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Hellenistic Burials from Cyrenaica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

T. Burton Brown
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Extract

At Cyrene, during the summer of 1947, the Antiquities Department of the British Military Administration of Cyrenaica cleared fallen debris from some of the Hellenistic tombs to the northeast of the city, and near the line of the modern road to Apollonia. In the course of these operations some intact burials came to light.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 68 , November 1948 , pp. 148 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1948

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References

1 These tombs frequently have elaborate architectural facades, often cut in the rock, similar to those found near Alexandria, at Sciatbi.

2 For many parallels see the very valuable paper by Thompson, H. A., Hesperia III 311 ffGoogle Scholar.

3 For parallels to the shape see Clara Rhodos III, fig. 271, CVA, Musée Scheurleer, fasc. 1, III, L and N, pl. 1, no. 3 (from Kertch.), and Thompson, Hesperia III 333–334Google Scholar.

4 For parallels to the shape see CVA, Cambridge II, Pl. XXX, no. 4 (dated by Dr. Lamb to Vth. century, a date perhaps too early), and references quoted therein, CVA, Sèvres, Pl. 25, CVA, Denmark fasc. 4, Pl. 176, 6.7.8., and CVA, France, Compiègne, Pl. 24, no. 54. Another example is illustrated by Breccia, Necropolis of Sciatbi, Pl. L, no. 88.

5 For parallels to the shape see CVA, Sèvres, Pl. 25, nos. 9 and 11 (from Cyrenaica), and CVA, Oxford fasc. 1, Pl. XLVIIIno. 13.

6 For parallels to the shape see CVA, Sèvres, Pl. 24, no. 7 (from Benghazi), which as Professor Beazley pointed out is to be dated as IVth century (in JHS LVI 253Google Scholar). See also CVA, Denmark fasc. 4, Pl. 181, no. 2 (from Rhodes), and CVA, Oxford fasc. 1, Pl. XLVIII, no. 35.

7 For a near parallel see Ure, Black glaze pottery from Rhitsona in Boeotia, Pl. XVI, no. 24.

8 For a bowl with this shape of handle see CVA, Sèvres, Pl. 25, nos. 42–44.

9 Broneer, , Excavations at Corinth IV, Part II, 39 ffGoogle Scholar. He says that the latest examples of Type IV cannot be earlier than the end of the IVth century, and that the horizontal handle does not occur after the IVth century. Similar lamps are illustrated in Clara Rhodos VI–VII, fig. 187. It may be of interest to recall that this type of lamp does not occur at Sciatbi.

10 For parallels to the shape see CVA, Denmark fasc. 4, Pl. 178, no. 13 and CVA, Cambridge, fasc. 1, Pl. XLI, nos. 4-6.

11 For parallels to the shape see CVA, Sèvres, Pl. 25 nos. 20 and 21, CVA, Oxford fasc. 1, Pl. XLVIII, no. 44, CVA, Cambridge fasc. 1, Pl. XLI, no. 24, and CVA, Musée Scheurleer fasc 2, III L Pl. 3, no. 17.

12 It does not seem unreasonable to suggest a date in the later half of the fourth century for both these tombs.

13 Professor Ure, op cit. 22, says of these vessels that they might be from as early as the first half of the third century.

14 Broneer dates his type X at Corinth to the period of 250 to 175 B.C. For these objects, see the group on the top left hand corner of Fig. 2.

15 The pottery and glass was, however, all together in one place on the stone floor of the room, and nestling just within the shelter of the edge of a small step down from the threshold.

16 These types are well known at Cyrenaica. See Fig. 2 for illustrations.

17 Broneer dates this type to the second half of the first century A.D. at Corinth.

18 The width of the tombs was the same as their height.

19 For a parallel see Broneer, op. cit., Pl. IV, no. 142 (type IX, of a date of ‘not before the third century’).

20 For a parallel see Breccia, op. cit., fig. 52.

21 For a rather remote parallel see Breccia, op. cit., fig. 47.

22 The shape of the high neck and the handles, though not that of the body, is paralleled at Sciatbi, Breccia, op. cit. fig. 53. A not dissimilar vessel is illustrated in Petrie, , Naucratis I, Pl. XVI, no. 7Google Scholar.

23 For this shape, compare Breccia, op. cit. fig. 55. and Ann IV–V, 251 and fig. 2. (The Italians dated this amphora to about 200 B.C.) See also Petrie, , Tanis II. Pl. XXXIII, no. 12 and p. 65Google Scholar, and Petrie, Naucratis I, Pl. XVI, no. 2Google Scholar.

24 For a parallel to this shape (including the very unusual type of foot) see Breccia, op. cit., Pl. XXXVI.

25 Grave 66. at Rhitsona (Ure op. cit. Pl. XVIII) contained a lamp of Broneer's type IX and saucers of the outline of saucers found at Tocra. It also contained vessels of red, glazed black, unglazed buff and unglazed pink, as also found at Tocra. Ure dates this tomb to about the middle of the third century, ‘or possibly from the first half of it’ (p. 22).