Dorothy King's PhDiva

Sumerian gold jar, other relics returned to Iraq | Reuters

2012-01-30T17:48:00.000Z

Sumerian gold jar, other relics returned to Iraq | Reuters:

A 6,500-year-old Sumerian gold jar, the head of a Sumerian battle axe and a stone from an Assyrian palace were among 45 relics returned to Iraq by Germany on Monday.

On the importance of education ...

2012-01-29T20:41:00.002Z

In Afghanistan, a Rush to Save Buried Treasure - WSJ.com

2012-01-27T21:26:00.000Z

In Afghanistan, a Rush to Save Buried Treasure - WSJ.com:

For 1,500 years, the sandstone cliffs of afghanistan's Bamiyan valley encased two towering Buddhas peering sleepily from their caves onto patches of magnolia trees. Nearly 11 years ago, however, the statues were destroyed by tanks, explosives and antiaircraft weapons on the orders of the Taliban government, which condemned the Buddhas as "idols." So if you flew into the smog-filled skies of Kabul today, interested in looking for one of the country's most important Buddhist sites, you'd have to head 25 miles southeast, where you'd find yourself at Mes Aynak, on the edge of the tiny but strategically located Logar province.

Damascus Museum

2012-01-23T11:50:00.001Z

Syria may be in the middle of a civil war, but the museum is safe - Tim Marshall of Sky News is in Damascus and has just posted photos of it on Twitter:

Tim Marshall (skytwitius) on Twitter

He's also clarified that many important pieces are locked away due to renovation works.

Greek Coins Seized from CNG Auction

2012-01-14T17:10:00.003Z

Ancient Coins Seized from New York Auction - Numismatic News:

Amid the excitement at this year’s New York International Coin Convention (NYINC), an unsettling chord was struck with the surprise confiscation of two Greek Sicilian coin masterpieces from Classical Numismatic Group’s Triton XV auction.

The coins were listed as Lots 1008 and 1009 of “Cabinet W.” They were seized by the District Attorney of New York on the afternoon of Jan. 3.

I found this interesting:

Lot 1009, cited in the report, was an equally impressive Katane silver tetradrachm, “purchased privately from an American collection in 2010,” but with an estimate of only $300,000. The head depicted on the front is a masterfully executed frontal view of a laureate Apollo while the reverse portrays another quadriga scene, with Nike flying above.

The reason for the absence of Lot 1008 in the public complaint is unknown, but it may be the subject of a civil case rather than part of a criminal investigation, by virtue of having possibly fewer questions surrounding its provenance. ...

The complaint states that “the defendant knew that coin 1009 was ‘freshly dug’ and that, therefore, it had to be the property of the Italian government.”

The fact that the Katane tetradrachm was most likely discovered and already in the U.S. before the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Italy and the US went into effect (Jan. 19, 2011), unfortunately doesn’t mean such coins are free to stay in U.S. collections.

I've also heard that the seller was arrested, along with some details about him.

The catalogue listings of the two coins are no longer available online, but can be found cached for a while longer.

Lot 1008 - cached here:

Description:

SICILY, Akragas. Circa 409-406 BC. AR Dekadrachm (35.5mm, 43.41 g, 12h). Attributed to the engravers Myron (the chariot) and Polykrates (the eagles). ΑΚΡΑΓΑΣ, Quadriga galloping to left, the near horse turning his head back to right, driven by a youthful male driver, nude but for a cloak draped around his upper arms and shoulders and billowing in the wind, and holding the reins in both hands; above, eagle soaring upwards to the left, holding a snake in its claws; below, crab moving downwards / Two eagles perched on a dead hare lying on a rock to left; the eagle in the foreground has his head raised in triumph and the one behind lowers his head to tear at the hare with his beak; to right, cicada upwards, its back to the eagles. Gulbenkian 168 (same obverse die); Kraay & Hirmer 179 (Munich); Rizzo Pl. II, 9 (Paris, same dies); Seltman, Engravers 9 (dies G/ι); SNG Lloyd 817 (British Museum). Good extremely fine. Of the greatest rarity, one of twelve known examples and one of the most artistically exciting of all ancient Greek coins. A masterpiece of late 5th century engraving.
From a collection in the United States, once in a Swiss collection and, earlier, in an English collection in London in the 1960s.
This is one of the most famous of all Greek coins - only two other examples of this type have appeared for sale in the past generation: a dreadful example in Triton II (1998), lot 150 (= NAC 9 (1996), lot 135 = SKA 1 (1977), lot 37) and the better example in the famous Nelson Bunker Hunt Collection in 1990 (lot 77). That coin brought the then world’s record price for a Greek coin, which was only recently exceeded. That coin is no match for the quality of the present piece.
In the late 5th century BC the wealthy cities of Sicily seem to have competed with each other over the beauty of the coins they issued, and the very best artists were called on to engrave the dies used to strike them. Of all the coins minted in Sicily the unusually large size and high value of the silver dekadrachms (= 10 drachms) made them by far the most impressive. The first to appear was the so-called Demareteion from Syracuse in the 460s, but the denomination is primarily known from the Syracusan issues of the late 5th and earlier 4th centuries, where they were struck with dies engraved by Kimon and Euainetos. These large and showy coins must have been influenced by the infinitely rarer and even more prestigious pieces issued by Akragas. While the Syracusan coins seem to have actually been used as part of the monetary system and were issued over a relatively long period of time - perhaps a generation - the Akragantine version seems only to have been produced to celebrate a single event: the victory of Exainetos, a citizen from Akragas who won the chariot race at Olympia in 412 BC. These coins were struck using only two obverse and three reverse dies, thus emphasizing how limited was their issue, and can only have been in use for a very short period prior to the city’s capture and destruction by the Carthaginians in 406 BC. The very rarity of these coins today can be explained by the thoroughness of the Carthaginian sack. The obverse dies have been attributed to Myron, whose brilliance was to portray his chariot as being divine, rather than mortal, albeit aristocratic; and either just winning or already victorious in the games. We know this because our chariot is not on the ground, but in the sky: this is shown by the positions of the horses’ legs, the crab and the eagle, and the billowing of the driver’s robes - he can only be Helios in the chariot of the sun. The reverse is the classic badge of the city; two proud eagles devouring a hare, shown in masterful detail.
This piece is from the same dies as that in Paris, but has more developed die flaws, which indicates that is was struck later. Of the other known examples, six are in museums: Cambridge (Harvard - Dewing), Lisbon (Gulbenkian), London, Munich, Paris, and Syracuse (Pennisi). The remaining five include two in the USA, the Hunt piece, the Triton coin, and another apparently in Switzerland.
Starting price: $2500000
Estimate:
$2,500,000 USD

Lot 1009 - cached here:

Description:

SICILY, Katane. Circa 405-403/2 BC. AR Tetradrachm (30mm, 17.20 g, 7h). Signed by the engraver Herakleidas on the obverse. Laureate head of Apollo facing, turned slightly to the left, with his hair falling in curls and locks around his head and neck; in small letters to right, ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΔΑΣ / ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ, Quadriga galloping to left, the reins of one horse trailing on the ground, driven by a charioteer gripping the reins with both hands; at the center, above the horses, Nike flying right, seemingly preparing to alight on the backs of the horses, holding a crown for the charioteer in her right hand and a kerykeion in her left; in the exergue, below the inscription, fish swimming to left. Basel 338; Gulbenkian 192; Rizzo pl. XIV, 11 and pl. XVI, 3; SNG Lloyd 902 (all from the same dies). Very rare. Toned, and of splendid Classical style. Extremely fine.
Purchased privately from an American collection in 2010.
This is a splendid example of a coin that bears one of the finest facing heads ever to appear in Greek coinage. Apollo was the patron of many Greek cities and his facing head was on the coins of, among other places, Amphipolis, Klazomenai, Rhodes and those of the Carian Satraps issued in Halikarnassos. They all are similar, but all show the different concepts their engravers had of what the god looked like. Some are serene, some proud, some even dangerous looking, but this die of Herakleidas shows us a young man of almost supernatural beauty. His face is truly not that of an ordinary mortal - his radiant perfection is perhaps best paralleled by the portraits of young Florentine aristocrats in Renaissance paintings. This is simply a tour de force of engraving; once again it shows the great pride the Greek cities of Sicily had in their coins and their rivalry to attract the very finest engravers to adorn them. The rarity of this coin has a number of explanations. In 403, only a year or two after it was struck, Katane was captured by Dionysios I of Syracuse who thoroughly pillaged the city and sold all its inhabitants as slaves - few local coins would have escaped being seized, brought back to Syracuse and melted down. Another factor was the technical problems the ancient minters had with facing head dies: some broke completely soon after they came into use due to the high relief, while others suffered from a myriad of tiny faults that increased over the die’s period of use. This coin was struck early in the die’s career. Herakleidas actually made two dies bearing the facing head of Apollo for Katane: this is the better in style and the coins struck from it are rarer.
Starting price: $300000
Estimate:
$300,000 USD

Swiss confiscation of rare Greek coin

2012-01-12T22:21:00.001Z

Greece secures Swiss confiscation of rare ancient coin that was allegedly illegally excavated - The Washington Post:

The high-denomination octadrachm — or eight-drachma — coin was struck by a little-known Thracian ruler named Mosses around 480 B.C., the time of the second failed Persian invasion of Greece.

Thessaloniki University professor of archaeology Michalis Tiverios said examples of Mosses’ currency are very rare.

“There are very few coins struck in his name,” Tiverios said. “Octadrachms were heavy coins used for transactions abroad, usually for mercenaries’ wages, which is why they are very rarely found in Greece.”

Coins of Mosses are indeed rare - see here - but ... the same scholar in some ways also argues for it having been found outside Greece (my bold).

Tweet from @portableant

2012-01-04T14:19:00.000Z

@portableant: The Roman 'brothel token' record on the @findsorguk database http://bit.ly/zDEYUP by Kath Creed and Pip Walton #archaeology

This is a rare pornographic token - the only one found in the UK, and one of the few spintriae found in a context (ie the mud river banks at Putney) as many are thought to be Renaissance and later fakes - so it's wonderful to see that the finder not only reported it to the PAS but also donated it to the Museum of London.

Hobbyists who use metal detectors are often criticised by some archaeologists, but this is a great example of the Portable Antiquities Scheme working well. The finder is to be congratulated - sprintiae are so rare that the dealer I spoke to didn't even know how to value one - and praised as an example of good metal detecting.

Found in Thames mud, a Romans brothel token

2012-01-04T09:20:00.001Z

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2081890/Dug-Thames-mud-token-Romans-used-pay-pleasure.html#ixzz1iTXgzAUC

Save the Date ...

2011-12-29T11:13:00.000Z

Aspects of Ancient Greek Cult II:
Context – Architecture – Music, In Honor of Erik Hansen,
4-6 May 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark

I'll be giving a paper on the Macedonian and Hecatomnid Tombs, and there will be lots of brilliant scholars taking part, so if you happen to be in Copenhagen in early May ... more details to follow.

I missed the first conference due to illness, but the papers were published and well worth reading to see what the younger generation of academics is working on.

Found Coins May Unveil a Lost Viking : Discovery News

2011-12-15T22:06:00.001Z

http://www.google.com/gwt/x?source=reader&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.discovery.com%2Fhistory%2Fsilver-viking-king-111215.html%23mkcpgn%3Drssnws1

Found Coins May Unveil a Lost Viking : Discovery News

2011-12-15T21:59:00.001Z

http://news.discovery.com/history/silver-viking-king-111215.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1

Kurdish museum buying back looted treasures

2011-12-15T18:18:00.000Z

I'm pretty pragmatic, but not sure about this strategy ...

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/13/world/meast/iraq-museum-paying-smugglers/index.html?iref=allsearch

Saddam's Wedgwood Returning ...

2011-12-14T21:55:00.001Z

Assorted dinner plates, apparently stolen from Saddam Hussein's palace in 2003, then sold by an Iraqi as souvenirs, brought to the US by an American, resold on eBay, and used by an arts group in New York ... Are now going back to Iraq

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/looted-dishes-used-in-art-project-returned-to-iraq/

New Viking Ruler?

2011-12-14T19:09:00.001Z

A hoard of coins has identified a previously unknown Viking ruler in England ... This is what I love about archaeology - a chance find can give us new information about history.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/8955955/Viking-hoard-provides-new-clues-to-previously-unknown-ruler.html

Interactive maps reveal London's history in unprecedented detail

2011-12-12T16:35:00.001Z

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/uos-imr121211.php

Jerusalem: Before the Hebrews

2011-12-07T14:34:00.000Z

If you're looking for Christmas (or Hanukkah) presents, then I highly recommend Simon Sebag Montefiore's Jerusalem: The Biography. As a quick disclaimer, I should admit that I am one of the hundreds of people he thanks for help with the book (I think I told him about Julian's attempt to re-build the Third Temple and the remains of the crucified man found at Givat ha-Mivtar).

I tend to avoid reviewing books, so I thought instead I'd do a few posts expanding on the archaeological evidence behind Sebag's history of the city of Jerusalem.

The first mentions of the city of Jerusalem, as Sebag notes, come from ancient Egypt, in a series of Execration texts, or magical spells against the enemies of Egypt. The earliest of the three series of Execration texts was found at Mirgissa in Nubia (modern Sudan) and is now in Berlin; the curses were written on pot sherds circa 1900 BC. The third series comes from Saqqara, dates to circa 1800 BC, and is now in Brussels. In this series some of the curses are written on clay figures, such as the one to the left (photo) which mentions the city of Ursalim (or Roshlamen), a version of Salem the early name of Jerusalem (for more, see here). The figures had curses on enemies written n them, and then they were smashed and buried.

Jerusalem at the time was a Canaanite city, and neither Hebrew nor Israelite. It is unclear whether the Egyptians ruled over Canaan at time, or whether they were still attempting to conquer the region.

We know that by the 14th century Jerusalem was ruled by a vassal of Egypt, as letter he wrote asking or military support against his enemies were excavated at Amarna the capital of Akhenaten (photo). The clay tablet to the left is one of these letters, written in Akkadian, from Abdi-Heba the Canaanite king of Jerusalem. The letters make it clear that Abdi-Heba rules thanks to the grace of the Egyptians, as their vassal, over the city of Beit Shulmani or House of Well-Being, an early name for Jerusalem.

Sebag's book is a survey of the four-thousand year history of Jerusalem, so he cannot go into every detail and thus omits the Ebla documents excavated in the 1970s (photo). This large archive from the city of Ebla in modern Syria is made up of clay tablets from circa 2500 BC to the destruction of the city around 2250 BC. These tablets mention a god Yah - who may or may not be an early form of Yahweh - and trade with various Canaanite cites. Again, whether the cities of Ur and Jerusalem are mentioned or not is the subject of much scholarly debate, and one has to be careful of the politics involved. For more on Ebla and the tablets see here.

On Collecting ...

2011-12-02T09:47:00.000Z

Feargus O’Sullivan has written a piece for the FT on collecting antiquities - Lost Treasures - where I get mentioned in passing, discussing some of the issues regarding collecting.

Philanthropy Joke

2011-11-30T18:24:00.002Z

Just received this, and it's too good not to share ...

A visitor to Israel attended a recital and concert at the Moscovitz Auditorium. He was quite impressed with the architecture and the acoustics.
He inquired of the tour guide, "Is this magnificent auditorium named after Chaim Moscovitz, the famous Talmudic scholar?"
"No," replied the guide.
"It is named after Sam Moscovitz, the writer."
"Never heard of him. What did he write?"
"A check," replied the guide.

1,500-year-old mosaic tiles returned to Hagia Sophia after 55 years

2011-11-30T17:41:00.000Z

1,500-year-old mosaic tiles returned to Hagia Sophia after 55 years

This is a lot 'off' about this story - for example, why would someone working at Haghia Sophia just give a random tourist tesserae from the Byzantine mosaics; and if she felt so bad about having them, which suggests she knew they should not have been given to her, why didn't she just post them to the Turkish Embassy instead of giving them to a random jeweller in Istanbul she ....

Looted by Gaddafi Troops

2011-11-27T09:45:00.000Z

Yesterday it was announced that Greek and Roman antiquities that Gaddafi forces had stolen were caught with them a they fled from Tripoli.

Libya displays Roman treasures looted by Gaddafi troops | Reuters

Today we have photo of some of the 17 items, mostly small stone heads, courtesy of the Washington Post:

Attempted theft ...

2011-11-24T10:18:00.001Z

Thieves tried to raid the dig-house where items from Lagina are stored. The door was forced open, but it is unclear if anything was stolen. Excavation houses are particularly vulnerable, as are the sites themselves - whenever I see a Corinthian capital turned into a coffee table, I wonder which site it was pinched from.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=door-forced-open-at-excavation-house-2011-11-23

The Temple of Jerusalem

2011-11-23T12:02:00.001Z

Coins found under the walls surrounding the Temple post-date Herod's death and confirm Josephus' account that the complex was completed under Herod Agrippa II.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/11/23/2282892/new-find-sheds-light-on-ancient.html

The Capitoline Lupercalia

2011-11-22T21:01:00.001Z

The theory that the Capitoline Lupercalia is Medieval not Etruscan is once again in the news.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8907425/Romulus-and-Remus-symbol-of-Rome-could-be-medieval-replica.html

The twins, Romulus and Remus, were added in the Renaissance, but the date of the creation of the She-Wolf has been the subject of debate for a century or so. I discussed some of the early Medieval sources describing the statue outside the Lateran Palace, as well as a drawing of it standing there in the Renaissance, in this post (scroll down):

http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2011/08/medieval-collections-of-antiquities.html

In addition to the evidence I included there, I should add one key piece of very early Medieval evidence. When Charlemagne (crowned Holy Roman Emperor in AD 800) built his capital at Aachen, he went out of his way to make it the New Rome of his new Roman Empire. This included building a magnificent palace from which to rule it, modelled on the pope's palace in Rome; Charlemagne not only named his new palace the Lateran, but also arranged for an ancient statue of a She-Wolf found in Gaul to be brought to stand outside the palace, just as one stood outside the Roman Lateran. It is possible that a different She-Wolf stood outside the Medieval Lateran palace from the one now on the Capitoline, but unlikely.

The problem is that ... if the Capitoline She-Wolf is a post-Antique creation, one must ask who was able to create such a statue? La Regina's objection seems to be that the statue was cast whole, but there is no evidence of Medieval bronzes cast whole of this size and quality.

Previous claims have tried to date the creation of the She-Wolf to the time before the sources place her outside the Lateran Palace, meaning that she must be a Carolingian work. The problem with this, is that one must wonder why such emphasis was placed in Carolingian sources on Charlemagne's re-creation of the Lateran with a Lupercalia outside, if there was no Lupercalia outside the Roman palace he was imitating. And there is no evidence for anyone having the ability of cast such a piece at the time, and the nearest comprable work would be the great German Lion a couple of centuries later.

The only new suggestion I am seeing in the press coverage is that it was copied off a statue brought from Constantinople in 1204. Again, I would question whether the ability to cast such large pieces whole existed in 1200s Rome, and why there are no other examples of similar style in Medieval sculpture as comparanda.

Although many bronzes were brought back from Constantinople after the capture of the city in 1204, and we know that there was a Roman Lupercalia in the Hippodrome in Constantinople which seems to have survived to the time of the Fourth Crusade ... The Capitoline Lupercalia seems to have been outside the Lateran Palace in Rome before then.

Hagia Sophia - a Mosque?

2011-11-20T17:10:00.000Z

There have been a few stories circulating that Haghia Sophia in Istanbul might be turned into a mosque, for example: Is it Santa Sofia in Istanbul's turn now? - La Stampa

The news, or rather the hypothesis, comes from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where a few days ago, the newspaper "Sabah" dedicated an article to the situation, stating that Santa Sofia could be used again as a place for Islamic worship, overturning the decision made by Turkey under Kemal Ataturk. The newspaper reported that there are building works underway to bring it about. Amongst the restoration work there are plans to construct a "mimbar", the pulpit or raised platform from which the Imam guides the prayer and gives the Friday sermon, the most important moment of prayer in the Muslim week. What could a mimbar be used for if not for the "active" Islamic use of the ex-cathedral?

I have not been to Haghia Sophia in Istanbul since May, so these comments may be out of date, but ... Yes, there was some work going on, but it looked like normal restoration work. There is no need to construct a minbar, because there is already an Ottoman one in the building, from the centuries it was used as a mosque.

Haghia Sophia in Istanbul is a very popular tourist destination, whose tickets sales raise a huge amount in revenue - I find it as unlikely that it will be turned back into a mosque. Similarly, I'd bet money that the various Greek campaigns to turn it back into an Orthodox church will fail.

This nonsense of a story seems to have begun again because the church of Haghia Sophia in Iznik, ancient Nicea, is being used as a mosque following restoration (my 2007 photos here). Although the church is important in the history of Christianity, as this is where the first Ecumenical Council was held, I'm not sure what the big fuss is about - there are not enough Christians to justify using it as a church, nor enough tourists to keep it full-time as a museum. To continue to use it as a mosque, its use since the Ottoman conquest, makes sense and does not stop people from visiting it.

Whither The Popular Archeology Magazines?

2011-11-19T21:09:00.005Z

It's a discussion I keep having with people, and maybe readers have an answer - why are there plenty of good popular archaeology / ancient history magazines each month in French and Italian, but not in English? I used to love picking them up at the Louvre bookshop, where one could buy old issues on special topics, not just current ones. And if you're thinking "but that's the Louvre!" you'd be wrong, because I could also pick up current editions in Valbonne, a little village in France.

L'Archeo Thema, which from its web site seems to be Swiss, and bi-monthly, is currently covering the archeology of Tripolitania, the western half of Libya.

(What's interesting is that one can subscribe to Archeo Thema - Revue Archeologie et Histoire in the US via Amazon, but not in the UK!)

In the Autumn following 9/11, as US forces went into Afghanistan, one of the French archaeology magazines devoted an issue to Afghan history and archaeology. It was interesting, in depth, and far more interesting than similar stories in British newspapers and magazines.

Looking on Amazon US, I see one can subscribe to a number of English language popular archaeology magazines, but outside museums I've only ever seen Archaeology magazine in a few of the larger Barnes and Noble book stores.

If you're in the US, then the AIA's Archaeology magazine is probably the best choice - you can subscribe via their web site (here - it's cheaper than via Amazon, and all the money supports their work).

In the UK, I went to a few museum bookshops and the large magazine section at Selfridge's and there was only one archaeology magazine available - the Australian Archaeological Diggings. I bought a copy, and it was ... charmingly amateur, reading like an enthusiastic club newsletter. I mean that as a compliment, but I did wonder how this little Ozzie magazine managed to get distributed in the UK, but no other magazine.

There are a few UK based archaeology magazines, but I never see them for sale, and I'm not going to subscribe if I don't know what I'm getting, so others probably won't either.

The best know popular archaeology magazine in the UK is supposedly the monthly Current Archaeology, which is very much 'hands in the dirt' archaeology rather than artefacts as art, and only covers the UK. The same publishers have also launched a bi-monthly World Archaeology covering non-UK archaeology.

I tend to recommend Minerva Magazine instead, as it seems easier for people to approach, with less anti-collecting preaching, but its articles are basic and there's a lot of pro-antiquities market coverage. It's bi-monthly, and covers on their web site show it's trying to target new readers through interviews with Tony Robinson, Bettany Hughes, etc.

I should probably also mention Biblical Archaeology Review in the US, but ... I'd almost rather not. They have driven me nuts with stories about Solomon being admired by the Romans at Pompei, and Vesuvius' eruption in AD 79 being punishment for the Romans' destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 (why does God have to wait nine whole years, I ask you?!?) ... and the photo to the left seems to have led to an article in the current issue titled "A Menorah at Persepolis?" ... If you want to wind an archaeologist up, just tell them about an article you've read in BAR ...

Ancient Warfare is a magazine friends in the field - Adrian Goldsworthy, Adrian Murdoch, etc - had spoken highly of. Again, I never see it for sale, but I ordered their Gaius Marius special issue through their web site, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was popular, but interesting - and I loved that one can order single issues, pay using PayPal, which arrived within days.

What I find fascinating is that there is a demand for specialist magazines: my local newsagents in London stock the Council of Foreign Relations' Foreign Affairs, and Selfridges stocks dozen of specialist art magazines ... but despite the popularity of ancient history and archaeology, there is no popular archaeology / ancient history magazine easily available.

If anyone out there is thinking of starting one up - a few people have expressed interest in passing - then why not try the online rather than print format? It worked for Lonny magazine, a purely online 'shelter' magazine set up by some editors from magazines that were closed down, it looks as good as any 'real' magazine out there, and it makes money through advertising.

Updates:

Coincidentally, David Meadows just mentionned a new online only magazine, Worldwide Archaeology Magazine, which can be downloaded as a PDF ... The first issue is charming, but I suspect the National Geographic won't be quaking in its boots.

Daniel Pett reminded me to add the bi-monthly British Archaeology, which is available at WH Smiths (although I've never seen it for sale there, and there are fewer and fewer branches of Smiths these days).

A comment was left about KMT A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, which looks interesting, but again, I have to admit I've never seen a copy of it.

A few people have emailed in with other suggestions, mostly online journals - very different from popular magazines - and web sites, and with explanations of why it's a pain in the neck running a journal / magazine, but the point remains - there are lots of English language magazines, but most of them are quite niche, and none other than Archaelogy comes close to the standard of the French magazine.

Christie's December Antiquities Sale

2011-11-19T18:43:00.001Z

Provenances can get lost over the years, as I've said again and again, or sellers might not want people to know they're having to sell items, so their names are not listed. But plenty of antiquities go through the art market with provenances that turn out to be a figment of the seller's imagination, designed to deliberately conceal the fact that the items were looted. I'm not saying that these items were looted. But I'd like to see a little more information about the provenances of some of these items.

Palmyrene sculpture pretty much only comes from Palmyra in Syria. Although odd examples have been found at other Syrian cities, and cities linked by trade to Palmyra such as Hatra in NW Iraq (JSTOR), Palmyrene sculpture comes from a pretty limited geographical area, and unlike, for example, Attic vases, was not traded widely. The style is pretty distinctive (for a summary see here), and this makes it easy to identify examples and to state that they almost certainly originated at Palmyra - just as Cypriot sculptures almost certainly came from Cyprus. Palmyrene sculptures have long been collected, and most large Western collections have good examples of them.

An inscription of Julius Aurelius Zebeida was recorded at Palmyra in the 18th century, so it was interesting to see this relief for sale at Christie's NY (Lot 24) of "Masheku, son of Zebeida, son of Zebeida, Alas!"

My problem is that the provenance has too many red flags:

"Private Collection, Lebanon, early 1980s.
Acquired by the current owner in Geneva, 2007"

Many antiquities were smuggled through the Lebanon during it's civil war, and had dodgy documents issued there. This piece may have been legally exported from Syria to Lebanon, and then legally exported from Lebanon to Switzerland, but I'd want to know a bit more information about the provenance of this funerary relief.

Greek vases on the other hand, although made in Greece, particularly Athens, were mostly found intact in Etruscan tombs in Italy - hence why so many American museums and collectors were forced to return vases looted and sold by Giacomo Medici to Italy rather than Greece. But unlike Palmyrene sculpture, an Attic black figure vase could in theory have been found anywhere around the Mediterranean or Black Sea, or possibly even traded as far as Germany.

Projects such as the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum mean that the majority of Greek and Apulian vases are published, so a lack of a publication in many ways raises as many questions with a vase as lack of a provenance, pariticularly when it comes to Southern Italian vases.

Luckily this amphora (Christie's Lot 69) has both: the provenance goes back to "William Randolph Hearst, San Simeon, California" (he bought most of his vases from old UK collections, so I suspect this could be pushed back into the 19th century with a little research), and it was published in "J.D. Beazley, Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters, Oxford, 1956, p. 605."

This Attic red figure cup attributed to the Tarquinia painter (Lot 109) has a collecting history going back to the 19th century:

"Said to be found in Etruria, possibly Tarquinia.
British government official, stationed in Italy, circa 1870; thence by descent, England.
Private Collection, England, circa 1923.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 14 November 1966, lot 120.
with Charles Ede, London, circa 1990."

I wish we had the name of the British official who bought it in Italy, but like that the seller is named:
"THE PROPERTY OF THOMAS C. SIMIELE, OHIO"
And cup also has three publications:

"J.D. Beazley, Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, p. 427, no. 77bis.
J.-L. Durand and F. Lissarrague, "Un Lieu d'Image?, L'espace du louterion," in Hephaistos 2, 1990, p. 98, fig. 14.
T.H. Carpenter, Beazley Addenda, Oxford, 1989, p. 300.
Beazley Archive Database no. 276018."

Most of the provenances at this Christie's New York sale of Antiquities seem more solid that those in recent Christie's London sales, probably because the department is run by people who have experience.

This little white figure lekythos (Lot 112) attributed to the Quadrate Painter is in terrible condition, and doesn't look like much ... but it appeals to me because it was formerly in the collection of the painter Oskar Kokoschka. Kokoschka is well known today as a painter, but people often forget that before he fled the Nazis (they'd branded him a degenerate artist), he had also been a playwright, writing several plays based on Classical themes such as Orpheus and Eurydike.

We tend to forget that Greek pottery was created as a cheaper imitation of bronze and silver vessels - Alexander the Great would have drunk out of a silver cup, not a clay Attic one. The problem with metal vessels is that they could be melted down, and often were, so very few survive. Silver vessels without a solid provenance are the cause of great suspicion - for example the Sevso Hoard.

Again, I want to be clear that I am not saying this Greek 5th century silver cup (Lot 114) is looted - but if I were a collector or a museum bidding in the million dollar range for it, then I'd want something far more substantial as a provenance than these claims:

"Private Collection, Geneva.
Art Market, London.
Private Collection, U.S., 1996.
with Phoenix Ancient Art, New York and Geneva, 2008 (Crystal III, pp. 58-60)."

The only solid piece of information the provenance gives is that the cup was offered for sale by Phoenix in 2008, a dealer which has had questions raised about the provenances of several other pieces which have passed through their hands. It's all very nice quoting Herodotus in the 'Lot Notes' but it would be far more useful to know where this cup was pre 2008, and ideally pre 1970.

This bronze figuring (Lot 157) is said to be early 1st century BC and said to depict Mithradates VI ... The Christie's Lot Notes explain why this is a portrait of Mithradates VI:

"A passionate philhellene, Mithradates identified himself with Alexander the Great. This accounts for the style and stance of this bronze figure, relating closely to Lyssipan depictions of Alexander, such as the bronze in the Harvard University Art Museum, no. 38, p. 118 in Yalouris, et al., The Search for Alexander, an Exhibition, thought to represent the now-lost Lyssipan Alexander with a Lance. Like Alexander, Mithradates is shown here likely once holding the lance in his left hand.
For a marble head of Mithradates with similar wildly touseled tresses, see no. 84, pl. 52,3-4 in Smith, Hellenistic Royal Portraits, and on coinage, figs. 207-209 in Davis and Kraay, THe Hellenistic Kingdoms, Portrait Coins and History."

I know I'm probably just being my usual cynical self, but ... I can't see the great resemblance between this statuette portrait and the one in Smith, but ... there's a nice little academic article by Jakob Munk Hotje about portraits of this enemy of Rome, available online which illustrates most of the possible Portraits and Statues of Mithridates VI ... so maybe you can spot the resemblance I'm missing. (For more articles about him from the same book, see here).

And no sale would be complete without a Cleopatra, though in this case it's a little silver head of Cleopatra Selene (Lot 174).

It is similar enough to the Boscoreale emblema dish now in the Louvre (photo below) for one to assume that they are the same sitter, and the crescent preserved in the Louvre piece makes it possible that Cleopatra Selene, queen of Mauretania, daughter of the more famous Cleopatra VII of Egypt, is indeed depicted. The cornucopia she holds is associated with the ruler-cult of Ptolemaic queens from the time of Arsinoe II onwards (Arsinoe can be identified because she was the only queen that held a doubole cornucopia).

The Louvre catalogue is more careful attributing, calling their dish (left), excavated in 1895, as an allegory or possibly Cleopatra VII or Cleopatra Selene. We know that the villa della Pisanella was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, and scholars date the Boscoreale Treasure to the time of Augustus or Tiberius.

The portrait found at Cherchel, and mentioned in the Christie's Lot Notes is confusing, as there were in fact two portraits found there, one of which is believed to be one of the few certain Greek-style portraits of Cleopatra VII, and another of which is sometimes assigned to Cleopatra Selene (or sometimes a man - see plate 4 here), and which does look like the little head Christie's is selling.

If I were a collector, I'd want this in my collection. If the Christie's figure is genuine - and when it looks too good to be true, I bet someone will be asking Jack Ogden before they bid $2-3m - it still has issues of lack of any real provenance. It's apparently the property of a New York private collector, who presumably bought it on the "Art Market, New York, 1996." ... It strikes me as a little odd that the dealer he bought it off is not listed, and I'd want a hell of a lot more information about the provenance of such an important piece.

Padre Pio 'used carbolic acid to make stigmata'?

2011-11-16T20:46:00.001Z

The stigmata where wounds appear on the palms of the hands and on the feet is a phenomenon seen from the Medieval period onwards. The would are meant to be in imitation of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, although we know that people were crucified with nails through the wrists not the palms.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062103/Padre-Pio-used-carbolic-acid-make-stigmata.html

The return of the neo-Nazis

2011-11-16T20:32:00.001Z

Interesting story about a Neo-Nazi group in Germany, that was "allowed" to grow to the point that it murdered a number of people of non-Aryan origin.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2011/11/2011111683726365533.html?utm_content=automateplus&utm_campaign=Trial6&utm_source=SocialFlow&utm_medium=MasterAccount&utm_term=tweets

Tweet from @bonesdonotlie

2011-11-16T20:11:00.001Z

@bonesdonotlie: Do you think Bones Don't Lie is valid scholarship? If yes, support my blog on my new Endorsements page: http://j.mp/vymmMU Thanks!

I'm not sure to what extent a blog is scholarship - as opposed to some ideas - but if you like her blog, then endorse her!

All I want for Christmas ...

2011-11-16T15:42:00.001Z

... Is a 13th century Italian castle built by Frederick II. (Though right now I'd swap it for a few bowls of chicken soup). The castle is lovely, typical of his style, with the addition of Angevin towers. I'm not sure if the collection of antiquities is included in the sale price.

http://www.medievalists.net/2011/11/16/13th-century-italian-castle-for-sale/

Hixenbaugh Ancient Art: Neo-Assyrian Royal Armor

2011-11-15T13:45:00.001Z

I've never heard of the dealer, but the armour has a good provenance going back to 1960, it seems.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/11/15/prweb8965097.DTL

The only Arabic Crusader inscription ever found

2011-11-15T12:07:00.002Z

It dates from 1229, and mentions Frederick II - the Holy Roman Emperor who crowned himself King of Jerusalem. The inscription was found in 2008 at Jaffa, but thought to be Ottoman because it is written in Arabic, so was deemed a low priority - now that someone has read it, they realised that it was the only know Crusader inscription written in Arabic.

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Early+History+-+Archaeology/Crusader_inscription_Arabic_14-Nov-2011.htm

And then she ...

2011-11-14T21:55:00.001Z

Caesar wrote the story of his Wars in the third person. As did Pius II, the only pope to write an auto-biography (although since he published it under a pseudonym, his use of the third person is less surprising).

Having been trying to write up a vita for a publisher, it's so much easier to write about someone 'else' - and frankly given the nuts in my close family (psychopath, war criminal, etc), I'm half wondering if I can write in the third person too and pretend they're nothing to do with me!

"On Monday Dorothy decided that she'd had enough of reading through DoJ War Crimes files, and found herself faced with a stark choice: let the dog invade the garden, or open a box of chocolates ..."

The Wisdom to Know it’s not Solomon …

2011-11-11T18:08:00.001Z

One of my pet hates is when people try to give every portrait out there a “name” – and I’m highly skeptical of the identities given to most Juli0-Claudian portraits, for example “Drusus” or “Germanicus” … unless the images bears a clear ancient label, it’s purely speculation who’s represented. Don’t get me wrong, academia is largely based on speculation and discussion, and this is how scholarship moves forward, but that doesn’t mean we’re as certain as we like to make out.

The same can be said when it comes to iconography – some scenes are obvious, but others are not.

In an article in BAR by Theodore Feder (written in 2008), there were some “new” claims made about this fresco found in the House of the Physician in Pompeii (VIII 5,24; now Naples Museum).

Feder has “re-interpreted” it as representing Socrates and Aristotle watching Solomon adjudicating between two women claiming the same baby – a scene known as the Judgement of Solomon in later art, and one of the prime examples of the Wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 3:16–28). Socrates and Aristotle were two Classical Greek philosophers, Solomon was an Israelite Bronze Age king, and the fresco is in a Roman town. For me that makes the inclusion of a figure such as Solomon very unlikely, unless the owner of the house was Jewish – and nothing else excavated there would suggest that the owner was, as Feder himself admits.

Feder goes on to claim that “The presence of the two ancient philosophers … reveals the great respect that Greek philosophy could have accorded to Hebrew wisdom in the ancient world” … please note the use of the word “could” because, oh, aliens “could” have built the pyramids and then migrated to Atlantis. And pigs “could” fly if they had wings.

Did I mention that his Aristotle, Socrates and Solomon are all pygmies? It’s mean to be a humorous scene on a podium decorated with fresco scenes of pygmies. In another panel they battle crocodiles and hippopotami, whilst in a third they process along the banks of a river (images here).

The crocodiles and pygmies, along with a large river, make it clear that the scenes depicted are set in Egypt. These sorts of scenes that poke fun at Egypt began as anti-Cleopatra propaganda in the 30s BC, and continued after she and Antony had been defeated at the Battle of Actium (31 BC).

I wish I could have found a better picture, but you’ll have to take my word for it that in Feder’s panel there does seem to be a man with authority and a baby. It sounds like the Judgement of Solomon, but it’s not. There are two soldiers who look as if they’re about to hack something to death, possibly a baby, possibly a side of lamb:

But there is only one “mother” pleading with “Solomon” not two …

… and I know I may be on slightly tenuous ground here, since the scene has been identified as the Judgement of Solomon since the 19th century, but … the figure looks like a man to me, so is more likely to be a “father” pleading for his child’s life.

It’s impossible to be certain what the scene represented, but since it involved Egypt and a Judgement, a better suggestions is an Egyptian Pharaoh famous for his wisdom – Bocchoris.

Bocchoris, known as Bakenranef, was a pharaoh who reigned very briefly for five or six years around 720 BC. In terms of Egyptian history he is almost irrelevant – an upstart against the Nubians who briefly controlled the western Delta as the sole ruler of the 24th Dynasty – and only recorded once, as far as I am aware, in the Egyptian archaeological record (an inscription recording an Apis Bull, image):

Pharaoh Bocchoris may have been a non-entity in Egypt, but, probably because of contact with traders from Greece, he became famed for his wisdom and known as one of the great law-givers of Egypt. More ancient sources mention him than Solomon and Jesus Christ combined.

What’s interesting is that this contact with the Greeks and Phoenicians is recorded in the archaeological record. The first Greek colony was set up by Euboeans at Pithecusae (Ischia), and in the cemetery there has yielded a high number of Egyptian items from the 8th century BC. Grave 325, an inhumation of a 3 year old girl and a 10 year old boy, included a scarab of Bocchoris (image):

We can deduce from ancient literary sources that this colony was founded by the Euboeans around 775 BC, and the dateable Egyptian finds help to confirm this chronology, as well as the chronology of early Greek vase painting – for example the two Early ProtoCorinthian aryballoi found in the grave.

Slightly more problematic are two situlae bearing the name of Bocchoris found at Tarquinia and Motya. The first was found in the late 19th century in a tomb, which became known as the Tomb of Bocchoris at Tarquinia and was used as one of the fixed points around which to build a chronology of Etruscan tomb painting:

The faience vessel found at Motya, a Punic colony, is almost identical. These vessels were originally thought to be of Egyptian manufacture, but an increasing number of scholars see them as having been made in Phoenicia, and opinion remains divided.

Fresco scenes in the Black Triclinium of the Roman villa under the Farnesina in Rome, and now in the Terme, have been convincingly argued to have represented Bocchoris (see Ling), so he seems the most likely candidate for the Pompeian scene – but it could equally well be a scene from a lost play set in Egypt.

Stolen in 1818 ...

2011-11-09T19:16:00.000Z

I've always had a soft spot for the French painter Nicholas Tournier, so I was fascinated to hear that this painting, stolen from a French church in 1818, had been seized by the French government in Paris off the London art dealers Weiss.

A friend that works for an Old Master gallery and I were discussing it yesterday, and neither of us had heard of a similar case. The painting was stolen almost two hundred years ago, and seems to have passed through the hands of several well known dealers this year.

To add spice to the story, there were questions recently concerning its authenticity. Tournier was only 'rediscovered' in recent decades, with the first retrospective in 2001 in Toulouse, but he was popular in his day and widely copied in the years after his death. The extent of his studio production is still not entirely clear.
My guess is the possession is nine tenths of the law, but since there is no precedent, what will happen to the painting is anyone's guess.

Arghh ...

2011-11-08T12:04:00.000Z

I've agreed to be sold off to raise funds for a charity. Or rather a few hours of my time ... And now I'm having nightmares that no-one is going to bid for me ...

The Gates of Jerusalem

2011-11-07T19:02:00.000Z

Fascinating 19th century colour photographs of the gates of the city of Jerusalem - many of these Ottoman gates were damaged in the 1940s, and these are the only early colour photos I've seen of them.

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2011/11/new-photos-added-to-gates-of-jerusalem.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+israeldailypicture%2FXPzN+%28Picture+a+Day%29

Returned to Iran

2011-11-07T18:58:00.000Z

It's good to see that articles stolen from Jiroft have gone back to Iran.

http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1049.html

Damnatio Memoriae: Geta

2011-11-05T16:31:00.001Z

Damnatio memoriae is one of those interesting concept debated by scholars - to what extent did emperors try to remove records of predecessors they disliked? The memory of Agrippina, for example, is meant to have been removed from the record, but archaeologists suspect that this meant her statues were removed from public view and stored in warehouses rather than destroyed as there are almost more examples of them than of any other empress.

Geta is one of the few emperors whom we are sure suffered damnatio memoriae - his name was erased from an inscription found at Matilo (Leiden), his image was erased from a tondo depicting the family of Septimus Severus ... and now another inscription has been found from Alba Iulia in Romania, where again Caracalla erased the name of the brother he'd had murdered (news story). Although the name was crudely scratched out in the Leiden inscription, the photo above of the Romanian inscription shows that it was neatly erased, and so as a result of an official measure rather than a mob reaction.

I do believe that a lot of the destruction of sculptures may well have been by 'mobs' in Antiquity, just as it is today - for example Saddam in Iraq, and more recently statues of Gaddafi in Libya this summer - but when the destruction was on official monuments we can be sure that it was endorsed by the emperor and his regime. Another example of a 'vanished' Geta is this panel from the Arch of the Argentari in the Roman Forum, which today only shows Caracalla making an offering; the 'shaddow' behind him outlines the body of Geta which was cut away.

More about the damnatio memoriae of Geta can be found here (pp. 168 ff).

Wooden Greek Statues

2011-11-05T16:04:00.000Z

I was rather excited to see a recent story in the Athens News - Vravrona sanctuary yields rare wooden votives - and had been hoping that more photos would emerge of the finds:

Perhaps most impressive in the deposit are wooden objects, including the head and upper torso of a female figurine (ca 500-450BC) wearing a peplos, or body-length garment, and a headscarf over ornately curled hair, with traces of red pigment. Also discovered among the wooden finds are fragments of ceramic vessels and flattened pieces of wood, perhaps from plank-shaped figurines.

Vravrona is of course Brauron, which was famous in Antiquity for its temple of Artemis. Although Egyptian sculptures in wood survive, almost none from Greece do, because of the different climate. Wood was used not just for some of the famous old cult statues known as Xoana - the statue of Athena in the Erechtheion, the statue of Artemis at Brauron - but also for lesser objects. Small wooden sculptures have been found at Brauron in the past (see photos here).

The Antiquities Trade and Collectors

2011-11-03T19:31:00.002Z

This Forbes article (link below) gives Peter Aldrich's ideas on antiquities from the view-point of a collector. I don't agree with the feasibility of most of his suggestions, but it's important to keep the debate going about how to clean up the antiquities market.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2011/11/01/theres-big-money-and-the-need-for-reform-in-the-antiquities-trade/

I had a chat recently with a journalist writing a piece about collecting antiquities for the FT. We stuck to discussing the collectors who had chosen to make their collections public - Leon Levy & Shelby White, George Ortiz, Christian Levett - and how attitudes of collectors to looters had changed.
There's a lot of 'bad press' about collectors on some blogs, seemingly linking them directly to looting. The truth is that most collectors are trying to go out of their way to buy material that was not looted, and they know that if items turn out to be looted they'll have to return them - and will loose the money they paid for the item. So in financial terms it's simply not worth buying smuggled art.
Mrs White has returned a few items to Greece and Italy in recent years, but as a percentage of the collection she and her late husband put together, this is minute. She and her husband have funded excavations, publications and a great deal of scholarship - although her critics tend to forget this.
Levett is actively collecting on a large scale, and going out of his way to buy pieces with solid provenances: he's also displaying part of his collection in his Mougins Museum of Classical Art, so clearly feels secure in his belief that they were not looted.
I took the time out to wonder, if I were a collector, what would I do differently, because we academics always like to critique how we'd do things better ... But as much as I hate to admit it Levett's a model collector, doing it by the book.
There are some dodgy collectors out there buying pieces they know to have been dug up clandestinely and smuggled, but most of those are, as far as I'm aware, in the Middle East and Asia (notably Japan). No serious Western collector would, for example, go near any of the antiquities recently looted from Benghazi.

Top Five Reasons for Disturbing a Burial

2011-11-03T18:19:00.001Z

Interesting post on why graves are disturbed - and although grave robbing has been going for almost as long as we've had record (see the Abbott Papyrus from Egypt in the BM), there are other reasons ... Including stopping the undead from rising again!

http://bonesdontlie.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/top-five-reasons-for-disturbing-a-burial/

Christie's Head: update

2011-10-31T18:03:00.001Z

The head I blogged briefly about (here and here) - enough to push Christie's into doing something rather than ignoring us - is back in Libya.

Head sold at Christie’s stolen from Libya - The Art Newspaper:

At the time of the sale, an archaeologist contacted Christie’s to warn that lot 261 was the head of a statue at the Sabratha Museum, west of Tripoli; it had been detached and stolen in 1990.

A Christie’s spokesman said: “Additional information was brought to our attention after the auction. We subsequently cancelled the sale and are assisting all relevant bodies with the return of this object.”

I thought Christie's should have withdrawn the lot when they were informed of issues with the piece before the auction, but instead the department chose to ignore proof it was stolen and stone-wall ... oh well, at least it's home. I did some of the pushing on this head, but the vast majority of the work was done by the brilliant Hafed Walda.

Antiquities Missing From Libya

2011-10-31T16:37:00.012Z

A great deal is being written about the missing "Benghazi Treasure" so I thought it might be worth doing a quick blog post about it. I was sent photos of some items, but mostly these were scans of old photocopies of old reports, with highly unhelpful descriptions ("lots of coins") and photos which are useless in trying to identify the items (one rusty old arrow head looks pretty much like another after the photograph has been photocopied a few times ...).

Firstly, the Benghazi Treasure does not come from Benghazi - it was stored there after the Italians who'd originally excavated it returned it. It was stored in two old wooden military chests in the bank, and the inventories I've been shown suggest that many of the coins went missing between the time the excavators found the items, and then between the time they handed the chests over to the Libyans, and ... well, the last time someone did an inventory and typed it up using an old typewriter. Most of the coins were still there 'then' (at the time of the last inventory) and included some 700 silver coins, more in bronze, but none in gold. The coins dated from the Hellenistic to Islamic periods, and were not found together, so were not a 'treasure' in the sense of having been found together, but rather were gathered together by various excavators over decades.

The published pieces, illustrated in this post, all come from the temple of Artemis at Cyrene.

I'm not trying to downplay the issue of looting, but from a logistical point of view very few of the other items were photographed, and those that were tend to be relatively minor and so will be hard to identify should they appear on the open market. The bronze eagle above, some 10 cm high, is not particularly distinctive. These black jugs are ancient but of a very common form, and so will be hard to spot:

Ditto this black glazed lamp:

The graffiti on these should make them easier to identify:

As should the decoration on these:

I love the shape of this little Proto-Corinthian pot!

This is one of the gold pieces in the Treasure: a circa 5 cm long foil plaque depicting a battle scene. There are very few Archaic gold plaques that have been excavated, so if it has not already been melted down, hopefully someone will spot it soon:

This jewellery, particularly the acorns and the siren pendant, should be reasonably distinctive and easy to spot if they appear on the art market:

These pieces are gilded silver:

One part of the "Benghazi Treasure" was found together, at the temple of Artemis within the sanctuary of Apollo at Cyrene. It was excavated between 1928 and 1930 by the Italians, and they found a votive deposit dating from the 7th and 6th centuries BC under the later Classical temple of Artemis. The gold plaque was found in this deposit, along with pottery such as this proto-Corinthian skythos:

From the Classical temple of Artemis, built at the end of the 5th or beginning of the 4th century, comes a nice series of terracotta votives dating to the 5th and 4th centuries, which were found in the treasury on the north side of the temple. There were nine figures in all, depicted seated (one may have been standing); although other treasures were deposited there, including a limestone head, these terracottas have the advantage of having been photographed and published in L. Pernier, "L'Artemision di Cirene," in Africa Italiana 1931:4, p. 217, fig. 37; p. 218, fig. 38 (see also here).

This figure is described as standing:

The "Benghazi Treasure" is an amalgam of various finds made by the Italians in Libya, which they displayed for years in the the Museo Coloniale of Italian Africa in Rome, and returned to Libya in 1961. It's been sitting in the bank since then, largely forgotten, which is why Libyan archaeologists suspect the theft was an inside job. Very few of the pieces were published, but some were, and hopefully this will help identify them ... oh, and the 'good' thing about Mussolini isn't just that he made the trains run on time, but also that he published a whole journal devoted to what he described as Italian Africa (available online here), so if I had a bit more time to plough through the series I'm sure I could find photos of more of the missing items, such as the glass necklace in the photo with the terracotta heads:

And this is the missing limestone head:

And this bronze handle was also from the treasury:

Some Phoenician beads excavated at the site attest an earlier pre-Greek phase:

As do these Egyptian faience scarabs and eye:

Small finds of amber and cornelian, and glass: notable is the small oil lamp which is made of silver:

The bone and ivory finds:

The gold plaque probably originally decorated a scabbard, and this photo is of a cast taken from it:

Hmmm ... I have to admit, it wasn't all that hard to find these images online, so at this point I'm beginning to smell a rat when it comes to Libyan archaeologists claiming the pieces stolen were unpublished and unphotographed - the coins were, but the treasures from the temple of Artemis at Cyrene ARE published.

Update - some of the coins were photographed in Italia Numismatica, 10 October 1958. I don't have access to it, but those buying coins from Cyrene should check it to make sure they are not buying looted coins. It's not clear if the modern photos to the right are of the looted coins or of similar ones:

Also, Paul Bennett, head of The Society for Libyan Studies, emailed me via a colleague to say that the items in this post from the temple of Artemis at Cyrene were not looted from Benghazi. Since UNESCO and Interpol, as well as Libyan archaeologists, say they were, I feel it's better to leave the photos up until he can provide evidence to support this.

BBC News - Looted Libyan treasure 'in Egypt'

2011-10-31T09:20:00.001Z

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15517886

Tweet from @BoneGirlPhD

2011-10-26T21:27:00.001+01:00

@BoneGirlPhD: News on the excavation of the House of Augustus in Rome (with spiffy pictures)! - http://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/10/26/news/ecco_la_domus_di_augusto_la_casa_natale_del_primo_imperatore-23861989/

Libyan Capital Museum Reopens

2011-10-19T18:51:00.001+01:00

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/11/171315.html

A Second Temple Mikveh at Tzora

2011-10-12T12:13:00.000+01:00

For more information, see the IAA press release, copied below.

A Ritual Bath (Miqve) dating to the Second Temple Period was Discovered near Kibbutz Zor'a

Within the framework of an archaeological excavation of the Israel Antiquities Authority, prior to the installation of a water line by the Mekorot Company
The exposure of the bath corroborates historical sources that indicated the existence of a Jewish settlement in the region

A plastered building, probably a ritual bath (miqve), dating to the Second Temple period (first century BCE-first century CE) was exposed in an archaeological excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority conducted prior to the installation of a water line by the Mekorot Company at an antiquities site, c. 2 kilometers north of Kibbutz Zor'a.

The excavation revealed a square structure that has three walls treated with a thin layer of plaster that facilitated the storage of water. A channel used to drain water into the ritual bath was installed in a corner. In addition, a plaster floor and three stairs that descend from it to the west (toward the hewn openings in the bedrock) were exposed.

According to archaeologist Pablo Betzer, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “This is the first time that any remains dating to the Second Temple period have been exposed in this region. We knew from the Talmud and from non-Jewish sources that on this ridge, as in most of the Judean Shephelah, there was an extensive Jewish community 2,000 years ago that existed until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Yet despite the many surveys and excavations that have been carried out to date no remains from this period have been discovered so far”. According to Betzer the name of the Jewish settlement that the ritual bath belonged to is still unknown.

Mekorot reports that the building was discovered while modernizing the water supply system first built in the 1950s in the region between Kefar Uriyya and Moshav Yish'i, in a project slated to cost 20 million NIS. During the course of all the infrastructure work Mekorot fully cooperated with the Israel Antiquities Authority out of a commitment to the values of tradition and history. Mekorot also stated that the discovery will not affect the project’s timetable and that the work will be completed on schedule.

In order to preserve the discovery Mekorot has agreed to change the location of the slated water line.

Hercules Re-United

2011-10-12T11:46:00.000+01:00

Two fragments of a statue of Heracles, excavated at Perge in Southern Turkey have finally been re-united at Antalya Museum - twenty years after they should have been, but that's what happens when someone loots a site, sells half the statue to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the MFA buries its head in the sand an refuses to return "its" half ... I still don't understand how anyone at the MFA thought they could justify keeping a clearly looted piece, and hiding behind the dealer's clearly faked provenance.

Reunited with other half, Heracles goes on display - Today's Zaman

A Medieval Witch?

2011-10-06T16:59:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure if it's archaeologists getting lucky, or just the media being more interested, but we've been getting press coverage of another strange burial from a Medieval cemetery at Piombino in Tuscany, Italy.

Two bodies in particular interested the excavators, both of women. One was found buried with 17 dice, and since women were not allowed to play dice games at the time, they interpreted her as a having been a prostitute - which seems like a bit of a stretch in my opinion.

The second body was far more interesting ...

Seven nails were placed in her mouth - reminiscent of the placing of stones in the Medieval 'zombies' in Ireland and the Medieval 'vampires' in Bohemia. Presumably this was an attempt to stop the women rising and returning from the dead. Yet in addition, in this Italian burial, the woman's clothes were nailed to the ground by 13 nails, to further 'hold' her down (see the yellow arrows indicating their positions):

Because of these highly unusual nails, the woman was identified initially as a witch. She died around AD 1300, aged 25 to 30, and was buried in the church yard amongst other citizens of Piombino who had been buried normally. Most of the other burials had a shroud and / or a simple coffin, but the 'prostitute' and the 'witch' had neither. The excavator, Prof Alfonso Forgione, of L'Aquila University, said he had never seen anything similar, and felt that the pinning down by nails was an attempt to stop her from 'rising' from the dead by those who buried her and who believed she had some sort of magical powers, making her a witch.

The fact that the two women were buried in the church graveyard, in consecrated ground, has been an issue, and led some to question whether a witch would be buried in this way. The Irish 'zombies' were certainly buried in a consecrated graveyard, as were many of the Bohemian and Moravian 'vampires' so I'm not sure why this should be an issue. It has however led at least one archaeologist to revise his opinion of the 'witch' burial and re-label her an 'adulteress' ... seven nails through the jaw and another 13 pinning her clothes down seem to be to be over-kill for an adulteress, but then again it was a pretty serious sin in the Medieval period.

The English language coverage has largely been in the Daily Mail (here), but if you want slightly more intelligent coverage, then I recommend UNC anthropologist Krista Killgrove's blog post on the burials (here), since she links to all the Italian coverage, and knows what she's talking about.

Ex Symes Pieces at Auction

2011-10-06T16:05:00.001+01:00

This morning Christie's in London included these two Archaic Greek protomes in their Antiquities auction as Lot 69. Their provenance was given as:

"Private collection, London, U.K. Private collection, USA; acquired in London, 1999."

Christie's failed to included in either the catalogue or as a saleroom notice during viewing, that the two heads passed through the hands of antiquities dealer Robin Symes.

We know that the two terracotta protomes passed through Symes' hands, because they are shown in this photo from his Schinoussa Archive found at his home on the eponymous Greek island by the authorities. The heads are mould-made, so initially I thought the Christie's heads were more heads from the same Southern Italian sanctuary, as they look a little different from those in the Schinoussa photo. But a quick look at their backs, seen in the photos I took below, confirmed that the heads Christie's were selling are the same heads as those that passed through Symes' hands ....

I wouldn't want to defend Christie's - whose experts rate very low on any scale of competence, in my opinion - but should they have withdrawn the lots once they knew they had passed through Symes' hands? I don't necessarily think so. Robin Symes was an incredibly dodgy dealer, and many looted pieces passed through his hands, but he also sold pieces that were not looted. And just because a photo is included in his archive does not mean that it was automatically dodgy as a two bob bit.
I do however feel that Christie's should have disclosed the Symes provenance, which became common knowledge before the auction, as one of the saleroom notices; it is common practice to include additional information that comes to light on a card next to the lot during viewing, and as a verbal saleroom notice during the auction. Christie's did neither.

Does it matter that they failed to do so? This time it did not, as the two heads failed to sell, being bought in at £ 32,000 after a bid on the books and a bid in the room failed to hit the reserve (the estimate was £ 40,000 to 60,0000). The dealers I chatted to didn't need to see the photos from the Schinoussa archive to feel uncomfortable with the heads. They are beautifully painted, early protomes but they are also mould-made, so if a dig in Southern Italy or Sicily, their probable provenance, turns up more heads from the same mould ... then the buyer will be forced to return them to Italy.

The market spoke - dealers didn't "buy" the provenance of the heads, so nobody chose to buy them.

Burials: Zombies vs Vampires

2011-09-18T15:44:00.003+01:00

This is a Renaissance woman in her 60s found a few years ago on Lazzaretto Nuovo off Venice - she'd died of plague, and been buried with a brick in her mouth, so the excavators suggested this was the only example found so far of the well attested by documents practise of burying suspected vampires in this manner. In 1576, when she was buried, the Venetians thought that the plague was spread by Vampires ...

I mentioned Mrs Vampire at the time of her discovery, as she was unusual not only for being a woman but also as a rather late example of such a burial. All other such 'vampire' burials were Medieval, and from Bohemia, the area of the former Czechoslovakia.

(An episode of Tomb Detectives covered vampire burials both in the early US and in Europe, but YouTube only allows US viewers to see it, so I have no idea if it's any good: YouTube preview here; US iTunes here)

In 1966, 10 km NE of Prague at Celakovice, 14 tenth century graves were found with some unusual characteristics: the corpses had been beheaded, and their mouths filled with earth and stones.

In August 1999 an early Medieval woman was excavated at Olomouc in Moravia. The other bodies in the cemetery were aligned East-West, as is the Christian custom, but hers was aligned North-South - in addition her wrists and ankles were tied together, and she was buried face down. Her position showed she was considered to have been damned by her contemporaries. Other bodies were found which had been dismembered, suggesting some similar anger against them.

It is difficult to be certain what those who buried these Damned in this way thought at the time, but the stones in the mouths and other deviant burials seem to have been to prevent the deceased from rising from the dead and bringing death back with them - there was no clear delineation between vampires rising from the dead and spreading death, and zombies doing so ... and both were described in sources as "living corpses" - but because these bodies were found in Central Europe, the home of the vampire myths, they were labelled as such by archaeologists.

The first recorded use of the term vampire was in 1047 to refer to a Russian prince and scientists now believe he may have been suffering from rabies. At some point the Bohemians switched to driving a stake through the hearts of vampires, but in the early period burials with a stone in the mouth were the accepted 'cure' to prevent them coming back to life. If you want to know more about these mostly 11th and 12th century "unusual" Bohemian and Moravian burials there is an article in German available here - some burials were head down (eg 3), others prone and on their sides. The problem is that this period is when the area was becoming Christian so some burials which seem unusual might be old pagan practices, and others a sort of desecration of pagan corpses by Christians.

The reason I've come back to the 'vampire' burials is that 8th century skeletons were just announced in Ireland, each with a stone in its mouth and hailed as a 'zombie' burial ...

The excavators believe that the stones were placed in the mouths of those being buried to stop the deceased from rising again and coming back to life. This makes them Zombies in the modern parlance, but would also qualify them to be classified as Vampires had they been found in Bohemia - because there is little differentiation between the two in the Medieval period (the differentiation and additional characteristics are modern.

The new Zombie bodies were found at Kilteasheen near Loch Key in County Roscommon, Ireland, in a cemetary used from the 7th to 14th centuries which contained some 3,000 skeletons in all, of which 137 have been excavated. Only two of the bodies had stones in their mouths. One was a man aged 40 to 60, the other a man in his early to mid 20s; they were buried next to each other, one on his back with a black stone, the other on his side.

The excavators describe Kilteasheen as:

The Kilteasheen Archaeological Project, run jointly by Christopher Read of IT Sligo and Dr. Thomas Finan of the University of St. Louis, has just entered its 6th year, its 5th funded by the Royal Irish Academy. After five seasons of excavation, the post‐excavation phase of the project has commenced. The excavation has revealed a complex, multi period site with Neolithic, Bronze Age, Early and Later Medieval components. This ecclesiastical site is mentioned frequently in the annals during the 13th century and is directly associated with the O’Conor kings of Connacht, clearly making it a high status site. The ruins of a small fortified building, a possible early Hall House, have been extensively explored and have been interpreted as the likely remains of the Bishop’s Palace built at the site in 1253 AD. This later use of the site appears to have been based on the site’s already established role as an Early Medieval enclosed settlement/cemetery. Over 120 skeletons have been excavated from a large, well managed cemetery, ranging in date from the 7th to 14th centuries AD. Hundreds of prehistoric lithics have been recovered from all medieval contexts and extensive field walking indicating the intensive use of the site during prehistory.

Did zombies roam medieval Ireland? Sleep on it - Discovery News

Revealed, Ireland's real-life zombie scare: Eighth century skeletons buried with stones in mouths - Daily Mail

The UK documentary from last week about the Irish skeletons was Revealed - Mysteries of the Vampire Skeletons. It's on YouTube not available in my country here or on the Channel 5 web site in the UK here.

Tripoli Museum Latest

2011-09-11T19:57:00.000+01:00

In Tripoli's museum of antiquity only Gaddafi is lost in revolution | Culture | The Guardian

Article by David Smith - everything seems safe except for Gaddafi memorabilia, which suffered.

(Quick disclaimer, not to boast, but to vouch that he has cred as a journalist - I put him in touch with Libyan archaeologist Hafed Walda, and Smith has been talking to archaeologist in Libya)

'Torah archaeology' sheds light on ancient Talmudic dispute

2011-09-09T11:13:00.001+01:00

'Torah archaeology' sheds light on ancient Talmudic dispute - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

The opening speaker, Chabad Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, brought several ancient coins to the conference, held in the Beit Bracha hall near Jerusalem's Mea She'arim neighborhood. Deutsch, who flew in from Brooklyn for the event, runs a museum that displays artifacts he acquired on the private market from the time of the Mishna. Also among the artifacts, he displayed an intact scale that he said had been recovered several weeks earlier from a sunken ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
The scale, he said, settled once and for all a dispute that has raged among Torah scholars for centuries: How much did the litra, a Talmudic measure, actually weigh? The answer: 354 grams, just as the 11th-century commentator Rashi claimed, and contrary to the opinion of other great medieval commentators such as the Rambam.

The Living Torah Museum sounds like an interesting project to educate people through archaeological artefacts - although obviously I wish we knew more about the context of the scales, it's always fascinating when archaeology sheds light on Disputes.

(via Jim Davila)

The Spoof : "Indiana Jones Not Accurate", Say Archaeological Society funny satire story

2011-09-04T15:06:00.000+01:00

The Spoof : "Indiana Jones Not Accurate", Say Archaeological Society funny satire story:

The American Association of Archaeologists has issued a statement to counteract what it calls "vicious lies and fallacies" about their work.

James Tukinluk, the head of the AAA, maintains from his post at Berkeley that "movies like Indiana Jones, and to a much lesser extent the Mummy series, give the impression that our line of work is a dangerous and exciting one, one where you get to fight Nazis and kill mummified pharaohs and the like, but the truth is far less interesting.

What the Temple Menorah Looked Like ...

2011-09-04T12:32:00.008+01:00

There is lots of evidence from the Second Temple and post-destruction periods to show what the seven-branched Temple Menorah looked like. I gathered it here and it clearly shows that the branched of the TM were higher than they were wide (ie a curved bottom of the branch, which they rose vertically).

I've ignored the Lead Codices which David Elkington - aka Paul Elkington - claims to have illegally smuggled out of Jordan because ... well, I figured that anyone with half a brain could tell they were bad fakes, and plenty of others who know more about early Judaism and Christianity have had plenty of fun de-bunking them already.

They may have been made of recycled ancient lead, but they ain't kosher by any stretch of the imagination. First they were marketed as ancient Jewish, then they became 'important' to early Christianity (there's probably more money in the latter).

But I thought I'd make the obvious archaeological comment that the menorah on this 'codex' (from their official Facebook group) is clearly wrong:

The lead whatever it is menorah copied the one from the Arch of Titus in Rome, with semi-circular branches:

Actually the Fake Codex menorah has branches which are wider than they are high, taking the mistake on the Arch of Titus a step further in it's development ....

Most solid, genuine ancient evidence for the Temple Menorah shows the branches as vertical, as here:

So, these are really badly researched fakes ... for more genuine images of the Temple Menorah, see my earlier post here - the "wide" menorah with branches that were semi-circles was a Byzantine creation, but I don't know of any genuine image where the branches were wider than they were high ...

UPDATE - looking at the photo used by the Daily Mail in their article about the codices, which is better, I realised it's not even the Temple Menorah with seven branches but possible one with nine branches, if you include the large ones lower down ...

Ummm ... sorry to be a killjoy, but these did not start to be used until after the destruction of the Temple by Titus in AD 70 ... and even then we're not quite sure when, as for many Jews using oil lamps was an acceptable alternative. The first certain nine-branched Hannukah Menorah is now in the Musee Cluny in Paris: it comes from either Italy or Alexandria, and dates to the AD 220s. I couldn't find an image of it online, but the publication is here and there are very few others for a long time after (and many, particularly Sephardi Jews, continued to use oil lamps for Hanukkah rather than candlesticks).

Oh dear, now that I've bothered to look at the Lead Codices smuggled out of Jordan, they are turning into laugh out laud bad fakes ...This one is a 7-branched but again very wide in relation to the height of the branches - source:

Now I'm feeling a bit guilty, as mocking the fakes is as easy as stealing sweeties off a child ... but that's not going to stop me adding this image from a Lead Codex which was for sale on eBay, and which David Meadows kindly pointed us to ... (alas, too late to snap it up for a bargain $13,000). It too has a seven branched Temple Menorah which looks identical to the one in the photo immeditately above (same mould?):

UNESCO Complains, Hafed Walda Acts

2011-09-03T22:36:00.000+01:00

Libya's other wealth: Archaeological treasures - CNN.com

I love this article which makes it clear what amazing work Hafed Walda is doing, convincing the NTC to preserve archaeology.

Libya Update: Everything Safe

2011-09-02T20:26:00.000+01:00

Claims of Mass Libyan Looting Rejected by Archaeologists - ScienceInsider:

"The antiquities in the major sites are unscathed," says Hafed Walda, an archaeologist at King's College London, who has been in frequent contact with his Libyan colleagues during the recent arrival of rebels in the capital city last week. "But a few sites in the interior sustained minor damage and are in need of assessments." As for Tripoli's museum, located in the city's Red Castle, "it has been protected very well." He adds that curators stored the building's artifacts prior to the rebels' arrival but that some ancient objects belonging to former President Muammar Gaddafi were stolen.

I've known Hafed Walda 20 years, and he is not only a brilliant archaeologist but also very honest - I'd take his word over some Russian journalist any day!

The Museum in Tripoli

2011-08-30T08:04:00.000+01:00

Letter from Tripoli / Luke Harding | Comment is free | The Guardian

Contrary to silly Russian claims yesterday, it's safe and has been guarded by the rebels - and no NATO bombs have been dropped anywhere near it

The 1810 Cookbook

2011-08-27T15:16:00.004+01:00

I wrote a foreword, so obviously I recommend The 1810 Cookbook:

"a cookbook of 155 recipes and remedies compiled by Jane Winnington-Ingram from 1810 onwards and published, 201 years later, by her great-great-great-grand-daughter Verity Walker"

It's fascinating mixture of recipes from curries to face-creams to cholera cures - and whilst most old cook books are just lists of ingredients, this one gives measurements and instructions, which was very unusual. I love the way it was handed down from mother to daughter.

Gaddafi villa pool statues ...

2011-08-26T08:49:00.001+01:00

Apparently there were a dozen of these around a pool in the Gaddafi compound, which the rebels smashed once they'd taken it. The various Ben Ali relatives in Tunisia had Roman garden statuary, but this piece ... The head is not ancient for sure, nor are the hands, but the body might be (I can't tell from the photo on my tiny Blackberry screen).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030233/Gaddafi-playboy-luxury-Seafront-villas-booze-jet-skis-hot-tubs-steel-doors.html

Iconoclasm in Libya ...

2011-08-24T11:04:00.000+01:00

Is this damnatio memoriae in action?

Poachers and Gamekeepers ...

2011-08-22T12:42:00.001+01:00

I get slightly fed up sometimes of the obsessive propaganda of a couple of so-called archaeologists / cultural property bloggers.

They flipped when I pointed out that their hero Donny George had a mixed history as a 'saviour' of cultural property. He did a great job trying to get looted Iraqi items returned, but let's not forget that was it under his watch that Baghdad Museum was looted on three separate occasions both before and after the American forces arrived in the city. He was also the man in charge of looting the museums and collections of Kuwait under Saddam Hussein.

I also mentioned that Michel van Rijn might be adored by those same bloggers because van Rijn claims to be a crusader against looting - but ... actually has a rather murky past, and his web site had some outlandish claims. Attempts by courts to force it to close because of libel failed, as he simply moved it to another server. He was arrested in January 2005 in Switzerland "for alleged blackmail". Although van Rijn no longer has a web site, he is still dipping his fingers in looting issues. A few journalists and law enforcement personnel have said he claims to have proof X or Y looted the Sevso Treasure / Baghdad Museum / insert other ... and that one academic or another gave him the proof.

So it's nice to see that Derek Fincham is also picking up on van Rijn's past in this post:
Illicit Cultural Property: Did Marion True Ever Catch a Looter or Dealer?

Michel van Rijn was convicted of forgery (he was responsible for the 'Avar Treasure') and very much involved in smuggling Byzantine mosaics out of Cyprus - see the court case here. To top it all, Fincham points out that Marion True, the bête noire of those opposed to collecting, helped get the Kanakaria mosaics returned to Cyprus ...

The sanctuary of Hecate at Lagina

2011-08-21T17:52:00.000+01:00

Lagina is an interesting Carian site. It had a Hellenistic temple with a 'short' plan like the ones at Labraunda and Priene, which shows it was an old Carian religious site probably with a Hecatomnid temple. The altar of Hecate in front of her temple was found a long time ago, and now archaeologists have announced they've found the monumental house of her priests, which at some point according to inscriptions on the walls, was inhabited by the high priest named Menestes:

A house unearthed in ancient city of Turkey's Mugla | General | World Bulletin
(the date is a typo in the English story, they mean 2,200 years old)

Archaeologists also found this little bronze depiction of Hecate at Lagina, the first found at the site. Although we tend to associate the many "breasts" with Artemis at Ephesus, it was also a feature of many Carian deities such as Zeus of Labraunda - and clearly Hecate of Lagina.

The breasted Artemis may have evolved out of the goddess assimilating local cults with this feature, as a syncretism, and there was certainly a cult of Hecate within the sanctuary of Artemis of Ephesus (Strabo Geographia 14.1.23). The heavy rope around the neck of the Artemis Ephesia, mentioned in ancient sources (see Eustathius etc JSTOR) and depicted on her statues, is also visible on this miniature Hecate. According to several ancient accounts Ephesus was founded by Carians (Pausanias 7.2.7;)

For new statue see: Ay Tanrı�ası bulundu - Arkeoloji- ntvmsnbc.com

Early Images of the Crucifixion

2011-08-20T12:33:00.004+01:00

Early depictions of the Passion of Christ tended to omit the crucifixion, and there are very few representations of it in the Early Christian and Early Byzantine period. The Basque Crucifixion was shown to be a modern fake created by Basque separatists; who's represented in the Alexamenos Graffito will never be certain, nor can it be dated with much certainty; and the fresco in a tomb on the Esquiline pre-dates the Christian period by several centuries. Several graffiti from Pompeii mention crucifixion but as a Roman insult or punishment (source). Although the Romans used crucifixion regularly, again in pre-Christian art it was very rarely depicted. There are very few images of crucifixion, and not all can be linked to Jesus' crucifixion.

In Early Christian art they went out of their way not to depict it. So for example in the circa AD 400 century mosaic in the apse of Santa Pudenziana (here), a jewelled cross is shown at Golgotha, not the crucifixion. In fact, there is rather little evidence for the use of a cross as a symbol by Christians before the time of Constantine. On early Christian sarcophagi, such as the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (dated by inscription to AD 359) or the Dogmatic Sarcophagus, scenes from The Passion were represented - just not the episode of the crucifixion.

The solution fond by the designer of the mid-4th century Passion Sarcophagus (Vatican, image) was to replace the crucifixion with the Chi-Rho:

This ivory plaque is one of four made to decorate a reliquary around AD 420 (The Maskell Ivories, British Museum). It's the earliest depiction of the crucifixion which depicts Jesus for certain, as indicated by the inscription on the titulus crucis: REX IUD[AEORUM]

This box was a probably a private commission, and not necessarily shown in public. It is interesting as it shows also the suicide of Judas and the centurion Longinus. Jesus is shown neither dead nor in pain, and this seems to be a key point of early iconography - Judas is dead, but Jesus is not.

The doors of Santa Sabina on the Aventine in Rome show one of the few public depictions of the crucifixion. The doors seem to be original to the church, which was constructed by Celestine I (AD 422-433) according to its inscription.

Like many early crucifixions, Jesus and the thieves are shown in the orans pose, their arms outstretched and palms up, a pose associated with prayer - the orans pose was not new to Christian iconography, but seems to originate in popularity with images of Artemisia II of Halicarnassus, which were in turn used as a type for depictions of Roman empresses. The figures are all shown 'standing' on the base of the panel, and the crosses are barely visible, so the fact that they were being crucified was not emphasised. This orans or orant pose is also described in sources as having been used in prayers, such as a letter describing the martyrdom of Blandina, as being a deliberate emulation of Jesus' pose on the cross.

There were no earlier images of the crucifixion to serves as examples, but Sheckler and Leith in their study of the Santa Sabina doors suggested as a prototype depictions of the Three Boys in the Fiery Furnace (Daniel 3). They give the example from the Catacombs of Priscilla, where several popes were buried, including Celestine who constructed Santa Sabina:

And it is also depicted on the Passion Sarcophagus mentioned above:

Although scholars like to create Darwinian evolutions of iconography, it's interesting to note that in the contemporary ivory and doors Jesus is shown with and without a beard. I also wanted to show that the orans pose was used to show deification, for example on this coin Domitian issued on the death of his infant son:

The next images of the crucifixion that survive are not until almost two centuries later. The inside of the lid of a 6th century box from the Sancta Sanctorum of St John Lateran that held relics from the Holy Land (now in the Museo Cristiano, Vatican):

Also from the Holy Land are a whole series of ampullae from the altar at Monza Cathedral and S. Colombano in Bobbio, given by Queen Theodelina of the Lombards in AD 603 and AD 613 respectively (Monza below):

On the vast majority of these Jesus is shown in a bust above a naked cross. There is a similar depiction for example in the 520s mosaic in S Stefano Rotondo in Rome, where two saints flank a cross symbolising the crucifixion, but the actual crucifixion is not depicted. The ampullae can be dated by the gift of Theodelina and by the fact that the Holy Sepulcher they depict was destroyed by Chosroes II in AD 614. The most common ampullae, such as this one of c AD 600 in Dumbarton Oaks, show the two thieves in the orans pose, flanking a cross above which is a bust of Jesus:

The inscription in Greek tells us what the little flask originally held: "Oil from the Wood of Life from the Holy Place of Christ" - the Wood of Life was the True Cross re-discovered by Helena, the mother of Constantine. A later ampulla found at Sant Pere de Casserres, Catalonia, shows the full crucifixion, but dates not before the 8th century (here).

The first preserved manuscript with a depiction of the crucifixion is in the Rabula Gospels, created in Syria in the 6th century - the Syriac text is signed by Rabula and dated AD 586 at the Monastery of St. John of Zagba.

What's interesting is that some scholars, such as Massimo Bernabo, now believe that the illustrations are earlier, and were taken from another Greek Gospel and inserted into the Rabula Gospels.

Egyptian monophysites tended to avoid depicting the crucifixion, but there is a Coptic magic papyrus of the 6th century with a sketch of the Crucifixion (British Library Oriental Manuscript 6796, image):

There are some other possible depictions of the crucifixion on small gems, but these are difficult to date, and seem to have been linked to the Nestorians - and so were seen as heretical by mainstream Christians. I'm going to start with the "Orpheos Bakkikos" seal which was lost during the war, but used to be in the Bode Museum in Berlin:

This shows a man crucified on a sort of anchor and is sometimes cited as 'proof' that Jesus was based on Orpheus - whether you believe Jesus was the son of God or not, he sprang from the Jewish religious milieu, and as I've pointed out repeatedly Orphism was a modern 19th century creation by scholars opposed to the power of the Vatican (here). Although conspiracy theorist like to show images of this hematite seal as proof of assorted theories, I don't know any serious scholar who does not believe it's a fake.

There are a number of magical amulets which, like the Coptic papyrus, show a crucified man, such as this bloodstone seal in the British Museum (inv MME 1986.05-01.1) allegedly found in Gaza, and possible made in the 2nd or 3rd century:

The problem with this amulet is that although the inscription says "Son, Father, Jesus Christ" it also has quite a few pagan terms on it and it seems to be a pagan exorcism object which happened to invoke anyone and everyone available, including Jesus ... rather like the Coptic Magic papyrus above, and the Jewish exorcist in Acts 19:13-17 ...

In short, the object was probably not made for or by a Christian. I discussed some evidence for the use of crucifixion nails in Jewish and Christian healing here, and there is also a spell found in the Cairo Geniza (here p. 183) ... and this was nothing new, as can be seen in Apuleius (3.17), Pliny (NH 28.6) and Lucian (Philops. 17). Jesus is invoked not as the Son of God but as a magician, something seem also in the text of a second century gold lamella which mentions assorted other pagan figures (left, Private Collection, London).

Another carnelian in the British Museum (inv MME 1895.11-13.1) is more clearly identified as Jesus by the inscription "Jesus Christ Son of God the Saviour" - it was found at Constantia in Romania, and is Christian, but probably made in Syria:

A second very similar gem from the Nott Collection is preserved in a cast at the DAI in Rome, "Jesus Christ":

Although the 12 figures flanking the crucifixion are generally described as Apostles, these were neither present at the Crucifixion nor numbered 12 after the suicide of Judas. Instead they might represent a procession of clergy, the bishops asserting their claim to temporal power because of the crucifixion and sacrifice of Jesus, which would suggest these seals were made for religious leaders. Some people would like to see these two seals as early, but they are probably 5th to 7th century (Mastrocinque)

A fourth gem seems to be later, but when it was created in the Byzantine period is far from certain, although bent knees are a late feature:

Although from Constantine onwards Christianity became the dominant religion of Rome, Christians for several centuries continued to avoid depicting 'bad' events from their history in their arts, whether it was the Crucifixion or the torture and martyrdom of their saints.

UPDATE - I got some of the images of the intaglios from a web site so wacky I didn't even want to link to it. I hadn't realised that they had in turn been scanned from Jeffrey Spier's brilliant study Late Antique and Early Christian Gems (Spatantike-Fruhes Christentum-Byzanz), or obviously I would have credited it. For those who are interested, and don't want an academic study, see also his contribution in the Kimbell's Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art (Kimbell Art Museum). I just threw this post together from images I'd been gathering for a while, but know little about, so I really recommend looking at Spier's work if you're interested in the subject as he's an excellent scholar and specialises in this area.

Western Influences Art in the East

2011-08-19T18:56:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd post some images from Afghanistan and Pakistan which seem to be influenced by Greek and Roman art.

A Satyr from the Apsidal Temple at Sirkap now in Taxila Museum. The temple was sacked by the Kushan in AD 65, so we can confidently date the sculptures to the decades before this, and after the destruction of the city by an earthquake in AD 30 (photo):

Sirkap was founded by Demetrius I of Bactria, but flourished under the Parthians from c. 100 BC onwards. Although many of the sculptures show 'Greek' influence, much of that influence would have been indirect and through the Parthians - Taxila, on the opposite bank of was part of the Achaemenid empire after it's conquest by Darius. Apollonius of Tyana visited, and described it as a Greek style city (text), although when these sculptures were carved it was the capital of the Indo-Parthian kings.

A satyr is just a satyr, but a woman in a helmet wielding a spear is Athena. This figure now in the museum in Lahore is almost shocking as it looks as if it could have been imported from Rome - but the schist shows it was made in Ghandara in the 2nd century AD (photo):

This stucco head from Hadda in Kabul is often described as Mithras because of the bonnet, but this was also worn by the Dioscuri, who were regularly depicted in Central Asia (photo):

And have you ever wondered what a Roman personification of a river god might look like re-interpreted in circa AD 100 Pakistan? Well here's one now in Karachi museum ...

And this is what happens when you send marine figures to Gandhara .... (relief in British Museum);

One of the few early examples of Buddhist small arts to survive is this reliquary from Bimaran now in the British Museum. It was made in the first century to hold a bone of the Buddha, around which Stuppa 2 was constructed. What's interesting as it's a well date example of an early image of Buddha, and he is shown, as he was regularly in Gandhara sculpture, in an arcade.

This idea of showing figures in an arcade is familiar in Early Christian art, as on this sarcophagus in Arles:

The Christian sarcophagus post-dates the Buddhist reliquary, and copied earlier pagan Roman sculptures. The image of Christ, like that of the Buddha, has it's origins in earlier depictions. So these two palliatus-clad religious leaders ... (source)

Have their origins in earlier figures such as the Lateran Sophocles ...

And although it's too easy to see Greek or Roman influences on the heavily draped 'classical' Buddhas of Gandhara, this influence is more likely to have come through Parthian and Syrian figures such as this one from Ksar El Abiad in Syria (source):

Hatshepsut's flacon ....

2011-08-19T15:15:00.003+01:00

In 2009 German scientists decided to test the contents of a 4.7 cm sealed flacon that belonged to Hatshepsut and is now in Bonn. They had assumed that it contained perfume but the test results suggests that it was a fatty substance which is more often used to treat eczema - palm oil, with some nutmeg oil imported from the Far East (see here).

Unfortunately certain ingredients may be carcinogenic, such as the creosote ... but they are still used in prescription medications for psoriasis to this day (my medicine cabinet is full of them).

What's interesting is that nutmeg comes from Indonesia, and Hatshepsut sent a famous expedition to the Land of Punt for spices, as commemorated in the reliefs of her mortuary temple.

The Sign of an Old Collection ...

2011-08-19T14:15:00.000+01:00

I've discussed how some pieces on the art market come from old collections (here). Sometimes the record of a provenance is written, and can get lost (see here), or sometimes collectors mark items in the collection. When there is an inventory number on an antiquity it can be hard to tell where that number came from.

It's unusual to see a Roman sculpture with a seal of a Renaissance collector, but they do sometimes come onto the art market. The seal on this head at Galerie Chenel proves that it was once in the Venice collection of Giovanni VI Grimani, who was Patriarch of Acquilea (1545-1550 and 1585 to his death in 1593). The Grimani collection was one of the best collections of antiquities in the Renaissance (JSTOR), and some of it was brought to Paris by Napoleon. Some pieces ended up in the Louvre, this one in a French private collection.

What's interesting is the Grimani's collection is quite well documented, since he gave some of his sculptures to the Republic of Venice in 1586 (JSTOR) - and in 1594-6 the Republic had leads seals attached to the sculptures to commemorate his gifts. But this Antonine head is neither in the 18th century catalogue of the collection nor in the accompanying drawings of it according to Chenel ... But I do wonder if this engraving after Zanetti in 1740 on a Renaissance bust might not be the Chenel head:

And not the Claudian Man, or so-called Julius Caesar in Venice (inv. 199 see below), as usually identified ... although frankly it could be either one in the engraving:

My FCC disclaimer is that I have nothing to do with Galerie Chenel. This is the second piece they have I've blogged about recently, but I'm only doing so as they have interesting heads for sale - they ain't paying me nowt.

Ancient Roman Jar Riddled with Mystery

2011-08-18T19:42:00.003+01:00

My opinion? It's not unique, and I have similar old French vessels at home ... which were used for soft cheese, separating the curd and the whey ...

http://www.livescience.com/15629-ancient-roman-artifact-mystery.html

Updated - well, I clearly had food on my mind, just the wrong kind of food ... via David Meadows' explanation / update it's clear that it was for catching fish as seen in this Tunisian mosaic in Sousse:

David seems to believe it was for catching octopus, but in other mosaics they were speared ... so many squid or small fish?

Hobnail footprint in a tile ...

2011-08-18T14:20:00.001+01:00

This is super-cool to find the footprint of a hobnail boot - and this one was just found at Caerleon. The norm in digs of battlefields and military camps is to find lots of nails from boots randomly scattered around ... This impression made in a tile shows what they were like when still whole.

http://twitpic.com/67xf58

Roman Chain Mail

2011-08-15T13:26:00.000+01:00

This image of a soldier comes from the Ludovisi Sarcophagus, possibly made for Hostilian the son of Decius who died in AD 251 having very briefly been emperor ... If so he's the general shown fighting the barbarians in the center of the sarcophagus (bottom of post), but I find the figure to the right end more interesting, for he's wearing chain mail.

The Romans got chain mail from the Gauls, but it had been around longer. The oldest example comes from a Scythian tumulus at Zhurovka, dated to the early 5th century BC by the red figure pottery, presumably obtained through trade via Olbia. It is described in the 3rd century BC by Polybius (6.23.15), but only began to be used more regularly in the 2nd century AD.

Very few examples of actual mail survive from either Roman or Celtic graves, which is why the few depictions in Roman sculpture are so interesting.

This fragment was found at the Temple of Bel at Dura Europas (source):

The problem is that excavators later found a whole skeleton wearing mail at Dura Europas (source), but ... he seems to be a Sassanian who died mining under Tower 19 in AD 256 to set off poison gas according to research by Simon James:

What we do have surviving examples of is the fish-scale armour, for example from Trimontium (Newstead):

Chain mail, or lorica hamata, was worn by junior officers and standard bearers primarily in the later Imperial period, and only by those that could afford it during the Republic.

Romulus: What Would Jews Say?

2011-08-15T12:00:00.000+01:00

In the commentary on the the marriage of Solomon to the gentile Pharaoh's daughter in the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 21b says:

R. Isaac said: When Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, Gabriel descended and stuck a reed in the sea, which gathered a sand-bank around it, on which was built the great city of Rome.

God created Rome to punish the Jews for Solomon's actions and their ancient sins.

But when one checks the commentary in the Jerusalem Talmud this passage is expanded upon with some variations (yAZ 1.2, 39c; see):

R. Levi said: On the day when Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh Necho, the king of Egypt, Michael came down from heaven and struck a staff into the sea, and pulled up a heap of mud which became a great forest, and this was the location of the great city of Rome. On the day when Jeroboan set up two golden calves, Romulus and Remus came and built two huts in Rome. On the day when Elijah disappeared, a king was appointed in Rome - "And there was no king in Edom, a deputy was king" (I Kings 22:48)

The passage makes it clear that the foundation and development of Rome was due to a series of sins by a number of Jews - not just punishment for the Jews for the sin of Solomon. Jeroboam, he "who made Israel to sin" (I Kings 14:16), erected two Golden Calves to his pagan gods and the one God sent two brothers as punishment to found Rome.

In Midrash Psalms 10.6 R. Yudan quotes R. Judah on a story of Romulus and Remus being abandoned by their mother and suckled by a wolf, as a comment on Psalms 10:14.

In the of the midrash of Canticles in the the Jerusalem Talmud (see), Romulus and Remus are not mentioned, but their reed huts are. These keep falling down until they seeks the advice of Abba Kolon and mix in the waters of the Euphrates, according to Rabbi Judah. More on this and other stories about the founding of Rome can be found here.

In another midrash Solomon and the king of Rome meet, so I'm not going to pretend these are genuinely useful sources for the study of the foundation of Rome. The passages are interesting as an explanation for the way Jews in Late Antiquity and the early Byzantine period viewed the loss of their lands to Rome.

The First Stirrups ...

2011-08-15T11:59:00.000+01:00

A conversation I've had with Adrian Goldsworthy and Adrian Murdoch is about the introduction of stirrups in the West. The Greeks didn't have them, nor did the Romans, and this must have affected their ability to ride. The Chinese developed the stirrup, which did not appear until the 6th century in Europe.

For example, the horses at Luxor, which was an Imperial cult with frescoes from the time of the Tertrarchs, were saddled but had no stirrups (here; image):

This may be one of the earliest excavated examples, from an Avar grave in Hungary, where people from Mongolia emigrated and settled (source):

Excavations in Mongolia have confirmed that as their origin through similar finds there. The Avars settled in Hungary in AD 567, and we know they had contact with Justinian II at Constantinople by 560. The Avars proved to be formidable foes, so the Byzantines soon adopted the stirrup as noted in the Strategicon of Maurice c. AD 600 (skala; 1.2 and 2.9). Stirrups are first certainly shown in Western art on the Madara Rider in Bulgaria, dated by an inscription to AD 710 (source):

There are several other images of stirrups in use in the west in the 8th century. This fragment of Byzantine silk shows an emperor hunting; it was given to the Abbey in Mozac for the relics of St Austremoine by King Pippin the Short in AD761, providing a terminus ante quem (source p. 28 and Lyons):

The stirrup is shown in a Lombard Capitulare Evangeliorum, and was known by the late Merovingians and Carolingians, although it seems to have been used only by the elite. A Coptic ivory set into the ambo of Henry II (AD 1002) at Aachen shows stirrups in use by the Byzantine emperor ruler - it is generally dated to the 6th century which would make them the earliest depiction of stirrups if this is correct:

The frescoes from Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi built by the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik around AD 727 show that they were using stirrups in Syria (source):

Although stirrups were not used by the Sassanians, they are shown on in Kushan art from the 2nd century BC onwards (seal of Adsho, BM; source):

What's interesting is that the Kushan / Indian stirrups or leather 'toe stirrups' did not catch on. Similar leather slings used for holding the feet are shown in art from the Steppes, such as the Chertomlyk Amphora (Hermitage), but again did not enter general use amongst their neighbours.

We know that the Franks were aware of stirrups, but initially did not use them widely. In AD 732 Charles Martel and his men fought on foot against the mounted Muslims at the Battle of Poitiers. By the Battle of Louvain in AD 891 the Franks were fully mounted, using stirrups, and this is how they routed the Vikings there. When and why they chose to adopt the stirrup is not known - the Alemanni whom the Franks absorbed had used them for some time - but this is when it became the norm in the West.

The use of the stirrup sometimes seems to be a personal choice - for example in scenes from the Apocalypse of Valenciennes some riders use them whilst others do not (dated by some to c AD 800, others to 900: source):

Late Emperors at Luxor and Piazza Armerina

2011-08-15T11:46:00.000+01:00

Those of us who do Greece and Rome tend to overlook Egypt, but I thought the Imperial cult at Luxor was worth highlighting, because of it's wonderful paintings. This photo shared by Brooklyn Museum gives an overview of the site.

The interior images are is better preserved (photo source), although it has deteriorated considerably since it was documented in the 19th century, when one could see the full purple-toga clad magnificence of Caesar ... (drawings below from JSTOR) - and since several Caesars were shown, the images must show the Tetrarchs. The cult is linked to a castrum of Diocletian near-by, and probably later became a Christian chapel. Other scenes show a procession, and are important evidence for these in Late Antiquity - as well as arms and armour (note the saddles but still no stirrups here)

What's interesting is that although one can draw parallels between the drapery and the armour at Luxor and in the Great Hunt mosaic at Piazza Armerina ... in the Egyptian scenes the men are all shown in togas and bare legs, whilst in the Sicilian ones wear trousers. The emperors' heads were lost when they were turned into Christian saints.

The Piazza Armerina villa dates to the time of the Tetrarchs, and is sometimes linked to Maximian or his son Maxentius. The emperor shown in the Hunt is presumably one of them. The amazing photos are pinched from the galleries here.

The lady in the centre of her courtiers would have been the empress.

The older bearded man in very elaborate dress must have been the emperor:

This young man in purple was presumably their son, and still a pagan - since he's making an offering on an altar in front of Artemis.

Valerius Romulus, the son of Maxentius was in his early teens when he died. Maxentius himself died at 34, so this makes it more likely he is the prince depicted here, and that his father Maximian was the emperor in the mosaics - and possibly the builder of the villa.

Recent Archaeological Finds

2011-08-14T21:28:00.000+01:00

Turkish archaeologists believe they've found the tomb of St Phillip in a previously unknown church at Hierapolis, modern Pamukkale (here) The tomb is not the structure decorated with a Star of David, the Byzantine structure which was his octagonal martyrium. The new tomb is some 40 m away (see the nice bog arrow I've drawn on the map, where I think it is). Phillip was one of several Apostles killed by crucifixion.

Apostle Philips tomb found in Turkey - Jerusalem Post

The Armenians have decided that Dikranagerd, the capital of ancient Armenia founded in the 1st century BC by Tigranes the Great (known in the west as Tigranocerta) was not at Silvan in Turkey but in Artsakh in modern Armenia. The finds are not clarified, but I assume this is an altar in the photo.

Excavations in Artsakh Shed Light on Ancient City of Dikranagerd - Armenian Weekly

A 12th or 13th century chess piece was found at Siglunes by Siglufjordur in Iceland, brought by the first settlers.

Twelfth Century Chess Piece Discovered - Iceland Review

There have been comparisons drawn to the Lewis Chessmen, possibly made in Norway and found on the Isle of Skye.

For some reason the Greeks, rather than diving some interesting wrecks are investigating the Mentor, a ship which sank whilst bringing some of the Elgin Marbles to London. I sounds like a PR campaign to me.

The excavators of a church at Laodicea believe this mosaic depicts the Eye of God. I know of nothing else like it, but there was the Eye of Horus in Egyptian art, and later the Evil Eye, so it's not altogether surprising.

I guess it's ironic that the letter to the Laodiceans in Revelation 3:17-18 reads:

Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;' and don't know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

Buddhism, Indian Embassies and Rome

2011-08-14T20:18:00.001+01:00

This inscription of Ashoka at Kandahar is now lost. It was written in Greek and Aramaic, and refers to his attempts to spread the "doctrine of piety" - ie Buddhism. Ashoka himself converted to Buddhism around 264 BC and devoted a great deal of energy to converting others. Since he conquered Afghanistan, his interested in what he called the "Yona" or "Yojanas" (Ionians, ie Greeks) there was understandable.

What was more surprising was Ashoka's attempt to convert Greek kings beyond the fringes of his empire. His Edict Nb13 records messengers send some 4,000 miles:

where the Yona-raja king Amtiyoko rules, beyond there where the four kings named Turamaye, Amtikini, Maka and Alikasudaro rule ...

Amtiyoko was Antiochus II Theos (261–246 BC) of Syria; Turamaye was Ptolemy II Philadelphos (285–247 BC) of Egypt; Amtikini was Antigonus II Gonatas (278–239 BC) of Macedon; Maka was Magas of Cyrene (300–258 BC); and Alikasudaro Alexander II of Epirus (272–258 BC).

Their responses are not recorded, but Pliny (NH, 6. 21) records an embassy led by Dionysius to India sent by Ptolemy II.

Seleucus I had sent Megasthenes to the court of Chandragupta Maurya, the grand-father of Ashoka (Arrian, Anabasis 5.6); Seleucus' realm bordered the Mauryan Empire, so Megasthenes was able to use Bactria as a base to research his Indica. The Seleucids then sent Deimachus to the court of his successor Bindusara (Strabo II, 1, 9 & 14; XV,1,12). There is evidence that Seleucus' daughter married the Hindu Chandragupta Maurya as part of a treaty; Chadragupta sent Seleucus war elephants (Strabo 15, 724; see JSTOR and Appian, Syrian Wars 55):

He crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus, king of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship. Some of these exploits were performed before the death of Antigonus and some afterward.

Antiochus III followed in Alexander's footsteps and went to Afghanistan:

He crossed the Caucasus (Hindu Kush) and descended into India; renewed his friendship with Sophagasenus the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving Androsthenes of Cyzicus the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him. (Polybius 11.39)

Embassies went both ways. We know of an embassy which came from Indian in the time of Augustus, described by Strabo (15.1.4 and 73, citing Nicholas of Damascus):

But from India, from one place and from one king, I mean Pandion, or another Porus, there came to Caesar Augustus presents and gifts of honour and the Indian sophist who burnt himself up at Athens, as Calanus had done, who made a similar spectacular display of himself before Alexander.

He says that at Antioch, near Daphne, he chanced to meet the Indian ambassadors who had been despatched to Caesar Augustus; that the letter plainly indicated more than three ambassadors, but that only three had survived (whom he says he saw), but the rest, mostly by reason of the long journeys, had died; and that the letter was written in Greek on a skin; and that it plainly showed that Porus was the writer, and that, although he was ruler of six hundred kings, still he was anxious to be a friend to Caesar, and was ready, not only to allow him a passage through his country, wherever he wished to go, but also to co-operate with him in anything that was honourable. Nicolaus says that this was the content of the letter to Caesar, and that the gifts carried to Caesar were presented by eight naked servants, who were clad only in loin-cloths besprinkled with sweet-smelling odours; and that the gifts consisted of the Hermes, a man who was born without arms, whom I myself have seen, and large vipers, and a serpent ten cubits in length, and a river tortoise three cubits in length, and a partridge larger than a vulture.

They were accompanied also, according to him, by the man who burned himself up at Athens; and that whereas some commit suicide when they suffer adversity, seeking release from the ills at hand, others do so when their lot is happy, as was the case with that man; for, he adds, although that man had fared as he wished up to that time, he thought it necessary then to depart this life, lest something untoward might happen to him if he tarried here; and that therefore he leaped upon the pyre with a laugh, his naked body anointed, wearing only a loin-cloth; and that the following words were inscribed on his tomb: 'Here lies Zarmanochegas, an Indian from Bargosa, who immortalised himself in accordance with the ancestral customs of the Indians.'

Most memorable is the Indian who stayed behind and killed himself at Eleusis.

But who were these Indians who visited Augustus? That the embassy was at Antioch suggests it was taking an overland route via Syria and Iran. Pandion is believe to be a corruption of the Pandyan Dynasty of Tamil, but given that the sea route between Southern India and the Suez was well documented under Augustus, one must question this. The writer of the letter they carried is given as king Porus, also the name of the king of Paurava that Alexander the Great had fought in what is today the Punjab. We also know of Barygaza, the spelling from the inscription given by Plutarch, from the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea so can identify it as modern Bharuch in Gujarat, a city where according to the Periplus (49) gold coins from Bactria with Greek inscriptions were used - not surprising since the city was the terminus of a trade route through Bactria into Tajikistan. Because it was written in Greek, on skin, it seems more likely to have been written by one of the last Philhellene Indo-Greek rulers of Bactria, who were at the time losing ground to the Yuezhi forming the Kushan Empire.

Dio Cassius (54.9.10) also describes the Indian from the embassy that visited Augustus at Samos:

One of the Indians, Zarmarus, for some reason wished to die,— either because, being of the caste of sages, he was on this account moved by ambition, or, in accordance with the traditional custom of the Indians, because of old age, or because he wished to make a display for the benefit of Augustus and the Athenians (for Augustus had reached Athens);— he was therefore initiated into the mysteries of the two goddesses, which were held out of season on account, they say, of Augustus, who also was an initiate, and he then threw himself alive into the fire.

Because the passage is framed by Julia giving birth to Gaius and a statement that Gaius Sentius Saturninus was consul that year, we can date the embassy precicely to 20 BC.

The name of the Indian, Zarmanochegas, is taken to be a transcription of the Sanskrit S'ramanacharya ("teacher of S'ramanas"), meaning that he was a monk though not necessarily a Buddhist one.

Though the passage sounds strange, there is a similar tale of an Indian throwing himself onto a pyre at Babylon in the time of Alexander, preserved by Arrian (Anabasis 7.3) and Plutarch (Alexander 69).

We also have evidence of trade between Rome and Indian in the form of this Buddhist ivory from Afghanistan excavated at Pompeii.

By the early Christian period there is evidence for knowledge of Buddhism, although no proof that any Buddhists settled in the West. Clement of Alexandria (c AD 150 - c 215) knew about monasticism in the East (Stromata 1.15):

Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Boutta; whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours.

The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanae, and others Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanae who are called Hylobii neither inhabit cities, nor have roofs over them, but are clothed in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands. Like those called Encratites in the present day, they know not marriage nor begetting of children. Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha; whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours.

In the 3rd century Refutation of All Heresies (Philosophumena) ascribed to Hippolytus of Rome (+ AD 235), the author is aware of the Brahmins of India. Porphyry (died 305), is aware of both Hindus and Buddhists (On abstinence from animal food, IV, 17&18):

By the fourth century Christian writers such as Marius Victorinus and Jerome were quite aware of some of the teachings and history of Buddhism (Against Jovinianus I, 42): "To come to the Gymnosophists of India, the opinion is authoritatively handed down that Budda, the founder of their religion, had his birth through the side of a virgin."

Did Marco Polo Go to China?

2011-08-14T13:17:00.001+01:00

Because of a recent popular history magazine article re-examining the finds from underwater excavations off the coast of Japan of Kublai Khan's fleet, the theory that Marco Polo did not go to China is in the news again: Explorer Marco Polo 'never actually went to China' - Telegraph

The theory that Polo went to Persian and his fable is an amalgam of Persian travellers' tales was thoroughly discussed in “Did Marco Polo Go to China?” by Frances Wood. Because Wood discussed theories, there were other scholars who disagreed with her and argued Polo had gone to China. Another scholarly discussion ... then Japanese archaeologists announced they had found Kublai Khan's lost fleet - see here:

Kenzo Hayashida of the Kyushu Okinawa Society for Underwater Archaeology (KOSUWA) found the seal above, which proves the ship was Mongol, and these ceramic shells which confirm the use of grenades in the written sources as early as 1221.

The problem is that Kublai Khan tried to invade Japan twice, in 1274 and in 1281, and Marco Polo, supposedly an eye-witness, kinda confuses the two events, mixing up incidents from one in the account of the other that he "saw" ... He also described the Mongol ships as having five masts, when archaeology proves they only had three ...

So did Marco Polo go to China sometime between 1271 and 1295? Probably not, but who cares - lots of others did.

Perhaps the best known traveller to China was the Franciscan monk William of Rubruck because he left extensive writings about his visit to the Mongol capital Karakorum in 1254 - here. When he got to Karakorum he found that there were Christians there, mostly Nestorians, and a Church where he was able to celebrate Easter with some other Western Catholic Christians (here):

[we] passed through the Saracen quarter, where there is a square and a market, to the church. And the Nestorians came to meet us in a procession. Going into the church, we found them ready to celebrate mass; and when it was celebrated they all communicated and inquired of me whether I wished to take communion. I replied that I had already drunk, and could not receive the sacrament except fasting. When the mass had been said it was already after noon, so master William took us with great rejoicing to his house to dine with him; and he had a wife whose father was J of Lorraine, but born in Hungary, and she spoke French and Coman well. We found there also another person, Basil by name, the son of an Englishman, and who was born in Hungary, and who also knew these languages. We dined with great rejoicing, and then they led us to our hut, which the Tartars had set up in an open space near the church, with the oratory of the monk.

The Nestorian Christians had moved East to escape persecution as heretics, following in the footsteps of the traders who had been travelling between China and the West since the Classical period. Sources record Alopen arriving in Xi'an in 635 and establishing a Nestorian church. Whether the Daqin Pagoda in Xi'an was a Nestorian church before it became a Buddist temple is debated, but a stele erected there in 781 survives and details, in Chinese and Syriac, the story of the Nestorians in China. The stele is headed with the description "Memorial of the Propagation in China of the Luminous Religion from Daqin" ...

Daqin was the Chinese name for the west, as seen on the Sihai Huayi Zongtu map of 1532 - (I've circle it in red for those that don't read Chinese):

Gan Yang had been sent by the Emperor of China to Rome in AD 97, but he only got as far as Persia, so his account it probably of as little use as Marco Polo's. As he pointed out: "The king of this country always wanted to send envoys to the Han, but Anxi [Parthia], wishing to control the trade in multi-coloured Chinese silks, blocked the route to prevent [the Romans] getting through [to China]"

The Romans called China Serres or Serica; the Chinese called the Roman Empire Daqin or Lijian, and thought that the capital was the great city of Antu (Antioch). The Byzantine Empire at Constantinople was Fulin. Several accounts are gathered here, and detail the last Byzantine embassy in the Chiu-t'ang-shu:

The emperor Yang-ti of the Sui dynasty [AD 605-617] always wished to open intercourse with Fu-lin, but did not succeed. In the 17th year of the period Cheng-kuan [AD 643], the king of Fu-lin Po-to-li [Constans II] sent an embassy offering red glass, lu-chin-ching [green gold gems], and other articles. [Emperor] T'ai-tsung favored them with a message under his imperial seal and graciously granted presents of silk.

Also recorded in the 13th century Ma Tuan-lin, Wen-hsien-t'ung-k'ao, which records some later contact:

During the tenth month of the fourth year of the period Yuan-feng [November 1081 C.E.] their king Mieh-li-i-ling-kai-sa [Michael Caesar, of Cilicia] first sent the ta-shou-ling [a high official] Ni-si-tu-ling-si-meng-p'an to offer as tribute saddled horses, sword-blades and real pearls.

During the sixth year of Yuan-yu [1091 C.E.] they sent two embassies, and their king was presented, by Imperial order, with 200 pieces of cloth, pairs of silver vases, and clothing with gold bound in a girdle.

(My favourite part of the Chronicle is the fascination with the queens of Meroe: "There is also a report that in the west there is the country of women ... It is further said: the country of Mo-lin [ 'Alwa, or Upper Nubia]")

Numerous Chinese chronicles document contact with the West, and although none mention Marco Polo several mention other embassies from Western Europe in the Medieval period. From the Ming-shih, ch. 326 covering AD 1368-1643:

At the close of the Yuan dynasty [1278-1368 C.E.] a native of this country, named Nieh-ku-lun, came to Zhongguo for trading purposes

Nieh-ku-lun seems to be Nicolaus de Bentra, who succeeded as Archbishop of Peking in 1333.

Marco Polo may not have reached China, but many Western Christians did. Giovanni da Pian del Carpine was a follower of Francis of Assisi sent by Innocent IV in 1245 on an embassy to Karakorum, the Mongol capital. Giovanni arrived there in 1246, failed to convert the Great Khan, and returned in 1247 with a letter for the pope. His report, the Ystoria Mongalorum, survives and includes the letter; a report by his companion Benedict of Poland, the De Itinere Fratrum Minorum ad Tartaros, also survives. Another embassy was sent the same year with Ascelin of Cremona and Simon of St Quentin carrying letters from the pope translated into Persian. The Dominican André de Longjumeau went first to Mongolia in 1245 with letters from the pope, then again in 1249 with gifts from Louis IX. William of Rubruck was sent in 1253 by Louis IX, and went with Bartolomeo of Cremona and Abdullah, a translator. The popes were so happy with their reception that they sent Franciscan missionaries: in 1289 Nicholas IV sent John of Monte Corvino to Beijing and in 1307 Clement V appointed him Archbishop, with a church opposite the imperial palace.

These were all missionaries, whose primary aim was to convert the Mongols and Chinese to Christianity. There were also many merchants who, unlike Marco Polo, really did make it to China, but who were too busy trading to write fantastical accounts of the country. The AD 870 Kitāb al-Masālik w’al- Mamālik of
Ibn Khordadbeh, the oldest surviving Arabic geography book, is a good source of information about the Radhanites (pp. 2-3 here), Jewish merchants who traded actively between western Europe and China. Jews were barred from certain professions once the west had become Christian, so they turned to trade, using a common language as an advantage that allowed them to communicate anywhere they met another Jew. There is however no textual or archaeological evidence for Jews in China before the Tang Dynasty, when they were amongst those massacred by Huang Chao according to the Xin Tang Shu.

The Radhanites flourished under Charlemagne, who used them as translators on embassies to Persia, until the time of the First Crusade when the rise of anti-Semitism in the West led many Jews to flee France and Germany to Eastern Europe, Spain and North Africa. Slavery was still common in the west, but since Jews were forbidden sell another Jew, a number of slaves converted to Judaism. Although the Radhanites are credited with several innovations, such as bringing paper to Europe, their most lasting legacy was the introduction by Joseph of Spain of Arabic numerals - which is why today we count 1 - 2 - 3 not I - II - III ...

The Origin of the Capitoline Lupercalia

2011-08-13T22:04:00.001+01:00

So I've discussed that the Lupercalia now in the Capitoline Museum could not have been a 13th century fake, because it's very well recorded in literary sources and a drawing as the group that was outside the Lateran Palace from the 10th century onwards - see here.

Another suggestion is that it was made in the Carolingian period. We know that Charlemagne had a bronze group of the Lupercalia, now lost, outside the palace he had built in Aachen - he called it the Lateran Palace and it copied the one in Rome, as part of Charlemagne's propaganda that he was the new Constantine. Literary sources indicate that he had the Aachen Lupercalia brought not from Rome but from a site in southern Gaul.

The problem is that bronze statues tended to be melted down so that the metal could be re-used, and the next large hollow cast statue we have after antiquity is the Lion of Brunswick around 1166. Although there are some minor superficial similarities between the lion and the Lupercalia, this is probably because the German artist was attempting to copy an ancient image.

Since the most obvious theory is often the correct one, I prefer for now to assume that the surviving bronze Lupercalia is an ancient one, whose legs were repaired. Assuming it is an original work of the late 6th century BC, Roman artists were still too unsophisticated to produce such a work, so we can assume that an Etruscan sculptor created it. The original temple of Jupiter Optimus on the Capitoline hill was built at the end of the 6th century BC employing Etruscan artists (Volcanius of Veii worked on the sculpture according to Pliny, NH 35.45) and dedicated in 509 BC.

There were also a couple of Etruscan images showing such scenes.

A wolf or lion suckled a single child was carved on the 5th or 4th century BC Bologna Stele - ancient Felsina remained independent of Rome until the Battle of Telamon (225 BC), although it was not purely Etruscan since the Boii tribe had settled there around the time of their invasion of Rome in 390 BC. Before that the city was purely Etruscan and possibly named Velzna, and that is when this funerary stele was created.

The Bologna stele does not represent Romulus and Remus.

There were trade links between Crete and Italy from the Mycenean period onwards, and Miletus was not only a great coloniser but a leading trading state - Herodotus 6.21 speaks of a trade agreement between Miletus and Sybaris (c. 600 BC; see also Athenaeus 519B). Herodotus of course controversially claimed that the Lydians had colonised "Tyrrhenia" or Etruria (1.94). This is not to assume a Cretan or Ionian origin for the motif at Bologna, but merely to emphasise that there was a great deal of trade between the regions at the time.

Another scene, on a mirror said to have been found at Bolsena shows two children being suckled by a wolf:

A similar scene can be found on the cast foot of the 4th century Ficoroni cista, found in the grave of a woman at Praeneste, but made in Rome for her according to the inscription: "NOVIOS PLVTIUS MED ROMAI FECID/ DINDIA MACOLNIA FILEAI DEDIT" ... Whether the Bolsena Mirror shows Romulus and Remus or an Etruscan myth is still debated by scholars. It was made in the 4th century BC, so would in any case post-date the Capitoline Lupercalia, and would the Bologna Stele, so neither could have influenced it. If the Ficus Navia Lupercalia of 296 BC had been the first Roman Lupercalia, it could have been influenced by the Etruscan scenes but ...

What the images do indicate is that there were many ancient myths and stories where a child was the victim of exposure, but was rescued, sometimes by animals, grew up to be a hero, etc - and that the Etruscans may have had such a myth. Silvius was raised by shepherds and animals, as was Caeculus of Praeneste (Servius, Aeneid, 7, 678).

As I've noted before, the eponymous founders of Miletus and Cydonia were, according to their local myths, also suckled by a wolf and a bitch (here). Cyrus the Great was said to have been suckled by a bitch, Aegisthus by a goat (Aelian, Varia Historia 12. 42; Hyginus, Fabulae 87, 88 & 257), Paris of Troy by a bear; Aeolus and Boeotus by a cow or dogs (Ovid. Heroides, 11; Hyginus. Fabulae, 238, 242); Antilochus by a dog (Hyginus Fabulae 252); Asclepius by a goat; and the list goes on ... Exposure was probably common, and the myths developed not only to emphasise the rise from nothing of the heroes but also as a way of dealing with exposure as an issue by creating myths of salvation. There have been numerous reports in the modern period of abandoned babies raised by animals, but most have turned out to be hoaxes.

The image of a boy being suckled by an animal was nothing new. But then nor was the image of Aeneas carrying Anchises, which had been on the coins of Macedonian Aeneia from the Archaic period onwards (source):

And the idea of Trojans fleeing to Italy was not unique to the history of Rome. Stesichorus of Himera in the 6th century wrote of Trojans at Hesperia (whose location is unknown now), though not of Aeneas (JSTOR). By the fifth century it had become part of standard Sicilian myth, recorded by Thucydides (6.2.3-4):

On the fall of Ilium, some of the Trojans escaped from the Achaeans, came in ships to Sicily, and settled next to the Sicanians under the general name of Elymaeans; their towns being called Eryx and Segesta. With them settled some of the Phocians carried on their way from Troy by a storm, first to Libya, and afterwards from thence to Sicily.

Aeneas became a central figure in this migration during the 1st century BC, later claimed to be the founder of Segesta (Cicero, Verres), and honoured in Sicily according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities I. 53,1:

There are many proofs of the coming of Aeneas and the Trojans to Sicily, but the most notable are the altar of Aphroditê Aeneias erected on the summit of Elymus and a temple erected to Aeneas in Aegesta; the former was built by Aeneas himself in his mother's honour, but the temple was an offering made by those of the expedition who remained behind to the memory of their deliverer. The Trojans with Elymus and Aegestus, then, remained in these parts and continued to be called Elymians; for Elymus was the first in dignity, as being of the royal family, and from him they all took their name.

Some of the stories told about how Rome was founded are gathered by Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities I. 72:

But as there is great dispute concerning both the time of the building of the city and the founders of it, I have thought it incumbent on me also not to give merely a cursory account of these things, as if they were universally agreed on. For Cephalon of Gergis, a very ancient writer, says that the city was built in the second generation after the Trojan war by those who had escaped from Troy with Aeneas, and he names as the founder of it Romus, who was the leader of the colony and one of Aeneas' sons; he adds that Aeneas had four sons, Ascanius, Euryleon, Romulus and Remus. And Demagoras, Agathyllus and many others agree with him as regards both the time and the leader of the colony.

But the author of the history of the priestesses at Argos and of what happened in the days of each of them says that Aeneas came into Italy from the land of the Molossians with Odysseus and became the founder of the city, which he named after Romê, one of the Trojan women. He says that this woman, growing weary with wandering, stirred up the other Trojan women and together with them set fire to the ships. And Damastes of Sigeum and some others agree with him.

But Aristotle, the philosopher, relates that some of the Achaeans, while they were doubling Cape Malea on their return from Troy, were overtaken by a violent storm, and being for some time driven out of their course by the winds, wandered over many parts of the sea, till at last they came to this place in the land of the Opicans which is called Latinium, lying on the Tyrrhenian sea.

And being pleased with the sight of land, they hauled up their ships, stayed there the winter season, and were preparing to sail at the beginning of spring; but when their ships were set on fire in the night and they were unable to sail away, they were compelled against their will to fix their abode in the place where they had landed. This fate, he says, was brought upon them by the captive women they were carrying with them from Troy, who burned the ships, fearing that the Achaeans in returning home would carry them into slavery.

Callias, who wrote of the deeds of Agathocles, says that Rhome, one of the Trojan women who came into Italy with the other Trojans, married Latinus, the king of the Aborigines, by whom she had three son, Romus, Romulus and Telegonus . . . and having built a city, gave it the name of their mother. Xenagoras, the historian, writes that Odysseus and Circê had three sons, Romus, Anteias and Ardeias, who built three cities and called them after their own names.

Dionysius of Chalcis names Romus as the founder of the city, but says that according to some this man was the son of Ascanius, and according to others the son of Emathion. There are others who declare that Rome was built by Romus, the son of Italus and Leucaria, the daughter of Latinus.

The "author of the history of the priestesses at Argos" was Hellanicus of Mytilene; he and Damastes of Sigeum wrote towards the end of the 5th century, when Rome was still a village whose only interest to the two historians in Turkey was that it had been founded by a Trojan.

A lost work by Alcimus, perhaps written at the start of the Hellenistic period in Sicily, gives an alternate version of the Romulus and Remus story - where Romulus is the son of Aeneas; their daughter Alba had a son Rhomus who founded Rome (FHG 560 F - more on the sources of the Aeneid JSTOR and the various myths about the foundation of Rome here).

Recent excavations at Lavinium, traditionaly founded by Aeneas in honour of his wife Lavinia, have revealed that around the 'Mausoleum of Aeneas' (seventh century core with a fourth century superstructure) there were fourteen altars going back to the 6th century and a sanctuary of Athena Ilias lay to the east of it (the area is known as 'La Madonella'). One of the early altars honoured Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri, twin brothers of Helen of Troy (ILLRP 1271a): Casstorei Podlouqueique quorois (To Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri). An Archaic temple of Castor was found in the Forum. The Dioscuri had been the famous twins of Greek myth, whose story was told in many Classical sources. They were well known in Etruscan religion, for example honoured by a banquet in the frescoes of the Tomba del Letto Funebre at Tarquinia (below). There was something slightly magical about twins to the ancients, so when Livilla gave birth to twins they were called the 'New Dioscuri' in the inscription of the Julio-Claudian monument at Ephesos.

Although there are plenty of dedications from Tarquinia attesting the cult of the Dioscuri there, perhaps more interesting is another stele from Felsina in Bologna, Ducati no. 138, which shows the Dioscuri as twin riders (below, source). It was made in the same circle as the Felsina Stele above showing a wolf suckling a child.

These twin Dioscuri continued to be honoured by the Romans, but they seem the obvious influence on the Roman twins Romulus and Remus. Just as Diodorus of Sicily came to be called Siculus, so the man who founded Rome came to be called Romulus.

In most later sources Aeneas set off for Italy, and it is there that his descendants lived and eventually Romulus and Remus were born and the wolf suckled them. Romulus and Remus had long been the founders of Rome, but Aeneas only joined the story later. And once the Romans had conquered most of the known world, the victors could impose their version.

The Capitoline Lupercalia

2011-08-13T15:45:00.000+01:00

I've covered the ancient sources for the Ficus Navia Lupercalia statue, and the other sources, all from Cicero, speak of a bronze group on the Capitoline.

Cicero, In Catilinam, 3.19:

You remember, of course, that in the consulship of Cotta and Torquatus a large number of objects on the Capitol was struck by lightning, images of the gods were overthrown and statues of men of old overturned and the bronze tablets of our laws melted; even the statue of Romulus, the founder of Rome, was struck--you remember that it was a gilt statue on the Capitol of a baby being given suck from the udders of a wolf.

The consulships of L. Aurellius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus were in 65 BC, and provide us for a firm date when the Lupercalia was struck by lightning.

Cicero, De Divinatione 1.20:

Here was the Martial beast, the nurse of Roman dominion, suckling with life-giving dew, that issued from udders distended, children divinely begotten, who sprang from the loins of the War God; Struck by lightning she toppled to earth, bearing with her the children; Torn from her station, she left the remnants of her feet as she fell.

Cicero, De Divinatione 2.47:

'The statue of the infant Romulus,' you observe, ' was struck by a thunderbolt; hence danger was thereby predicted to the city which he founded.'

I find it interesting that all the sources for this group are from the same writer, and that it was important enough to survive antiquity, but was not mentioned by more writers - but then again, there are very few sources for the Parthenon.

If the wolf with the head turned towards the twins was the Lupercalia statue in the Forum, then Cicero's Capitoline group presumably was the one where the wolf's head was turned away from the twins.

The Ficus Navia Lupercalia of 296 BC

2011-08-13T11:25:00.005+01:00

We know from ancient sources of two bronze statue groups on the Wolf suckling Romulus and Remus - one on the Capitoline, and one in the Forum. The Forum group was in the Ficus Navia, where the wolf had nursed the twins, on the lower slopes of the Palatine. The location of the sanctuary is given by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities I. 79, 8:

against the side of the Palatine hill on the road which leads to the Circus, and near it is a sacred precinct in which there is a statue commemorating the incident; it represents a she-wolf suckling two infants, the figures being in bronze and of ancient workmanship.

In addition Livy X, 23 tells us who erected the statue group in 296 BC and why:

The curule aediles, Cnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius, brought up several money-lenders for trial this year. The proportion of their fines which was paid into the treasury was devoted to various public objects ... They also placed near the Ficus Ruminalis a group representing the Founders of the City as infants being suckled by the she-wolf.

In 269 BC Quintus Ogulnius Gallus was elected consul, and during his tenure the first silver coins were issued by the Roman Republic: see Livy, Periochae 15.5 and Pliny, NH 30.13:

Silver was not impressed with a mark until the year of the City 485, the year of the consulship of Q. Ogulnius and C. Fabius, five years before the First Punic War

One of these coins depicted the Lupercalia, as seen in this example in the British Museum:

We have two famous groups in ancient Rome described by the sources, and two main poses on surviving antiquities: the wolf looking away from the twins, and the wolf with her head turned to the twins. If the Forum group showed the wolf with her head turned towards the twins, as depicted on this coin, then it seems logical to assume that the group of the Capitoline showed her with her head turned away from them.

The group of the Lupercalia shown in one late mosaic which depicted the Circus Maximus (here) also had a wolf turning towards the twins - whether this is the Forum group, either moved or represented there, or another group, cannot be certain.

Just as the story of an animal suckling a child was not new, nor was its depiction on coins. A bitch suckled the infant Cydon on two coins of Cydonia on Crete from 320-280 BC (here and below source):

Miletus was nursed by a wolf according to Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 30

A Crucified Man from 1st century Jerusalem

2011-08-12T09:20:00.003+01:00

Archaeologists find the body of a crucified man in an elaborate tomb dating to the first century AD, or Roman period in Jerusalem ... crucifixion was traditionally the way the poor were killed, and the man best known as having been buried in the tomb of a rich man was Jesus Christ. In the movie The Body (incidentally brilliant, and a must-watch) this causes shock-horror reactions and the Israel Antiquities Authority lets the Vatican to send a priest to investigate, the PLO steal the bones in an attempt to blackmail the Vatican into supporting their cause, the Haredi force the body to be re-buried ... That's the movie version.

But truth is often just as interesting. I've discussed this find and crucifixion before, but it fascinates me as much as readers, so I'm going to go into more details.

In 1968 a tomb was excavated at the French Hill, Jerusalem, better known now as Givat ha-Mivtar. Because of pressure from religious Jews, all the bones found in the tomb were re-buried soon after. A right calcaneus or heel with evidence of crucifixion was found there. The nail is made of iron and was 4.5 inches long - it's not clear if it bent when Jehohanan was being crucified, or when his family were trying to remove the nails from his body. Givat ha-Mivtar turned out to be a rich Jewish burial ground in use from the second century BC until AD 70.

What tends to be illustrated less often are the other bones from the same man. The first photograph shows the right heel when it was found, from a third angle:

We know from traces left on the nail that the stake we was nailed to was made of olive wood, and the wood plaque under the nail head, to hold the leg to the stake, was of acacia or pistachio. It seems that when Yehohanan was taken off the cross his right foot was stuck to the cross because of the bent nail - so it was hacked off (Josephus tells us of the shortage of wood for crucifixion, so stakes were re-used).

This is the distal end of the right radius (the bit by the wrist), possibly showing a nick from a nail. This is interesting as it could prove that victims were crucified through the arm (just above the wrist) and not the palm as shown in Medieval art and since then - the hand bones and flesh of the palm are too weak to support the weight of a human body, so would tear and the body fall down. Elsewhere rope was used, but the Esquiline tomb of Atilio Calatino, a detail of which is at the top of the post, shows that the Romans used a similar nail / wood combination (see here).

And the last photo shows the left heel, which was found without the nail - the photo is taken from the lateral side, and shows the damage the nail had inflicted.

The rest of the remains show that he was 167 cm, possibly had a slight cleft palate, more pronounced on the right side, but not necessarily visible when he was alive. He had been struck just above the ankles, and his two tibias and one fibia were fractured, possibly to stop him supporting his weight on his feet, and to speed up his death, as described in the New Testament. He was in his mid 20s when he died, with good teeth, no signs of disease or trauma, and was not overly muscled from manual labour, which suggests a more affluent member of society rather than a slave or peasant. Jehohanan came from a 'good' family, so was probably executed for treason as a political victim.

This is the ossuary in which these bones were found. He would first have been lain out in a shroud, and once his bones were de-fleshed they were transferred into the ossuary. Because of the form of the tomb, the ossuary and the pottery found with him we can date the burial to the first century, and more specifically the Hasmonean period (which ended in 37BC). So we know he was not one of the many killed as a result of the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, most of whom were hurriedly buried at best. And he is probably too late to be one of the 8,000 crucified under Alexander Jannaeus in 88 BC.

The tomb, Number 1 at Givat ha-Mivtar, had a forecourt outside and two chambers carved into the limestone hillside. The front room had benches on three sides, and two doors on the other wall leading to the second chamber. Both rooms were lined with sealed loculi or smaller five foot chambers.

A young child who died of starvation was buried in the floor of the second room, perhaps a quick burial in AD 70. Of the twelve loculi in the two chambers, eight held ossuaries, some with multiple skeletons, the others bones without a box - a total of seventeen people. Sometimes the lack of an ossuary is a sign that the family could not afford one, but they were also something not recorded before the reign of Herod (from 37 BC onwards) or used much after the Second Jewish War. Three of the ossuaries were in their niches and the others in the centre of the floor in the second chamber. Yehohanan was not the only one to die a violent death: one woman was killed when something crushed her skull.

The burials seem to cover two generations of a wealthy family living and dying under Herod and his successors. An ossuary from the same Giv’at ha-Mivtar tomb is interesting as it has two Aramaic inscriptions with slight variations, which read "Simon the Temple Builder" suggesting that he was involved in the construction of Herod's Temple (source). The ossuary is quite simple, but this need not indicate a 'simple' status, and contained a woman as well as Simon:

Another ossuary was inscribed "Yehonathan the potter" and contained him, a woman and a child:

This ossuary contained Martha, whose skull had been crushed by some sort of heavy weapon:

Yehohanan was found in the second chamber B, in ossuary number 4 of tomb1 at Giv'at ha-Mivtar with a child aged three or four. His name was scratched several times into the relatively simple limestone box.

The first line of the inscription is only lightly inscribed but clear - Yehohanan or Jehohanan, depending on how one wishes to transcribed this. Studies of ostraka at Masada show that it was one of the five most popular names there, along with Shimeon, Yehudah, Yehosef, and Eleazar.

The second line is deeper and was first read as "ben (son of) Hagkol" but it makes more sense if one amends the reading to

Or "ben (son of) Ezekial" which was a common name, since Hagkol was not otherwise known (see here).

After the outlandish names made about the Talpiot Tomb, based on the appearance of some rather common names on its ossuaries, I would rather be careful about making any claims based on prosopography. I will simply point out a few uses of the name Yehohanan, who appears as the High Priest amongst the Elephantine papyri in the Bagoshi Letter; he would be the second High Priest of that name. Yehohanan is the Hebrew equivalent of John Hyrcanus, and is the name he uses when he identifies himself as the High Priest on coins - these coins may date to John Hyrcanus I or John Hycanus II (JSTOR).

During the Second Temple period we know that boys were named after their grand-fathers, to solidify family connections. Hyrcanus II was allowed to live on and remain as High Priest after he had been de-throned, and we know from Josephus that he had sons. We also know that he was killed by Herod in 30 BC, and that after the very brief High Priestship of the Hasmonean Aristobulus III, brother of Mariamne, the office passed to a line of Herodian men who were mostly Sudducees. There were various attempts to rebel against Herod and his heirs by the pro-Hasmonean factions and so, given his name, I suggest that Yehohanan was one of these rebels, though probably not a Hasmonean himself.

Crucifixion was according to Cicero "a cruel, horrific punishment" and for this reason people think it was for slaves not Roman citizens. The truth is that it could be applied even to Consuls as a punishment for treason, and this is why so many losers in Civil Wars chose to suicide or exile instead. The most famous victims of Roman crucifixion were the slaves after Spartacus' Revolt, although it had been used earlier in Sicily after the Servile Wars. In Israel it was nothing new at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, and thousands were killed in this manner after the Jewish Wars.

Because of the prohibition in Deuteronomy 21:22, and from the commentaries to Deuteronomy 28.66 some think that Jews were against crucifixion and used stoning as their preferred means of execution. In fact, in Israel it was reserved for treason, as in Rome. This was clarified by the Temple Scroll found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls (11Q Temple LXIV, 6–13):

If a man slanders his people and delivers his people to a foreign nation and does evil to his people, you shall hang him on a tree and he shall die. On the testimony of two witnesses and on the testimony of three witnesses he shall be put to death and they shall hang him on the tree. If a man is guilty of a capital crime and flees to other nations, and curses his people, the children of Israel, you shall hang him also on the tree, and he shall die. But his body shall not stay overnight on the tree. Indeed you shall bury him on the same day.

The Mishnah of Sanhedrin vi.4ff confirms that the body should be buried normally, in the family tomb, and not left overnight.

Given how many tens even hundreds of thousands of people we know were crucified, it's perhaps surprising more archaeological evidence of them has not been found. There are two sensible reasons for this - some were crucified using rope rather than nails, and many of those crucified under the Romans were the poor or slaves, whose bodies were then tossed onto rubbish heaps rather than buried.

One other reason is that both Christians and Jews assigned magical healing properties to nails used in crucifixions. In fact they were one of the few items Jews were allowed to carry on the Sabbath (Mishnah Shabbat 6.10):

[On the Sabbath] it is permitted to go out with eggs of locusts or with the tooth of a fox or a nail of an impaled convict, as medical purposes. Such is the decision of Rabbi Yose.

Rabbi Meir prohibits the use of these things even on week days, for fear of imitating the Amorites.

In the Jerusalem Talmud, Shabbat 6.9 [7c-d; 8c], it is clarified that "whatever is used to heal is not imitating the Amorites" and that "the nail of an impaled convict is good against a spider's bite" and could be carried on the Sabbath. The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 67a) pretty much says the same thing, except that the nail is good against inflammation. Nails from crucifixions were so important that they could be carried on the Sabbath - and were much sought after, hence the lack of them in the archaeological record. Just take a look at how many Catholic churches have relics of nails from the cross or crowns made out of them.

Evidence for The Temple Menorah

2011-08-11T13:08:00.002+01:00

A dig in Jerusalem has revealed artifacts from the time of the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. A sword still in it's leather scabbard was one of the interesting finds, as was this graffito of the Temple Menorah. It's particularly important as there are few images from the time of the Temple, and this one was found close to it (in a "drainage channel between the City of David and the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden") both geographically and temporally.

Artifacts breathe new life into the destruction of the Temple - Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

A stone object adorned with a rare engraving of a menorah was found in the soil beneath the street, on the side of the drainage channel. According to Shukron and Professor Reich, "Interestingly, even though we are dealing with a depiction of the seven-branched candelabrum, only five branches appear here. The portrayal of the menorah's base is extremely important because it clarifies what the base of the original menorah looked like, which was apparently tripod shaped".

The fact that the stone object was found at the closest proximity to the Temple Mount to date is also important. The researchers suppose a passerby who saw the menorah with his own eyes and was amazed by its beauty incised his impressions on a stone and afterwards tossed his scrawling to the side of the road, without imagining that his creation would be found 2,000 years later.

The best known contemporary depiction of the Temple Menorah was as part of his triumph on the Arch of Titus.

Jews will debate most things, since 'learning' is highly regarded, so it's not surprising that the shape of the lost Temple Menorah was debated by leading rabbis. Most felt that the seven branches of the Temple Menorah were semi-circular, as shown on the Arch of Titus, but others, such as Rashi and Maimonides (his drawing from Perush Hamishnayot at Menachot 3:7 is below), felt that they were straight:

If the new graffito is accurate - and it shows five branches not seven - the Temple Menorah had a tripod base of three legs. It is important, but it's not the only pictorial evidence we have for the form of the Temple Menorah and it's seven branches.

This coin (see also) was issued by the last Hasmonean Antigonus II Mattathias (d. 37 BC) around 40 BC showing the Menorah and the Bread Table (above) and the Menorah (below, which names the High Priest Matisyahu and shows the Bread Table on the reverse).

These coins pre-date the destruction of the Temple, but one has to be careful when using such tiny schematised images as evidence. The first coin may possibly have a tripod base. Both coins show branches that are more 'upright' than semi-circular, particularly the first one.

This fragmentary depiction incised into plaster also pre-dates the destruction of the Temple, since it comes from one of the Herodian homes destroyed in AD 70 about 150 m west of the Temple (source):

The graffito is now in the Israel Museum and it shows the base as tripod.

Another depiction of the Menorah was found at Migdal, which seems to be the oldest structure securely dated as a synagogue by the Israel Antiquities Authority with a Menorah from the Second Temple period (50 BC to AD 100) (here):

We have a lengthy description of the Menorah from Exodus 25, with God's instructions to Moses concerning its design:

³¹ And you must make a lampstand of pure gold. Of hammered work the lampstand is to be made. Its base, its branches, its cups, its knobs and its blossoms are to proceed out from it.
³² And six branches are running out from its sides, three branches of the lampstand from its one side and three branches of the lampstand from its other side.
³³ Three cups shaped like flowers of almond are on the one set of branches, with knobs and blossoms alternating, and three cups shaped like flowers of almond on the other set of branches, with knobs and blossoms alternating. This is the way it is with the six branches running out from the lampstand.
³⁴ And on the lampstand are four cups shaped like flowers of almond, with its knobs and its blossoms alternating.
³⁵ And the knob under two branches is out of it and the knob under the two other branches is out of it and the knob under two more branches is out of it, for the six branches running out from the lampstand.
³⁶ Their knobs and their branches are to proceed out from it. All of it is one piece of hammered work, of pure gold.
³⁷ And you must make seven lamps for it; and the lamps must be lit up, and they must shine upon the area in front of it.
³⁸ And its snuffers and its fire holders are of pure gold.
³⁹ Of a talent of pure gold he should make it with all these utensils of it.
⁴⁰ And see that you make them after their pattern that was shown to you in the mountain

The problem is that this was the Menorah in Solomon's Temple, which was carried off to Babylon - and although the Jews returned, most scholars believe that the Treasure in Herod's Temple was a later re-creation of the lost originals (it was one thing for Cyrus to let the Jews go, another for him to let them return with the booty the Persians had won off them).

When Jerusalem was sacked and the Temple destroyed in AD 70, the Treasure was taken to Rome to be paraded in Titus' triumph, but the real treasures of Judaism, its rabbis, were not. Shimon bar Yochai fled to Peki'in in the Upper Galilee (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat, 33b), and during excavations of the synagogue there in the 1920s a relief of the Menorah was excavated (below, source). The synagogue was re-built in the Late Antique period, but the one the relief comes from is said to have been erected by Joshua ben Hananiah (d. AD 131). A second relief was found depicting the Holy of Holies.

There is considerable debate about whether there were synagogues before the destruction of the Temple. There were briefly Temples at Elephantine and Leontopolis, but ... archaeologists still dispute whether the synagogues were synagogues or not. The Delos Synagogue is linked by inscriptions to the Samaritans and Jews, and it was probably a meeting place originally for them rather than a place of worship. The foundations of the Ostia Synagogue are earlier, but we're not sure when the building became a synagogue. This depiction of the Menorah from it dates to its use after the destruction of the Temple (source):

There certainly were many synagogues built after the destruction of the Temple, since places to congregate and worship were needed. Many of these included depictions of a Menorah (JSTOR). I assume that many of them copied a now lost depiction of the Temple Menorah, although they have considerable variations.

The basalt lintel from Kokhav ha-Yarden (source):

The stone door from Kfar Yasir, probably from the so-called Tomb of El-Khader (source):

This relief came from the 3rd century synagogue at Ashkelon, and was re-used in the mosque there (source):

Another from a 4th century synagogue at Eshtemoa (source), one of four door lintels carved with the Menorah there:

Once we get to the Byzantine period, many mosaics in synagogues in Israel depicted the Menorah, as well as other objects. The Hammat Tiberius synagogue had both a mosaic and a relief depiction, and is dated by an inscription to the later 4th century (source):

The mosaic in the Khirbet Susiya is again 4th century, and interesting as it shows tripod bases (source):

As did the synagogue at Beth-shean (Scythopolis - source):

The 3rd - 4th century synagogue at Sha’ Alvim had simplified depictions. The inscriptions make it clear that this was a Samaritan synagogue, but one is a plea for the "Restoration of the place of prayer" (source):

There is also 5th century painted tombstone found at Zoar near the Dead Sea. From the text we know that Hannah died on the eve of Passover in AD 438 (source):

The Menorah was also depicted on a chancel screen in a Byzantine church in Israel (here).

Jews living outside Israel also depicted the Menorah. These 4th century gold-glass bases of bowls were found embedded in the Catacombs at Rome (source):

The Jewish Villa Torlonia Catacombs in Rome from the 2nd - 3rd century also depicted the Menorah (source):

The Menorah was regularly carved onto the tombs of Jews: several tomb slabs from Italy in the Jewish Museum of New York - Roman here and Byzantine here - both showing the Menorah with tripod bases, a sarcophagus fragment (here); the slab of Ammias (here) and Pomponius (here) from the catacombs of Monteverde; the slab of Primitiva and her nephew Euphrenon (here); a slab from Merida (here).

Numerous smaller objects depicted the Menorah, for example oil lamps (here) and this Byzantine bronze seal (source):

Probably the best preserved depictions come from the Dura Europos Synagogue, which we know from an Aramaic inscription was renovate around AD 244 (the city was destroyed in AD 256-7, and so very well preserved for archaeologists). Good images can be found here.

Scene of Moses in the Wilderness:

Scene of the Temple of Aaron:

This page from the Jewish Encyclopedia shows various other depictions of the Menorah and hypothetical reconstructions:

Julian the Apostate started to rebuild the Temple (Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, 23.1.2–3, see also here). Alypius of Antioch was in charge of the project, but after Julian's death and the earthquake of AD 363 the project was abandoned. For more on Julian and the Jews see JSTOR.

Although a very small number of Jews today would like to see the Temple re-built, most would not - for if there were a Third Temple, we would in theory have to return to making animal sacrifices there, as shown in this fresco from Dura Europas ...

But if someone does want to re-create the Temple Menorah, Rashi and Maimonides were right in that the branches were probably straight, according to the archaeological evidence. And the base was probably a tripod, not the octagonal base shown on the Arch of Titus.

Update - those with JSTOR might like to read this article about the Hasmonean menorah (JSTOR).

I also found this bronze ring supposedly dated to the Second Temple period with a menorah at the Living Torah Museum:

Roman Helmets

2011-08-10T17:30:00.000+01:00

The Ribchester Helmet was found in a small hoard in Lancashire, bought by Charles Townley (see engraving), and is now in the British Museum.

There was a great deal of excitement when the Crosby Garrett Helmet was found in Cumbria last year then sold at Christie's (below, see catalogue), so I thought it might be worth pointing out several similar mask helmets found in Britain.

The Newstead Helmet, now in the National Museums of Scotland is in much poorer condition but is interesting as it was found near Melrose in Roxburghshire, Scotland. The provenance was the Roman fort at Trimontium along with the face mask from a second helmet, and a very elaborate helmet without a mask, and assorted other pieces of military equipment. The Newstead Helmet is interesting as bits of wool remained, showing it had once been lined. The main helmets can be seen here.

Telamon: A Republican Crucified Man

2011-08-10T08:56:00.005+01:00

Archaeologists recently re-announced they had found a tomb believed by later Christians to have been the tomb of St Phillip in a previously unknown church at Hierapolis (here; see also Star of David carved on the Byzantine structure which was his previously known octagonal martyrium 40 m away). Phillip was one of several Apostles crucified like Jesus: Saints Peter, Phillip and Bartholomew asked to be crucified upside down, St Andrew on a diagonal cross ... And crucifixion was a widely used form of execution in the ancient world.

This fresco from the so-called sepolcro di Atilio Calatino near the Esquiline Gate, better known as the Esquiline Tomb, dates to the 3rd century BC. For years it was thought to depict a Telamon, as seen in a number of Etruscan tombs, and which were depicted in terracotta on the gates of many Republican towns. Other frescoes from the tomb are better known, showing a battle between the Romans and their enemies, lictors, a triumph.

Because of the depiction of the triumph celebrated by a man of pretorian rank, which are recorded in the Fasti Triumphales, the tomb was linked to A. Atilius A.f. Cn Calatinus, consul of 258 BC, who celebrated a triumph over Carthage in 257 as praetor. Another suggestion was Q. Valerius Q.f. P.n. Falto, who also celebrated a triumph over the Sicilians in 241 BC as propraetor - although that was a naval victory, and the frescoes show land battles. Most others prefer to see it as the 291 BC proconsular triumph of Q. Fabius Maximus Rullianus over the Samnites because of a label on one scene that reads "M. fanius", "St. f." and another "Q. Fabio" - the labels have faded but can be seen in copies made soon after the discovery of the tomb (JSTOR).

Another theory was that because of the 'Telamon' figure shown above, the triumph celebrated was the victory over the Gauls at the Battle of Talamone in 225 BC, making it the 224 triumph of L. Aemilius Q.f. Cn.n. Papus. ... but this is playing with words we know too little about. In fact Telamon figures decorated theatres, tombs and town gates in Italy that had nothing to do with the Battle of Talamone.

In fact closer examination of the so-called Telamon is that it is not a painted architectural support on a trompe l'oeuil pillar designed to separate and articulate scenes, but ... a man attached to a horizontal beam by an iron nail. He is being crucified.

Although the wooden cross has become ubiquitous in Christian depictions of crucifixion, before the empire trees and beams were used. Cicero (In Pisonem, 42) mentions being "nailed to a cross".

Livy (Periochae 17, 6) tells in the entry for 257 BC that the Carthaginians crucified their own general, Hannibal Gisco, after their defeat:

Hannibal, dux Poenorum, victa classe cui praefuerat, a militibus suis in crucem sublatus est

We know that Atilius Calatinus also built a temple of Fides on the Capitoline to celebrate his victory over the Carthaginians, and it was decorated with frescoes showing his relative Marcus Atilius Regulus (Val Max IV.4.5-6), who had been tortured by the Carthaginians and died in 255 BC. Some sources give another manner of death, but Seneca (Epistles 98.12) mentions Regulus having overcome crucifixion. Cicero must have meant crucifixion as the 'machine' he describes (In Pisonem, 43): "Marcus Regulus whom the Carthaginians, having cut off his eyelids and bound him in a machine, killed by keeping him awake"
There are a number of different descriptions of the torture and death of Regulus but several include details of his crucifixion, such as Silius Italicus (Punica II, 340-4) which describes him as having been suspended from a cross. Florus (Epitome I.18.25) also mentions suffering on a cross.

So if the 'Telamon' is instead a crucified man, this supports the other iconography as meaning that it was the tomb of Atilius A.f. Cn Calatinus.

For more on the tomb I highly recommend this recent paper by Filippo Canali De Rossi, Il sepolcro di Atilio Calatino presso la porta Esquilina, available here (the source of the two images above, and many more).

The frescoes are now in the Centrale Montemartini (see here).

Creation and Destruction of Ancient Art

2011-08-09T10:49:00.002+01:00

I thought it might be interesting to round up a few depictions of ancient artists at work.

First up is a portrait painter. This panel depicts him in his studio in the 1st century AD in Kerch (Bosporan Kingdom). On the wall hang portraits he's painted, including Imagines Clipeatae which usually survive carved. He also uses an easel. (Hermitage Museum)

This red figure cup shows a Greek bronze sculptor in his workshop, carving a statue of a horse (by the Foundry Painter, found in Vulci, now Staatliche Antikensammlungen Inv. 2650 - source):

Sculptors also sometimes depicted themselves working, as in this 2nd century AD frieze from a sarcophagus found in Ephesus (Istanbul inv. 775):

We also have a view ancient depictions of iconoclasm. Ironically, this details from the 9th century Chludov Psalter is also evidence for ancient painting techniques since the mosaic of Jesus is being white-washed.

The Goleniscev Papyrus has a well known depiction of Theophilus standing over the Serapeion, destroyed on his instructions.

The iconoclasm of Byzantine Christians was of course based on the Old Testament prohibition of images, so it's not surprising the a panel from the Roman synagogue at Dura Europas showed the destruction of the temple of Dagon:

When East Met West in Antiquity

2011-08-08T11:58:00.003+01:00

I've already blogged about the Sampul Tapestry, which looks Greek, was probably made circa 200 BC, but was excavated in western China buried with one of the Tarim Basin mummies. It probably made its way there via Bactria, or through trade along the Silk Road.

There is plenty of evidence for trade between East and West in Antiquity, although interestingly those studying Asia concentrate on the overland routes, whilst those studying Rome tend to prefer to look at the sea routes since we have an ancient manual for reaching India by boat, the Periplus Maris Erythraei, that survives.

Plenty of evidence of trade with Rome has been uncovered in India, including pottery and Roman coins (alas a huge hoard was found a few years ago, but the Indian gentleman melted them down for their silver content).

We tend to forget about this Indian ivory statuette of Yaksi or Lakshmi which was excavated in Pompeii (Naples AM; JSTOR). We know that Pompeii was destroyed in AD 79, so this provides us with a terminus ante quem for the figurine to have been imported from the Indian subcontinent. Similar first century ivories were found at Begram in Afghanistan (here). Although we know of active sea trade with India under Nero, this figure is likely to have come in overland via the Central Asian route.

What makes the figure particularly interesting is that she shows how Greeks of Alexander the Great first took images of Aphrodite to Bactria, which influenced local Classicising images of Buddhist and Hindu figures - and then centuries later one such figure returned to the Roman West where it was excavated.

The Begram ivories were excavated a long time ago, so their stratification is disputed and they have been dated by scholars from the first to the third centuries AD, because of the scarcity of images in India. Because of the strong parallels to the Pompeii ivory, they can now be firmly assigned to the first century AD - unfortunately many of them were destroyed under the Taliban.

For an Indian who went to Eleusis under Augustus, and was buried there see: An Indian at Eleusis

Homer Dubs' theory of Romans settling in China, and their descendants living on, was disproven by DNA. This does not mean that the Romans and Chinese did not have contact - some Romans arrived in China in AD 161, claiming to be an embassy from the Emperor. Various groups of Chinese set off for Western Europe - one only made it as far as Antioch, convinced that such a great city must have been the Roman capital, another may have made it to Augustus' Rome. Most Roman-Chinese contact was indirect, and the Roman glass found in China and South-East Asia probably arrived there through traders and intermediaries.

More interesting are the Roman and Byzantine coins found in China, such as this one of Justinian, found in the tomb of Dugu Luo (AD 534-599) at Dizangwan (source).

Byzantine gold coins were found in tombs throughout China, as this map shows:

Some coins had holes punched into them, for example this solidus of Justin I and Justinian II found in the tomb of Tian Hong (+ AD 575) at Guyuan, which suggest that they were sewn onto clothes.

Later, presumably after the Byzantine emperors passed laws restricting the export of gold coins, imitation coins were used in China. This foil copy of a coin of Leo from Huangzhou.

This gold 'coin' was found in the tomb of Shi Suoyan (+ AD 656; buried 664), in the cemetery of the Shi family outside Guyuan, Ningxia province

Lin Ying wrote a fascinating article about these, and the British Museum has more examples, such as the 'coin' below brought back by Aurel Stein from Astana, where many similar examples were found (source).

The only surviving map of the Roman world, the Tabula Peutingeriana copied by a Medieval Monk, of course ends in the East with a depiction of Indian and China.