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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
In my forthcoming publication of the Rhind Lectures, 1923, on The Civilization of Greece in the Bronze Age I have briefly referred (pp. 225–6) to the remarkable discovery by Dr. Walter Andrae for the Deutsche Orient Gesellschaft, at Ḳala'at Sharḳat, the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Ashur, on the Tigris, of a series of objects in fayence not only of precisely the same type as the remarkable fayence vases and other objects found by the British Museum excavators at Enkomi and Maroni in Cyprus, but some of them, one would think, made by the same hand. These Assyrian objects were among those brought back to England from Mesopotamia after the war, and finally assigned to the British Museum, when eventually a division-was made of the whole between London and Berlin. Before this division was effected I had recognized these particular fayence objects as the counterparts of those already in the British Museum from Enkomi, and Dr. Andrae and I, after I had pointed out the fact to him on a visit made by him to London, agreed that we should publish them separately, he as their discoverer in their context in his full publication of his finds, I in order to emphasize their identity with the Enkomi finds and their Minoan character.
1 Enkomi: Murray, , Smith, and Walters, , Excavations in Cyprus, p. 22Google Scholar, Pl. III. Maroni unpublished.
2 On the whole subject see Andrae, , Farbige Keramik aus Assur (1923), p. 1 ff.Google Scholar The use of glaze paint (Schmelzfarbenmalerei) succeeded, at Ashur polychrome wall-painting of the usual kind, which we find in use in the thirteenth century B.C., in Kar-Tukulti Enurta, the palace of Tukulti-Enurta I. (circa 1260–1238 B.C.). ‘Als man diesen Schmuck in Schmelzfarben auf den gebrannten Ziegel, auf die irdene Fliese und endlich als Relief auf die Gipsstein und Alabasterplatte übertrug, tat man es zweifellos in der Absicht, ihn dauerhafter zu machen. Die Schmelzfarbenkunst, die für kleine Gegenstände und Schmuckstücke schon Jahrtausende vorher in Übung war, wurde etwa um 1100 v. Chr. nach der Erfindung der Zinnglasur immer fleissiger für den Bauschmuck herangezogen, und bürgte für die grösstmögliche Haltbarkeit der Farben. Was wir von der Malerei der Assyrer wie der Babylonier wissen, verdanken wir zum weitaus grössten Teile Erzeugnissen der Schmelzfarbenkunst, die sich bis auf unsere Tage manchmal noch in der einstigen feurigen Leuchtkraft erhalten haben, aber auch in ihrer abgeblassten Patina oft noch genussreiche Wirkungen bewahren' (p. 4). Various styles of glaze were employed, a speciality being an inlay of coloured glazes in regular cloisons with thin line-walls of hard glaze. The colours used were often extraordinarily strong and deep; the glaze thick and heavy at times (especially later). The only work like it in Egypt was that of the XXth Dynasty at Tell el-Yahūdiyah (1200 B.C.). At other times the design was most delicately drawn in the coloured glaze, and most carefully fired.
3 There are also examples in the Louvre well published in colour by Perrot, and Chipiez, , Hist. de l'Art, III, Pl. V.Google Scholar
4 Andrae, , Farbige Keramik aus Assur, p. 19Google Scholar, Pl. XVII, (illustrations in colour). The magnificent vase A. 7791, illustrated by Andrae, loc. cit., Pl. XX, is of the same type and style on a larger scale.
5 Dr. Andrae writes to me as follows as to their date:—‘die kleinen Flaschen mit Wellen und petalartiger Verzierung kommen vielfach in jung- und spätassyrischen Gräbern vor und wir setzen sie in die Zeit nach 700; sie können aber auch schon 100 oder 200 Jahre früher beginnen.’
6 See below, p. 67; and note 10 following.
7 Smith, S., Early History of Assyria, p. 227.Google Scholar
8 U 6820; at present unpublished (Antiquaries' Journal, vi. (1926), p. 371).
9 Mackay, , Report on the ‘A’Cemetery at Kish, p. 55.Google Scholar Cf. Andrae, loc. cit., p. 17; Die archäische Ischtar-Tempel in Assur, p. 82, Fig. 61c; S. Smith, loc. cit., p. 333. The peculiar kind of glass objects made in Assyria in the eighth-seventh centuries B.C., mentioned by Mr. Smith, ibid., ia exactly paralleled by the kyanos or ‘vitreous paste’(really simply glass) used for beads, etc. by the Minoans Ave centuries earlier. The Egyptians never used glass in this particular form till quite late times. Here perhaps we have a Minoan invention taken up in Mesopotamia but not in Egypt.
10 Dr. Andrae kindly gives me the following information as to their dates:—‘die von Ihnen genannten Nummern gehören zwei verschiedenen Fundgruppen an: 20176 und das Frauenköpfchen 20233 stammen aus dem Ischtar-Tempel in Assur und ich halte sie für einen Teil seines Inhaltes aus der Zeit der Tukulti-Ninurta I. Darüber berichte ich genauer in dem schon fast zum Druck fertigen Band der Wiss. Veröff. der D. O. G. [Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft: Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen]. Die 15276–Sachen sind ein Grabfund aus einem altassyrischen Hause in Assur, das wir am 1200 bis 1100 anzusetzen geneigt waren.’ That is to say, they came from a burial, supposed to be not older than c. 1200 B.C., beneath the floor of a house in the usual Mesopotamien fashion.
11 Not in Excavations in Cyprus; first published, Hall, , Aegean Archaeology, Pl. XXII.Google Scholar = Civilization of Greece in the Bronze Age, Fig. 297.
12 This Ur mask is not claimed as being in any way non-Mesopotamian. Though it has huge eyes, the face is typically Babylonian, with its full checks and larger mouth; quite different from the typically Minoan faces of the other heads here described.
13 Athens Museum. Tsountas, , Ἐφημ. Ἀρχ. 1902, Pl. I.Google Scholar
14 Cf. King, , Sumer and Akkad, p. 268Google Scholar (Statue of Gudea); Perrot, and Chipiez, , Hist. de l'Art, ii. Pl. VII.Google Scholar
15 For examples see Evans, , Palace of Minos, ii.Google Scholar Fig. 129.
16 Smith, S., Early Hist. Assyria, Pl. XXIIGoogle Scholarb.
17 Of the illustrations to this paper Figs. 1, 2, and 5 are reproduced by permission of Messrs. Methuen from The Civilization of Greece in the Bronze Age, and Fig. 3 by permission of Mr. Sidney Smith and Messrs. Chatto and Windus from Mr. Smith's Early History of Assyria. I have to thank Mr H. B. Walters for permission to publish the objects from Enkomi.