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‘The Tomb of Aspasia’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

A. H. Smith
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Extract

In the literature of the Elgin Collection there is not infrequent reference to the ‘Tomb of Aspasia’ and its contents, which are of interest. The name, however, as I show below, has not even such measure of authority as may be supposed to attach to a local tradition.

During Philip Hunt's stay at Athens, his attention was called to a large tumulus in the Attic plain, and he made arrangements for its excavation. ‘The Calmuck,’ he wrote to Lord Elgin, November 28, 1802, ‘is to begin his excavation of a Tumulus near the Piraeus tomorrow.’ When Lord Elgin visited Athens in January, 1803, on his homeward journey from Constantinople, he sent men from the Diana frigate to continue the excavation, the Diana being the man-of-war in which, as a returning Ambassador, he made his passage.

Nothing apparently was found at this attempt. Indeed the tumulus was much too large an undertaking for such cursory treatment. Fifteen months later the work was taken up again by Lusieri, who reported to Lord Elgin (May 18, 1804) that while he was for the time being excluded from the Acropolis, he was employing the workmen ‘in excavations in various places, not without success.’ This is followed by the account of the excavation ‘du grand tombeau dans les vignes pour aller au Pirée,’ which has been already printed in this Journal.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , 1926 , pp. 253 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1926

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References

1 J.H.S. xxxvi, p. 237.

2 Memorandum (1815), p. 30, speaks of ‘a tumulus, into which an excavation was commenced under Lord Elgin's eye during his residence at Athens.’ This confuses the residence at Athens in 1802 with the visit of the Diana in 1803. Cf. J.H.S. xxxvi., p. 253.

3 J.H.S. xxxvi, p. 258. The Memorandum describes the tumulue as ‘situated on the road which leads from Port Piraeus to the Salaminian Ferry and Eleusis.’ It is difficult to reconcile this description with that of Lusieri, and the position must, it would seem, be regarded as doubtful. Lusieri's accountis more nearly contemporary, and that of a resident, while Lord Elgin's in the Memorandum is more detailed. It is taken verbatim from Hunt's letter, written from Pau, in the beginning of 1805. See J.H.S. xxxvi, p. 296, and Col. Grant, Nisbet HamiltonLetters of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, p. 343.Google Scholar

4 Compare Dodwell's Tour, i. p. 446.

5 For instance, Visconti's Catalogue, in Report, 1816, Appendix, p. xxxvii.; Elgin to Hamilton in 1820 (J.H.S. xxxvi. p. 288); Hamilton to Elgin in 1824 (ibid., p. 289). The name is rejected by Hawkins, , Mus. Marbles, ix.Google Scholar, text to vignette.

6 Smith, , Cat. of Sculpture, iii.Google Scholar No. 2415; Mus. Marbles, ix., vignette.

7 J.H.S. xxxvi, p. 258.

8 J.H.S. xxxvi, pp. 352, 353. I take this opportunity of correcting a mistake, ibid., p. 354. The artist's signature is on the large box and not on the portfolio. The vase is also shown in Prior's drawing, ibid., p. 350.

9 Letters of Mary Nisbet, etc., p. 343.

10 Memorandum (1810), p. 19.

11 The deposit also includes several other pieces of jewellery of various periods, but there is no evidence to connect them with this tomb.

12 Hicks and Hill, No. 28. The fragment b (ibid.) is now in the British Museum, to which it was given by Mr. Dumville Botterell in 1923.

13 Kirchhoff, , Studien, 4th ed., p. 100.Google Scholar

14 Catalogue of Jewellery, passim.

15 I.G. v. 2, 75.

16 For a vase similarly inscribed with an indication of its origin, compare the lebes from Cumae: —Cat. of Bronzes in Brit. Mus., No. 257.

17 Aesch. Ag. 429.