia remains on JSTOR as part of their Arts and Sciences II package, with the usual three-year moving wall. Additionally, all issues of Hesperia from 2011 and earlier are available as Open Access on our website. The printed version will be mailed shortly.

A Marble Engraving of a “Mycenaean” Warrior from Ayia Irini, Kea: Island Iconography and Social Context, by Jacob M. Engstrom, examines a marble slab, probably a stele, engraved with the image of a helmeted man was recovered in 1964 at Ayia Irini, Kea. John L. Caskey identified the figure as a “Mycenaean” warrior of Late Bronze Age III date, interpreting it as an indication of Mycenaean cultural domination at Ayia Irini. The study pres­ents the first systematic study of this distinctive example of Keian visual and material culture. An assessment of formal and iconographical comparanda establishes an early Late Bronze Age date and demonstrates strong links between the helmeted figure and Neopalatial Cretan iconography. The local­ized social context of the slab as “island iconography” within the competitive transcultural environment of early Late Bronze Age Ayia Irini is emphasized.

When Letter Met Figure: Inscriptions and Images in Archaic Greece, by Hugo Shakeshaft, explores the relationship between inscriptions and images in Greece ca. 750–450 BCE by examining a wide range of artifacts across various media and social contexts. It highlights the regional diversity of Greek epigraphic and pictorial habits, the general patterns of their development, and the perceived similarities and differences between alphabetic letter and figural image during this time. Comparanda from the Near East serve to reveal parallel, divergent, and directly related practices in the combination of writing with images. The article advances a novel argument for why the period ca. 650–450 BCE was one of marked and unprecedented affinity between letter and figure in the Greek world.

Four New Pinakion Fragments from the Athenian Agora, by John H. Kroll†, presents the four additional fragments of inscribed bronze allotment plates that have been found in the Athenian Agora since the 1995 publication of Mabel Lang’s catalogue of 24 pinakia. These new fragments add to the number of some 30 dikastic and non-dikastic pinakia that have become known since the 1990s from all sources.

The Colossus of Porto Raphti: New Finds from the Bays of East Attica Regional Survey (BEARS) Project, by Philip Sapirstein, Sarah C. Murray, and Joseph Frankl, tackles the question of the long-debated identity of the colossal Roman statue located at the peak of Raphtis island in Porto Raphti Bay. A research initiative of the Bays of East Attica Regional Survey (BEARS) project, this study advances our understanding of the monument, beginning with a newly discovered fragment of one of the statue’s missing arms. Autopsy of the statue and pedestal blocks using 3D models indicates that most elements of the monument were not originally designed for the site. Surface collection by the project has also further clarified the occupational history in Porto Raphti, where there was a lack of substantial activity during the 1st millennium CE except in the Late Roman period. From the evidence, we conclude that the statue was acquired from a still unknown, defunct Attic sanctuary and repurposed as a naval marker sometime between the 4th and 7th centuries CE, when the bay was a thriving commercial center.

St. Demetrios, the Gladiatorial Combats, and the Stadium of Thessaloniki, by Michalis Karambinis, addresses the fact that while it is known that gladiatorial spectacles were held in Roman Thessaloniki, the ex­act venue for these events remains uncertain. However, the martyrdom accounts of St. Demetrios, who was reportedly executed in the city during the reign of Galerius in the early 4th century CE, mention the stadium as the site of these games. These texts suggest that the Thessaloniki stadium was temporarily transformed into an arena, with a wooden barrier constructed to close its open side and a protective fence installed for the safety of spectators. This is the only known literary source describing the temporary modifications made to theaters and stadia to accommodate gladiatorial and related spectacles.

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