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A Find of Roman Marble Statuettes at Knossos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

G. B. Waywell  and
H. W. Catling
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Extract

The material described below was found in November 1974 in a building plot in Knossos, property of Mr. Constantinos Vlachakis. The initial discovery consisted of six marble sculptures (S.6, 8–11 and 19) and a base (S.22) found in digging Foundation Pit 1 (Fig. 2). The Antiquities Service guard, Mr. Mitsos, who supervised the opening of the pits, stopped the work and reported the find to Dr. St. Alexiou in the Herakleion Museum. On the latter's request, H. W. Catling immediately undertook a limited investigation, in the course of which nineteen more fragments of sculpture came to light, and the structural features described below. The work lasted three days (11–13 Nov. 1974) with the help of two workmen. At its completion, approval was given for the continuation of the building.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 72 , November 1977 , pp. 85 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1977

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References

Acknowledgements. The authors wish to express their grateful thanks to Dr. St. Alexiou, Ephor of Antiquities in Crete, both for inviting the British School to investigate the original find of sculpture, and for assisting and encouraging subsequent developments. It was at Dr. Alexiou's suggestion that the sculpture, brought to the Herakleion Museum before the excavation, is published here with the material from the trial. Miss A. Lembessis was also most helpful. The excavation was directed by H. W. Catling, with the assistance of Susan Catling (Mrs. R. A. M. Welsford). Antonis Zidianakis (Knossos Foreman) and Nikos Daskalakis worked on the site. Petros Petrakis, the School's vase-mender, cleaned and, where necessary, mounted the sculptures, and was also responsible for repairing the pottery illustrated, FIGS. 5–8 and PLATE 23. Fair drawings of the plans and sections have been prepared by David Smyth, the School's Honorary Architect. Mrs. Elizabeth Catling helped with the study of the material and drew the pottery illustrated here.

Dr. G. B. Waywell accepted the Director's invitation to study and publish the sculpture, the preliminary catalogue of which had been prepared by H. W. and Elizabeth Catling.

1 See Richter, , Portraits of the Greeks (1965) iii 259–69Google Scholar, and most recently, H. Kyrieleis, Bildnisse der Ptolemäer (1975).

2 Richter, op. cit. 261–2, figs. 1792–4; Kyrieleis, op. cit. B.6, pl. 12: 1–2. Two further possible portraits of Ptolemy II have been suggested by Scheurleer, , RA 1975 221–6.Google Scholar

3 For the Athens portrait, Pausanias, i 8. 6; for two inscribed bases from Delos, , BCH xxxiii (1909) 478Google Scholar; Marcadé, , Au Musée de Délos (1969) 419 nn. 2–3.Google Scholar

4 IG xi. 1073; Marcadé, op. cit. 419–20. pl. LXXIV. Heads tentatively identified as Ptolemy III in Alexandria and Cyrene, Kyrieleis, op. cit. pls. 18–20, have some features in common with this head.

5 Ashmole, , BSA xxiv (1919–1921) 78, pls. III–IVGoogle Scholar; Rizzo, , Prassitele (1951), pls. 144–7Google Scholar; Lippold, Griechische Plastik 242 n. 7; Heibig, , Führer 4 i, no. 496Google Scholar; ii, no. 1726.

6 Ashmole, op. cit. 84, figs. 4–5; then in the possession of Sir Arthur Evans.

7 For heads of herms, some of which have a similarity to Dionysos, see Harrison, Agora xi: Archaic and Archaistic Sculpture (1965) 129–34.

8 Marcadé, op. cit. 242–3, pls. LI–LII, esp. A.5773 on pl. LII.

9 Merker, , The Hellenistic Sculpture of Rhodes (1973) 33, no. 128, figs. 74–6Google Scholar; cf. no. 63.

10 Bernouilli, , Aphrodite (1873) 284–9Google Scholar; Richter, Met. Mus. Cat. (1954) nos. 152–5; Bieber, , Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age 2(1961) 21.Google Scholar

11 Marcadé, op. cit. 232–3, pl. XLVI.

12 Ibid., pls. XLV–XLVI.

13 Ibid., 229 n. 4, pl. XLII: nos. A. 802, who leans on a pillar, and A. 5427, who may lean on a tree stump.

14 RM liv (1939) 56ff., pl. 16.

15 RA (1969) 233–72.

16 Op. cit., cat. nos. 19–35, pp. 27–8, figs. 19–25.

17 Caskey, , Boston Catalogue (1925) no. 50, pp. 106–9Google Scholar; Carpenter, , Greek Sculpture (1960) 153–5, pl. XXV.Google Scholar

18 The Boston statue has a cutting in the drapery at this point. Although interpreted by Caskey as a repair, one wonders if a lion may not have been added here.

19 A. 4144. Marcadé, op. cit. 245, pl. LIII.

20 Marcadé, op. cit., pl. LIII.

21 Cf. the Muses of the Mantinea Base and the Athena of Vescovali type, BSA lxvi (1971) 378, 382.

22 Rizzo, Prassitele, pls. 119–23; Bieber, , Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age 2 (1961) 18, figs. 17–23Google Scholar; Picard, , Manuel iv (1954) 327 ff.Google Scholar

23 Huskinson, J., Roman Sculpture from Cyrenaica (1976) no. 12, p. 6Google Scholar, pl. 5; Rizzo, op. cit., pl. 128; Bieber, op. cit. 160, figs. 678–81.

24 Picard, op. cit. 312–22.

25 Stuart Jones, Catalogue, p. 14, pl. 6.

26 Marcadé, op. cit. 182–4. Cf. also the Apollo-Dionysos statue of fourth-century B.c. date from Delphi with long hair and a mitra: BCH xcix (1975) 709–10.

27 British Museum bronzes: Walters, , Catalogue (1899) nos. 1199–1202, 1204, 1210.Google Scholar Statuette in Louvre: Picard, op. cit. 262, fig. 112. Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore: Hill, , Catalogue (1949) no. 29, pl. 7.Google Scholar

28 Picard, , Manuel iii (1948) 714 fr.Google Scholar; Poulsen, , Copenhagen Cat. (1951) no. 387.Google Scholar

29 Met. Mus. Cat. (1954) no. 200, pp. 103–4, pl. CXLI; Sculpture and Sculptors4 fig. 338.

30 Richter, Portraits ii, fig. 1668; Heibig, Führer4 iii no. 2362.

31 Fuchs, Die Skulptur der Griechen (1969), fig. 143.

32 Cf. Apollo on one of the Brauron reliefs: Picard, , Manuel iv. 2 (1963) 1221, fig. 475.Google Scholar

33 e.g. Myronian type Herakles in Boston: Caskey, Catalogue no. 64, pp. 133–5: Richter, Sculpture and Sculptors 4 fig. 39. Lysippic Herakles on Delos: Marcadé, op. cit. 380, pl. LXIII.

34 Svoronos, Numismatique de la Crète Ancienne, pl. VII, 18–23; Chapman, A., NC 7 viii (1968) 13 ff.Google Scholar

35 Stuart Jones, Catalogue, pl. 51.

36 Lawrence, A. W., Later Greek Sculpture (1927) 34Google Scholar; cf. Greek and Roman Sculpture (1972) 237.

37 Op. cit. 34–7.

38 Op. Cit. 17.

39 BSA lxviii (1973) 51 ff., fig. 7.

40 Op. cit. 55 f., fig. 10, L.53–62 and pl. 21.

41 Op. cit. 55 on nos. 53–62, with references quoted. Note especially Coldstream, , Knossos, Sanctuary of Demeter (1973) 25 and 27.Google ScholarSparkes, and Talcott, , Agora xii: Black and Plain Pottery 249–50, nos. 194–5 and pl. 11Google Scholar are two Attic mugs of 500–480 B.C. whose form suggests they were aware of the Cretan cups.

42 Hayes, , Late Roman Pottery (1972) 100 ff.Google Scholar

43 Antioch iv 48, no. 831u and pl. VIII.

44 L. H. Sackett in AR 1972–73, 62–71. H. W. Catling who is studying the UM lamps for publication, gratefully acknowledges Mr. Sackett's kindness in permitting reference to UM lamps in what follows.

45 Mould-made lamps from Roman Crete are as yet little studied. But see Hayes, in BSA lxvi (1971) 249–75Google Scholar; Sakellarakis, in ADelt xx (1965) Chronika, 562Google Scholar; Wardle, in BSA lxvii (1972) 271–84.Google Scholar The chronology offered here is deliberately rough and ready, but takes account of the standard lamp-literature. See, for instance, bibliographical material in Heres, G., Die römischen Bildlampen der Berliner Antikensammlung (Berlin, 1972).Google Scholar

46 See Jackson in Knossos, Sanctuary of Demeter 99 ff., esp. 105 and no, with references.