This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the production dynamics within the Kerameikos during the major period of black- and red-figure pottery production (600–350 BCE). Employing a statistical approach, this study explores the intricate interplay between the workflows of full-time and part-time painters and potters, and the nature of their respective tasks. By using Monte Carlo methods to estimate quantities, including the number of pots created annually and the hours required for painting, the statistical data generated not only support a complex and time-critical model for the potting industry, but the limits on the plausibility for some of these scenarios are also considered. These quantitative estimates are then situated within the context of the pottery-production chaîne opératoire to consider the seasonality of the various professions of pottery production. A case is made for the existence of permanent painters managing a backlog of pottery while part-time potters shifted between potting and painting (and other tasks), while the concept of project management is also discussed; it is suggested that a critical role of the κϵραμϵύς extended beyond mere craftsmanship to orchestrating workflows.

The letters between Sparta and Judaea preserved in 1 Maccabees and Josephus’ Antiquities have generated considerable scholarly discussion. Only Josephus’ version of Areus’ letter to Onias includes information about its courier Demoteles, its ‘square’ script and the image on its seal. Comparison with contemporary Hellenistic epigraphical evidence suggests that these elements are archival metadata rather than parts of the original letter or Josephan inventions. Similar clauses attested in documents inscribed in several Hellenistic cities are remnants of archival processes, and the presence of such details in Josephus’ version of Areus’ letter suggests that it derives from an independent source and never underwent the translation process so evident in the Maccabean versions. This strengthens the case for authenticity.

Pythagoras and Empedocles, the earliest pre-Socratic thinkers associated with the doctrine of metempsychosis, are both said to have accounted for their own previous incarnations. This article focuses on lists of their previous lives, here dubbed curriculum uitarum (CVV), and argues that they are revealing not only of the specifics of how metempsychosis is conceptualized by each thinker but also of the way in which they harness poetic authority. The article surveys all the surviving permutations of Pythagoras’ CVV across the tradition and identifies an interplay of different modes of enumeration within them: lists of named human individuals vs lists of life forms. The latter mode is what also defines Empedocles’ much-cited ‘epigram’ (B117 DK) on his past incarnations. Both CVVs are informed by strategic borrowings from Homer: while Empedocles’ list draws on the characterisation of the Iliad’s Nestor and the Odyssey’s Proteus, Pythagoras’ CVV is defined by the constant presence of the Trojan warrior Euphorbus. As is argued, this originates in the nexus of philosophical speculation and poetical exegesis which accrued around Euphorbus’ short-lived but memorable appearance in the Iliad. In-depth engagement with Homer and Homeric exegesis is thus shown to generate philosophical innovation and to form a strong link between the Pythagorean and Empedoclean teachings on metempsychosis.

Between the fifth and first century BC, calendars that compiled astronomical and meteorological information, known as parapēgmata, came to be used throughout the Greek-speaking world. In the course of the Hellenistic period, numerous such almanacs attributed to scientific authorities who operated in different regions were circulating, some of which emphasized distinct atmospheric phenomena. By ca. 100 BC at the latest, individuals and communities began combining astrometeorological parapēgmata to produce their own, including inscribed public versions. I argue that politically active citizens and doctors would have benefited from the use of these calendars within the context of the Hellenistic polis because weather was believed to have a direct impact on the collective food supply and health of communities and such documents were perceived as an invaluable tool for anticipating important atmospheric changes, determining when meteorological thresholds were crossed and building consensus for communal action taken in response.

This article re-examines the A-scholia to Homer, Iliad 11.101 (= SH 701 = Posidippus 144 AB) and their reinterpretation of the term sôros, which designates the location where Aristarchus discovered the ‘Bêrisos epigram’ of Posidippus. The article challenges the prevailing and widely embraced hypothesis positing that sôros serves as the title of a lost collection of Hellenistic epigrams.

In the region of Cyrenaica is located the rural sanctuary of Martuba, where two altars and a set of statues have been discovered that have traditionally been linked to the goddess Isis. However, through a comparison with other elements belonging both to the region and to Numidian and Phoenician-Punic areas, as well as Egypt, this paper defends their identification not with the Egyptian divinity, but with the one with which a process of hybridisation or religious bricolage took place at some point prior to Herodotus, the puissance divine called for convenience ‘Luna’ (Moon). This suggests the presence of two intertwined cultural traditions that have contributed to the formation of an innovative and distinct local reality. The resultant cultural artefact is characterised by a synthesis of influences from dominant cultures, such as Roman and Egyptian, while retaining distinctive elements that are unique to the Libyan-Phoenician tradition.

In Greek literature, the barber is always portrayed as a garrulous chatterbox and his shop as a central place for gossip and rumours. Apart from these numerous anecdotes, however, few scholars have investigated the concrete realities of the profession and the actual status of barbers in the Greek East (including Egypt). This paper seeks to fill this gap. It is based on a careful social and economic analysis of the profession, including barbers’ workspaces, their social recognition as skilled craftsmen, their funerary and religious practices, their relationships with their clients, as well as their income, wages and expenses. It attempts to re-place ancient barbers in their socio-professional and socio-economic environment, and to reconstruct some aspects of their daily lives that go beyond the statements of ancient authors and their elite discourse. By systematically cross-referencing all available historical data (literary texts, inscriptions, papyri, ostraca, iconographic and archaeological sources), the paper shows how their lives and status differ from their representation in the literary sources in order to bring these everyday workers out of the shadows and rehabilitate them as historical actors in Greek and Hellenized societies.