{"id":1628,"date":"2021-07-01T14:55:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T14:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajaonline.org\/2021\/07\/01\/4321\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T03:45:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T03:45:54","slug":"4321","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/","title":{"rendered":"Sortition in Hellenistic Sicily: New Archaeological Evidence from Morgantina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although literary and epigraphic texts attest to the widespread use of random selection in the ancient Mediterranean, archaeological evidence beyond the Athenian-style <em>kleroterion <\/em>is rare. A recent discovery at Morgantina may improve this situation: a terracotta ball inscribed with a personal name was recovered in 2018 during excavations inside a house dated to the middle of the third century BCE. A nearly identical ball inscribed with a different name had been excavated in the 1960s in a nearby house of similar date. Here we consider them together, offering a first publication of the two objects and their inscriptions, including their onomastic and social significance. We argue that these objects most likely functioned as lots (&kappa;&lambda;&#x1FC6;&rho;&omicron;&iota;) for sortition, based on a review of relevant evidence for the theory and practice of sortition from across the Mediterranean. We then discuss the historical context in which the lots were created, used, and discarded: decades of prosperity in eastern Sicily under the hegemony of the Syracusan monarch Hieron II (r. 269&ndash;215 BCE). We propose that the inhabitants of Hellenistic Morgantina may have employed random selection for distributing land during a period of demographic and urban growth generated by that prosperity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although literary and epigraphic texts attest to the widespread use of random selection in the ancient Mediterranean, archaeological evidence beyond the Athenian-style kleroterion is rare. A recent discovery at Morgantina may improve this situation: a terracotta ball inscribed with a personal name was recovered in 2018 during excavations inside a house dated to the middle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[904],"tags":[12,45,50,54],"issues":[784],"region":[871],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-epigraphy","tag-hellenisticperiod","tag-excavation","tag-materialculture","issues-784","region-italy-sicily"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sortition in Hellenistic Sicily: New Archaeological Evidence from Morgantina | July 2021 (125.3) | American Journal of Archaeology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sortition in Hellenistic Sicily: New Archaeological Evidence from Morgantina | July 2021 (125.3) | American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although literary and epigraphic texts attest to the widespread use of random selection in the ancient Mediterranean, archaeological evidence beyond the Athenian-style kleroterion is rare. A recent discovery at Morgantina may improve this situation: a terracotta ball inscribed with a personal name was recovered in 2018 during excavations inside a house dated to the middle [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aja.journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-01T14:55:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-13T03:45:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/1303-Souza.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"244\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"aja\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"aja\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"aja\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/711697bfd0087a94589eecedb525bf52\"},\"headline\":\"Sortition in Hellenistic Sicily: New Archaeological Evidence from Morgantina\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-01T14:55:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:45:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/\"},\"wordCount\":210,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/1303-Souza.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Epigraphy\",\"Hellenistic Period\",\"Excavation\",\"Material Culture\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Article\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/\",\"name\":\"Sortition in Hellenistic Sicily: New Archaeological Evidence from Morgantina | July 2021 (125.3) | American Journal of Archaeology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/1303-Souza.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-01T14:55:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:45:54+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4321\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/1303-Souza.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/1303-Souza.jpg\",\"width\":450,\"height\":244,\"caption\":\"Side-by-side comparison of the two inscribed terracotta balls: left, catalogue no. 1; 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