Of late years, however, much light has been thrown upon this question by means of scientific excavations. On many temple-sites which have been systematically explored, such as the Acropolis of Athens or Naukratis in the Egyptian Delta, enormous numbers of fragments of painted vases have been found which are clearly the remains of votive offerings. It was a well-known Greek custom to clear out the temples from time to time and form rubbish-heaps of the disused vases and statuettes, sometimes by digging pits for them; and thus these broken fragments, rejected from their apparent uselessness, have from these very circumstances been preserved to the present day to cast a flood of light on many points of archaeology. At Naukratis many of the fragments bear incised inscriptions in the form of dedications to Apollo (Fig. 16.) or Aphrodite, according to the site on which they were found. At Penteskouphia near Corinth a large series of early painted tablets, with representations of Poseidon and inscribed dedications, were found in 1879 (p. 316), and illustrate the practice of making offerings in this form, mentioned by Aeschylos.[464] Tablets painted with figures and hung on trees or walls are not infrequently depicted on red-figured vases, the subject generally implying their votive character.[465] Fig. 17. represents a youth carrying a tablet of this kind. [Illustration: FIG. 16. RIM OF VASE FROM NAUKRATIS WITH DEDICATION TO APOLLO (BRIT. MUS.).] [Illustration: From Benndorf, _Gr. u. Sic. Vasenb._ FIG. 17. YOUTH WITH VOTIVE TABLET. ] There is no doubt that vases (though not, perhaps, painted ones) must have played a considerable part in the religious ceremonies of the Greeks. In the Athenian festival of the Anthesteria, the second day was devoted to the holding of ἀγῶνες χύτρινοι, or “pot-contests,” vessels full of corn being dedicated to Hermes Chthonios.[466] At the festival of the Gardens of Adonis flower-pots of earthenware containing flowers were cast into the sea, as a type of the premature death of Adonis.[467] These flower-pots were also placed on the tops of houses, and in this same festival, which was chiefly celebrated by hetairae, little terracotta figures (κοράλλια) were introduced.[468] The use of flower-pots placed in windows to form artificial gardens is mentioned by Martial and Pliny[469]; and they were also employed to protect tender plants, as hinted by Theophrastos,[470] who speaks of the necessity of propagating southernwood by slips in pots.