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Island Gems Aftermath

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

John Boardman
John Boardman
Affiliation:
Merton College, Oxford
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Extract

This article is intended not only to record additions and corrections to Island Gems (published by the Hellenic Society in 1963 as its tenth Supplementary Volume; here abbreviated IGems), but also to discuss a class of engraved stones which was not properly distinguished in that book. The main series of Island Gems belongs to the seventh and early sixth centuries B.C. Most of the stones and a few of their devices copy Bronze Age forms, and the material is generally a distinctive, often translucent, green serpentine (‘steatite’). This series ends in the first half of the sixth century, but it was possible to identify, by their material and technique, some later gems from Island workshops which correspond in style and shape with the contemporary Greek scarabs in harder materials. The comparatively soft material had meant that the intaglio devices on Island gems could be cut without recourse to the drill or cutting wheel, and this technique was retained for the later scarabs. It is evident, however, that for a while already in the sixth century Island artists had experimented with the harder materials then being employed for engraved seals in Greece; and with some shapes which seem to compromise between the old and the new. These stones seem to belong to the middle and second half of the sixth century. A list follows:

(i) Oxford 1925.129. plate I. Green steatite tapered scaraboid with convex face. L. 20 (mm.). A lion. IGems no. 349, fig. 6, pl. 13.

(ii) Athens, from Sunium. plate I. Green steatite. Shape as the last. L. 20. Contorted bull-headed man. IGems no. 350, pl. 13.

(iii) Paris, Bibl. Nat., ex Louvre C 8514. Rock crystal plump lentoid. W. 18. Summary representation of a winged horse.

(iv) Boston 27.678 (once Bruschi, Warren), plate I. Chalcedony lentoid with domed back and shallow convex face. W. 21. Facing head of a satyr with fillet ends behind the ears and an arrow marking at the centre of the forehead.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 88 , November 1968 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1968

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References

1 The abbreviations listed in IGems, p. 9, are also used in this article.

2 The variety of serpentine which best matches the texture, sometimes granular, and colour of the commonest Island gem stone is Bovenite.

3 The devices added on IGems no. 32B, pl. 2, no. 230 and no. 4 bis (below) are even later.

4 BSA xlix (1954) pls. 27, 28, and discussed again by the present writer in BSA lxii (1967).

5 Early Minoan from Onouphrios, A., Evans, Cretan Pictographs 110Google Scholar, fig. 90. Classical and later: BMC Jewellery pl. 45.2277, 47.2278; Cesnola, , Salaminia 32Google Scholar, 115, fig. 127.

6 À propos of (xii) Zazoff, (Gymnasium lxxii [1965] 143)Google Scholar rightly remarks that later Greek work on hard stone looks quite different. But so does Minoan or Myceanean, and I am sure that it (and the lizard, no. 160) belong here. Dr Kenna and Dr Gill support me in this view.

7 Cf. Gabelmann, , Studien zum frühgr. Löwenbild 74 ff.Google Scholar

8 SCE ii pl. 250.2722; and an onyx in New York (Velay), AG pl. 66.2Google Scholar, Lippold, pl. 86.8, Evans, , Selection pl. 6.80.Google Scholar Compare the fine Assyrian study from Kuyunjik, Frankfort, AAAO pl. 111B. Earliest in Greece on the ivory disc, Perachora ii pl. 180. A 71. Compare the black figure vase, CVA Robinson i pl. 36.2, contrasting pl. 34.1.

9 IGems no. 209; AM lxxvi (1961) 4, fig. 2, Beil. 1.2.

10 Richter, , Catalogue no. 58, pl. 10.Google Scholar

11 I am indebted to the curators of several collections for letting me study or use this supplementary material: Mrs M. K. Oikonomides (Athens), B. Bothmer (Brooklyn), Miss E. Tankard and Miss D. Slow (Liverpool), H. Küthmann (Munich), G. le Rider and Mile F. Rosswag (Paris, Bibl.Nat.), R. Noll (Vienna), G. Szilagyi (Budapest); and to the Lady Adam Gordon, Professor Dr K. J. Müller and Professor Stucchi. The Island gems in the Bibliothèque Nationale are to be published separately by Mme van Effenterre and they are accordingly listed here without illustration or comment on their subjects. The Munich and Berlin stones will appear in catalogues now being prepared by Drs E. Brandt and E. Diehl. Dr M. A. V. Gill kindly told me about the examples in Budapest and Vienna. I shall publish the Budapest stones in the Museum Bulletin. Photographs of impressions are by Robert L. Wilkins; the drawing, Fig. 2, by Dr Gill.

12 I believe Liverpool 220 (JHS lxxxvi [1966] pl. 10 q, r) to be a Middle Minoan stamp seal, cut off immediately behind the face, pierced and given a second device in recent times. For a stamp with such a convex face cf. Boardman, , Cretan Collection in Oxford no. 286, fig. 31, pl. 23.Google Scholar For the device, Kenna, , Cretan Seals nos. 80, 90.Google Scholar

13 Freyer-Schauenburg, , Elfenbeine aus dem Samischen Heraion pls. 3, 4.Google Scholar

14 London 760, pl. 13; and the Etruscan scarab with a toad, London 556, pl. 10.

15 Robinson, in Jacobsthal, , Greek Pins 58Google Scholar; Ashmolean Visitors Report 1959, pl. 8.2.

16 Tocra i 15, 74, pls. 52–54.900–916. I shall discuss the date of no. 162 bis in BSA lxiii (1968).

17 Cf. Karouzou, , Ann. xxiv–xxvi (1946–1948) 37 ffGoogle Scholar; ABV 12, 19, 29.

18 Arias-Hirmer, pl. v.

19 Cf. also the similar beast on a later scarab, Berlin 170, pl. 4.

20 Akr. 298, pl. 10: BSA xxxv (1934–35) 106, fig. 13b (for fig. 13a see also BSA xlvii [1952] 18, fig. 19).

21 Alishar ii 417, fig. 478.e1126, C713; Montet, , Byblos et l'Égypte pl. 59.44Google Scholar; and cf. von der Osten, , Ane. Oriental Seals … Mrs A. Baldwin Brett pl. 10.110.Google Scholar

22 Delaporte, ii pl. 98.8 (A 963) black steatite.

23 Cf. IGems 114 with n.6. Other examples of Greek bronze animals with an intaglio device beneath the base are in Sparta Museum; Bonn C 74; Munich 3695 (stag with two birds intaglio). Another pyramidal bronze pendant with intaglio beneath is Oxford 1923.137, from Sparta (cf. IGems 156).

24 On these see now BSA lxii (1967).

25 These are discussed respectively in JdI lxxxi (1966) 1 ff. and my Archaic Greek Gems Chapter III.

26 Ohnefalsch-Richter, , Kypros pl. 94.11, 12.Google Scholar

27 Expedition viii (1966) 11. Samos: Hampe, FgS pl. 34Google Scholar top right; AM lxvi (1941) 35, pl. 11.416.

28 Elfenbeine aus dem Samischen Heraion 46–50, pl. 11a.

29 A considerable range in the Island gems, and contrast the North Syrian and Greek gems illustrated by Freyer-Schauenburg, pl. 11b, c.

30 E.g., the Nimrud ivory, ibid., pl. 13c.

31 These are discussed in Archaic Greek Gems. The device is also Cypro-Phoenician.

32 Buschor, Altsamische Standbilder figs. 322–3.

33 E.g., an example in the Bibl.Nat., London 243 and Nicosia E.55; and cf. the bull seals, von der Osten, von Aulock Coll. no. 122 and Delaporte, i pl. 57.5 (K 8).

34 Add now reference to Greek Emporio 237, no. 534, fig. 160, pl. 95.

35 The priority and excellence of the ivories from Perachora and the Argive Heraion should warn us against too readily believing in a Spartan origin for the many luckily preserved for us at Artemis Orthia. Cf. BSA lviii (1963) 5, 7.

36 Freyer-Schauenburg, pls. 23, 24; Salviat, , BCH lxxxvi (1962) 95 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, figs. 1–5, 11.

37 Lindos 513, pl. 17.

38 Cf. BSA lxii (1967).

39 Smyrna and Ephesus; best seen now in Akurgal, , Kunst Anatoliens 186Google Scholar, figs. 140–42, 194, figs. 151–52.

40 Compare AO pl. 154.1, 4, 6, 7; Perachora ii pl. 174. A 13, 16–21; and Ephesus pl. 26.1, 5. Possibly the figure from Arkades, (Ann. x–xii [1927–1929] 337, fig. 442)Google Scholar should be included. It does not look like faience. On other Peloponnesian ivories in Crete see IGems 153, n.1. There is a reclining ram from Tocra, fastened to a fibula.

41 AJA lxiv (1960) pl. 99.8; and Kardara, ibid., 343 ff. on such crowns.

42 Cf. Kunze, , Ol. Bericht v 98.Google Scholar

43 Perachora ii pl. 172. A 6.

44 On this dating see BSA lviii (1963) 4 f.

45 Freyer-Schauenburg, pl. 32a; Egyptian examples, ibid., pl. 32b.

46 From Sidon, Barnett, , Nimrud Ivories pl. 123.U13Google Scholar (Harden, , The Phoenicians pl. 65Google Scholar; and cf. the Carthage mirror handle, ibid., 205, fig. 73).

47 Freyer-Schauenburg, pls. 6a, 8a.

48 For which see now Barnett, , Nimrud Ivories 158, pls. 36.S 62a, c, eGoogle Scholar; 40.S 57a, 5ga–e; 41.S 58a. It is apparently also employed on Punic ivory combs, Freyer-Schauenburg, pls. 29–31, and Madrid Mitt. vii (1966) pls. 17–22. It is an important technical link between east and west Phoenician ivory work (cf. ibid., 104–6).

49 Greek Emporio 207, fig. 137.168 and 227, fig. 149.409, may be imported from the west.