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Archaeology in Greece, 1932–19331

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

H. G. G. Payne
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Extract

The American excavations in the Athenian Agora were resumed in February 1933, and continued till the middle of July. An account of the work up to May 1 has been published in AJA. 1933, 305 ff. The work is being carried on in four sectors (see AJA. pl. 35)

The wells and cisterns cleared during the latter part of the summer of 1932 are described by Homer Thompson in AJA. 1933, 289 ff. These provide clear evidence of the existence of houses where all traces of walls and foundations have disappeared, notably along the north foot of the Areopagus and north-east of the Theseum, and their contents shew that the inhabitation of this area goes back at least to the early sixth century B.C. In some cases (wells closed in the late sixth and early fifth centuries) the pottery found in the wells seems to indicate the proximity of potters' workshops or warehouses, and pots have been found which had contained miltos. This is further proved for the fourth century by the presence of misfired vase-fragments and lamps. Several pieces of archaic pottery found in these wells are illustrated in the article mentioned above— notably a large one-piece amphora of the earliest class, decorated with a massive sphinx (loc. cit. fig. 3), and from the same shaft an exquisite plastic vase (loc. cit. fig. 5, here Pl XVI)—Ionian, or Ionising, work of about 540 B.C., and without question one of the finest of all existing plastic vases.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , 1933 , pp. 266 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1933

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References

2 Ht. 25·5 cms. The gesture is explained as that of one binding a fillet on his head, but the position first of the hands, with palms forward, and second of the fingers, makes this unlikely: a less convenient grip for such a purpose is hard to imagine. The explanation would seem to lie in comparison with earlier plastic vases in the shape of kneeling and squatting figures, which were often made for suspension by a cord passed through the hands (e.g. Maximova, Vases Plastiques, pl. 42, 157, 159): the position of the hands of the Agora figure suits this interpretation, and though the idea seems strange, and in so delicate a figure unsuitablse, we have the positive evidence of the earlier vases to prove that it was popular. The later gem, Beazley, Lewes House Collection, no. 92, which the terracotta might recall, seems not to be a relevant comparison.

3 JHS. 1932, 238: AA. 1932, 107.

4 AM. 1890, 320; Delt. 1890, 16; Sitz. Ak. Bay. 1900, 267; AM. 1893, 53.

5 Dickins, p. 124, no. 590.

6 Abridged from Karo's list.

7 JHS. 1932, 239.

8 The following is the report of Mr. R. J. H. Jenkins, who carried out the excavation.

8a Length 36 cms; greatest height 21; width 21.

9 Oikonomos, , Ἐφημ. 1931, 1 ff.Google Scholar

10 There are some foundations within the sixthcentury temple which are evidently remains of an earlier building, intermediate between this and the first, geometric, temple just described.

11 JHS. IX, pp. 327 ff.

12 Cf. AM. 1930, Beilage 26.

13 Cf. ibid. Beilage 25.

14 Cf. AM. 1930, 59 ff.

15 Ἐφημ. 1904, pl. 3.

16 BSA. 1927–8, 254 ff.

17 Type Johansen, , Vases Sicyoniens, pl. 9, 6.Google Scholar

18 Annuario, x–xii, 128, fig. 110.

19 Another sheath was apparently of leather.

20 Kunze, Kretische Bronzereliefs, pl. 56e.

21 Marinatos, in Karo's report, calls it a bull's head with the Minoan rosette on the forehead. This would, of course, be very interesting, but the head, which is very neatly modelled, cannot be that of a bull.

22 Cf. the tricorpor from the poros pediment on the Acropolis. For the form of the “fire” we have an almost exact parallel in the Hittite relief, Weber, Hett. Kunst, pl. 2.

23 Marinatos and Platon estimate the total of vases at about 500.

24 Cf. Evans, , Palace of Minos, II, 64 ff.Google Scholar

25 Cf. JHS. 1932, 253, and BCH. 1932, 76 ff.

26 JHS. 1932, 255.

27 See Marinatos, in Karo's report, AA. 1933.Google Scholar

28 JHS. 1932, 255; AA. 1932, 177.

29 As marked on the plan, Dörpfeld, Troja und Ilion.