La coroplastica a soggetto infantile nella tradizione votiva greca. Il caso di Satyrion

Saturo (Leporano, Italy) is a site about 12 km south-east of Taranto, situated on a promontory overlooking Porto Perone and Porto Saturo, two small inlets on the Gulf of Taranto, on the Ionic sea. Excavations carried out in the XXth century have shown an impressive continuity of occupation, with archaeological remains of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements, of two Greek sanctuaries and of a very large Roman Villa. From 2007 Sapienza – University of Rome has restarted fieldwork in the Greek sanctuary so called “Santuario della Sorgente” (2007-2010). Many terrecotta figurines of children were found in the earth fills of the eleven favissae at the site. This PhD research presents a complete study of the votive terracottas depicting infants, children and adolescents in Saturo and in other contexts of Magna Graecia, Sicily and Greece, during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Moreover it attemps to draw meaningful deductions about this kind of offerings and the rites (especially of passage) connected to Aphrodite, goddess associated with fertility of the natural world and of men, the main deity worshiped in the sanctuary.