1Tanagra figurines are a modern class of expertly crafted terracottas that survive in large quantities and are found throughout the ancient Greek world (ca. 330–100 BCE). These representations of mostly girls and women offer important evidence for a wide range of feminine experience in classical antiquity. Their modern reception, however, has hindered our understanding of their ancient social and cultural significance. Initially assessed purely on aesthetic grounds, both their contexts and connections to objects found alongside them were considered irrelevant. The lack of secure archaeological information for the figurines, moreover, has obstructed scholars’ interpretations of their diverse purposes.

2“Assembling Women” conducts an archaeological (re)assessment of the extant Tanagra figurines—prioritizing professionally excavated and securely dated materials from sites in central and northern Greece—to provide contextually informed interpretations of their varied qualities, functions, and relevancies to their ancient creators, users, and audiences. This project approaches the Tanagras from feminist and phenomenological perspectives by analyzing aspects of the figurines’ manufacture, patronage, context(s), and their connections to ancient people’s lived experiences. To date, no interpretation of the Tanagra figurines has adequately explained why most of them portray girls and women, or indeed, why most of them seem to come from the graves of women and children. This dissertation proposes that women and girls possibly produced and drove demand for these figurines—readily accessible objects in their own images—that they collected in their homes, dedicated to gods, and curated for themselves and their loved ones in burials. That women and girls were the primary patrons of Tanagra figurines also clarifies aspects of their proliferation and function: frequently found together in groups and as thematically unified assemblages, the figurines reflect—indeed, mimetically embody—the communal experiences of girls and women.

3Reframing the study of the Tanagra figurines as evidence for girls and women’s creative agencies and economic influence generates additional possibilities for understanding the figurines in their original contexts. This dissertation (re)assembles Tanagra figurines to visualize ancient performances, enflesh lived experiences, and reconstruct the communities that girls and women created among each other in the vibrant landscapes of the ancient Mediterranean world.