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Excavations at Naukratis: D. The Terracottas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Extract

The terracottas, which were recovered during the spring of 1899 from the site of Naukratis, are both more numerous and more important than those obtained during the two previous campaigns. They number nearly four hundred, the specimens ranging in date from the sixth century B.C. to the second century of our era. A number of these are of types akin to those already known at Naukratis, and are present in such quantity as to make it possible to trace the probable development of their various peculiarities. Besides these, and thirty or forty small female heads of “Tanagra” type and other figures of comparatively late date, we have the remains of nearly a score of female heads of unusual size and beauty, which are to be ascribed chiefly to the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1899

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References

page 69 note 1 There is ample evidence of a considerable appropriation of Egyptian religious ideas by the Greeks in the last centuries of the Pagan era. It would seem that there was no corresponding inclination on the part of the Egyptians to be influenced by the religion of the Greeks. “Only very isolated indications of Greek ideas can be found, such, e.g., as the substitution of the name ‘Hades’ for Dûat (the underworld) in the texts” (Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, pp. 170, 171). The fact that in districts where there was a strong Greek element, there was an apparent modification of Egyptian religious ideas, is to be attributed rather to an appropriation of Egyptian gods, and their identification with Hellenic divinities by the Greeks, than with Milne (A History of Egypt, V, Under Roman Rule, p. 128, etc.) to any corresponding movement on the part of Egyptian religious thought. “At the very time when the Hellenes were displaying the greatest zeal in appropriating the strange gods, simply accepting some of them, and proclaiming others as counterparts of their own deities, the Egyptian religion had renounced its former liberality and ceased to adopt foreign deities” (Wiedemann, p. 171). Mr. Percy Gardner (New Chapters in Greek History, p. 193), in denying that the Greeks borrowed religious cults from Egypt, cannot, I think, intend his remarks to apply to this late chapter of Hellenic history.

page 69 note 2 Nauk. i. 89.

page 69 note 3 See British Museum, etc., and Terres Cuites de Tanagra coll. Camille Lecuyer.

page 70 note 1 See British Museum, etc., and Froehner, Terres Cuites d' Asie.

page 71 note 1 The phallic nature of many of the specimens lends some support, I think, to this view.

page 73 note 1 Cf. certain terracottas found at Halicarnassus and now in the British Museum; C 507a, C 508, C 508b; also some from the neighbourhood of Cyrene.

page 73 note 2 E 181, E 182.

page 74 note 1 Froehner, Terres Cuites d Asie, considers the long necks of some heads similar to these (Vol. ii. Pl. 97, cf. Nos. 83, 88, etc.) to be phallic. Their raison d' être seems rather to have been convenience in fastening the head, which was made separately, between the back and front halves of the figure.

page 75 note 1 The circular or rectangular holes in the backs of some of the specimens were to assist evaporation during the firing process. Possibly they were also used for purposes of suspension.

page 75 note 2 Nos. 162, 163, 206, 209, 232, 251 are exceptional in this respect. Many of the specimens show signs of what at first appears to be white paint, but is really a hard calcareous deposit due to the nature of the soil in which they were buried.

page 75 note 3 Lucian (Lexiphanes, 22) alludes to the use of these colours by koroplasts.

page 78 note 1 The figure generally is painted white.

page 78 note 2 A very early figure of this type is shown in Salzmann, Nécropole de Camiros, Pl. XII.

page 80 note 1 Cf. Acropolis Museum, Athens, No. 679, etc.

page 81 note 1 Cf. Naukratis i. Pl. XV. 8. Our specimen is of friable light red clay.

page 81 note 2 Clay, a light yellow.

page 81 note 3 The terracotta of No. 26 is a very light red, that of No. 27 yellow-brown, that of No. 29 pale red, and that of No. 31 also pale red. In the last instance it is very friable. With No. 27 cf. Heuzey, Figurines Antiques du Louvre, Pl. 14 (Rhodes).

page 81 note 4 Terracotta, pale red, soapy.

page 81 note 5 Terracotta, pale red.

page 81 note 6 Terracotta, as Nos. 10 or 35; CI. Pottier and Reinach, Myrina, pl. 5, and British Museum, C 157 (Cyprus).

page 81 note 7 Terracotta, as Nos. 10 or 35; cf. Pottier and Reinach, Myrina, pl. 5, and British Museum, C 157 (Cyprus).

page 81 note 8 Cf. No. 47, and British Museum, C 596.

page 81 note 9 A very similar head is Collection J. Greau, No. 550 (Cyprus).

page 82 note 1 Cf. British Museum, C 596. Terracotta, coarse red.

page 82 note 2 See Naukratis, i. p. 40, and plate XIX. 7, 8 and 9 (limestone figures); British Museum, C 585; Hilton Price Collection 2055–7.

page 82 note 3 Cf. Monumenti Inediti, xi. 52, Nos. 33 and 34.

page 83 note 1 E.g. A 9, 14, 15, 16. Cf. also AI (Sardinia); Cesnola, Cyprus, Pl. 6; Salzmann, Camiros, Pl. 24.

page 83 note 2 Cf. British Museum, A 19 (Cyprus).

page 83 note 3 All these are now in the British Museum. My thanks are due to Professor Ridgeway for allowing me to make use of his proof-sheets.

page 83 note 4 Cf. British Museum, B 58.

page 84 note 1 Cf. Reinach, , Répertoire de la Statuaire Grecque et Romaine, ii. p. 269Google Scholar, Torlonia (503), p. 270, statuette in Louvre and figure in Munich Antiquarium (307).

page 84 note 2 Cf. Pausanias, 8, 25, 7; 8, 37, 3; 10, 35, 10; and Reinach, Répertoire de la Statuaire Grecque et Romaine, p. 243 (British Museum).

page 84 note 3 No. 81 is not, I think, of Naukratite clay. It resembles most closely No. 74 in this respect, but is darker in colour. The terracotta of No. 89 is a pale yellow. With No. 88 cf. British Museum, C 765 (Bengazi); and with No. 86 Collection J. Greau, 341 (Tanagra).

page 84 note 4 A similar figure is in the British Museum, Egyptian Room, Case M, labelled “Female figure, perhaps a Danaid, carrying jax”; cf. also British Museum, C 601.

page 84 note 5 Cf. Froehner, , Terres Cuites d'Asie, ii. Pl. 42.Google Scholar

page 85 note 1 For the attitude of the legs, and the dress, cf. British Museum, C 202.

page 85 note 2 The figurines from Thebes, etc., in which the himation is drawn across the lower part of the face, are not similar.

page 85 note 3 Cf. Naukratis i. p. 45, and a stone figure pictured on plate XIX. of the same work, also a terracotta in the Edwards' collection at University College, London, and British Museum, C 590.

page 85 note 4 Cf. a terracotta in the Edwards' collection.

page 85 note 5 Terracotta; very pale red.

page 85 note 6 Mr. F. Ll. Griffith has very kindly read the proof-sheets of the remainder of this article, and my thanks are due to him for some corrections in the spelling of Egyptian god-names, for a suggestion which I have embodied in note 1 on p. 89, and for one or two emendations.

page 85 note 7 Nauk. i. p. 9.

page 85 note 8 lb.

page 85 note 9 In places where the ground had been disturbed they were occasionally found at a lower level.

page 86 note 1 Mr. Huish is wrong in alluding to these figures as female (Greek Terracotta Statuettes, p. 180).

page 86 note 2 De Iside et Osiride.

page 86 note 3 Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 27.

page 86 note 4 Wiedemann, pp. 223, 4. “Horos, the son of Isis, appears in the Osirian legend, first as the child Her-pe-khred …, Harpocrates, with his finger in his mouth, secondly as the avenger of his father (Osiris); and finally as his father's successor on the throne of Egypt. His original nature can no longer be determined; even in prehistoric times he had already been blended with Horos the sun god, from whom there is no distinguishing him in the texts.”

page 86 note 5 Wiedemann, p. 27.

page 86 note 6 Tide's History of the Egyptian Religion, Ballingal, p. 52.

page 87 note 1 Mr. F. Ll. Griffith informs me that this statement is incorrect.

page 87 note 2 At Rouen.

page 87 note 3 See Souvestre, Les Derniers Bretons, p. 92.

page 87 note 4 At Paris.

page 87 note 5 See Budge, The Mummy, pp. 271, 2.

page 88 note 1 See Wiedemann, pp. 4, 109, 136, 260, 301–6.

page 88 note 2 Though the syncretic tendency was strong in Egypt, the Egyptians, on their part, seem to have exhibited no inclination to identify the Greek and Roman gods with their own, Wiedemann, p. 170.

page 88 note 3 De Iside et Osiride, 355 EF, 356 A, 375 F.

page 88 note 4 ib. 366 A. Maspero, The Dawn of Civilization, p. 158.

page 88 note 5 ib. 356 B, 365 D.

page 88 note 6 See Plut. De Iside et Osiride, 358 B, 371 F; Diod. 1. 22, 6, 4. 6. 3.

page 88 note 7 Wiedemann, p. 164.

page 89 note 1 This lock is alluded to by Wiedemann, op. cit. p. 167, as the “side-lock of youth.” This was its original significance, but the Greeks apparently lost sight of the idea unless we should regard Nos. 235–239, etc., in which the lock is attached to a head of elderly character, as amalgamations of incongruous types.

page 89 note 2 The Greeks, in consequence, came to regard him as the god of taciturnity. The hand pointing to his mouth was, however, with the Egyptians, the sign that he was yet an infant and could not speak. Tiele, op. cit., p. 40.

page 89 note 3 British Museum, C 580.

page 90 note 1 E.g. Nos. 146, 152, 210, 220–3, 230, 234, etc.

page 90 note 2 Brick-red terracotta.

page 90 note 3 Possibly this is the “Naukratite crown” of myrtle discussed in Athenaeus, xv. 675 F seqq. For similar wreaths see Odessa Museum, vol. i, Pl. 2 (Olbia), Pottier and Reinach, Myrina, Pl. 40.

page 91 note 1 Terracotta; red. For the arrangement of the hair cf. Collection J. Greau, 1149 (Myrina).

page 91 note 2 Cf. Furtwaengler, Sabouroff Collection, Pl. 122 (? Dionysos).

page 91 note 3 The terracotta of No. 171 is smooth and pale yellow in colour.

page 92 note 1 If this is the case, we should possibly trace a connection with Roman Cupid figures. There is a winged Harpokrates wearing the pschent in the Naples Museum.

page 92 note 2 Cf. British Museum, C 582.

page 92 note 3 Wiedemann, op. cit. p. 30, describes her as“a goddess of purely grammatical origin.” Hathor was worshipped under this name at Sebennytos.

page 92 note 4 See Budge, The Mummy, pp. 271, 2.

page 92 note 5 Cf. British Museum, C 584.

page 93 note 1 Cf. Hilton Price Collection, 3259.

page 93 note 2 Cf. British Museum, C 583.

page 93 note 3 Cf. Heuzey, Fig. Ant. du Louvre, Pl. 53. He traces this type to the common figures of a child playing with a goose. The reverse order of development seems more probable, as the hieratic usually precedes the genre. Cf. Mon. Ined. xi. 56. 10 (Tarentum); British Museum, C 734, 735 (Cyrenaica), C 613, etc.; Hilton Price Coll. 3251.

page 93 note 4 Wiedemann, op. cit. p. 121.

page 93 note 5 Wiedemann, op. cit. pp. 230–1. “Seb (Geb) was god of the earth, for which his name was used as an equivalent in expressions such as ‘on the back of Seb’”. … “His sacred animal was the goose, and sometimes he is supposed to be connected or even identical with the goose which laid the egg whence issued the world.” It would, however, be fanciful to consider Khonsu-Herpekhred's position on the back of a goose symbolical of his world-wide power.

page 93 note 6 Cf. also a figure in the Naples Museum.

page 93 note 7 Cf. Brit. Mus. Egyptian Room, case M; figure from Memphis.

page 93 note 8 Cf. Brit. Mus. C 582 and C 584. A similar specimen (phallic) is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Cf. also a fayence figure in the British Museum, marked 1243a and 11745; and H. P. Coll. 3248, 3250–2, 3255, 8.

page 93 note 9 Cf. Plutarch, op. cit. 365 B.

page 93 note 10 British Museum, C 604, a grotesque figure with the lock, carrying a basket, is probably similar in intention; cf. also B. M. C 605; and many figures in Egyptian Room, case M, where Horos is holding a cornucopia; so H. P. Coll. 3247; cf. 3249.

page 93 note 11 Cf. H. P. Coll. 3260.

page 94 note 1 No. 215 is of slate-coloured clay.

page 94 note 2 Cf. Furtwaengler, Sabouroff Collection, p. 138 (Grotesques from Smyrna); Froehner, , Terres Cuites d'Asie, ii. Pl. 83.Google Scholar

page 94 note 3 The clay of No. 228 is a dark slate colour in parts.

page 95 note 1 Brick-red terracotta.

page 95 note 2 Cf. British Museum, C 623; also C 624–627.

page 95 note 3 For the object in the hand of No. 271, cf. B. Vienne, Sacken XXVII. 3 Haut-relief, Reinach, op. cit. p. 65, a Silenus group.

page 95 note 4 Cf. Hilton Price Coll. 3256, where pschent and horns are present.

page 95 note 5 Cf. British Museum, C 593, C 608; H. P. Coll. 3269, etc.

page 95 note 6 Collection J. Greau, 389.

page 95 note 7 Heuzey, Fig. Ant. du Louvre, Pl. 5. He considers the type to be Phoenician; Mr. Huish, op. cit. p. 45, calls the style “Pseudo-Assyrian.”

page 96 note 1 The terracotta of No. 292 is reddish-brown in colour, and soapy to the touch. Cf. No. 362.

page 96 note 2 From 14A (see Plan).

page 96 note 3 See Naukratis, 11. p. 25.

page 96 note 4 See Wiedtnann, pp. 70–4, 143–5, etc.

page 96 note 5 See Wiedemann, pp. 70–4, and p. 168.

page 97 note 1 Cf. Cesnola, Cyprus, Pl. 8.