DOI Artikel:
Brownson, Carleton L.: [Excavations and discoveries at the Argive Heraeum, 1892-1895]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8681#0256
244 EXCAVATIONS AT THE ARG1VE HEHjEVM IN 1892.
standing simply on a small square base. Three other bases of the-
same kind were found at approximately equal distances, though
the whole line is covered now by an apparently later wall, broken
by two doors of unequal widths. The single room which these
three walls enclose is 5.25 m. in width by 4.20 m. in depth. A
stele-base 2.55 m. long continues the line of the first mentioned
cross-wall toward the west.
The next higher cutting, that just below the temple (P on the
plan), yielded no architectural remains, but from here came by
far the larger part of our immense collection of terracotta fig-
urines and smaller objects. At a depth of eight to ten feet we
came upon a layer of black earth, the fiavpo %&>yu,a, as it came to be
called by ourselves as well as by the men, a layer of varying
thickness, sloping with the slope of the rock below. Here, in
successive pockets, we kept finding through three weeks great
quantities of female heads and figures in terracotta. These were
of all possible descriptions and sizes, many of the archaic bird-
faced order, some retaining traces of color, and all exhibiting the
most varied styles of dress and adornment. They had been with-
out doubt votive offerings to the goddess. The whole collection
is perhaps the most interesting and valuable of the kind in exist-
ence, except, it may be, that at Syracuse, where we found almost
every one of our patterns duplicated. Besides these terracottas,,
masses of pottery fragments were found, all archaic, quantities of
iron and bone rings, relief-plaques of terracotta and ivory, show-
ing the earliest technic, seals, scarabs, beads, small sculptured fig-
ures of animals in stone, mirrors, pins, clasps, and so on. Min-
gled with the mass were found also teeth and bones of animals..
This fact served to prove what had already seemed evident, viz.,,
that we had come upon the refuse which had gathered about old al-
tars, not altars which had stood here, for the slope seemed to have-
been filled in after the foundations for the new temple had been fin-
ished with whatever chanced to be at hand. This was proven by
its whole stratification, as well as by the especial fact that we found
broken fragments of worked stone in great quantities making a:
foundation for the upper strata. These stones had evidently been
employed in older structures, and were, strange to say, of a kind
found nowhere else on the site. It seemed, therefore, that we:
standing simply on a small square base. Three other bases of the-
same kind were found at approximately equal distances, though
the whole line is covered now by an apparently later wall, broken
by two doors of unequal widths. The single room which these
three walls enclose is 5.25 m. in width by 4.20 m. in depth. A
stele-base 2.55 m. long continues the line of the first mentioned
cross-wall toward the west.
The next higher cutting, that just below the temple (P on the
plan), yielded no architectural remains, but from here came by
far the larger part of our immense collection of terracotta fig-
urines and smaller objects. At a depth of eight to ten feet we
came upon a layer of black earth, the fiavpo %&>yu,a, as it came to be
called by ourselves as well as by the men, a layer of varying
thickness, sloping with the slope of the rock below. Here, in
successive pockets, we kept finding through three weeks great
quantities of female heads and figures in terracotta. These were
of all possible descriptions and sizes, many of the archaic bird-
faced order, some retaining traces of color, and all exhibiting the
most varied styles of dress and adornment. They had been with-
out doubt votive offerings to the goddess. The whole collection
is perhaps the most interesting and valuable of the kind in exist-
ence, except, it may be, that at Syracuse, where we found almost
every one of our patterns duplicated. Besides these terracottas,,
masses of pottery fragments were found, all archaic, quantities of
iron and bone rings, relief-plaques of terracotta and ivory, show-
ing the earliest technic, seals, scarabs, beads, small sculptured fig-
ures of animals in stone, mirrors, pins, clasps, and so on. Min-
gled with the mass were found also teeth and bones of animals..
This fact served to prove what had already seemed evident, viz.,,
that we had come upon the refuse which had gathered about old al-
tars, not altars which had stood here, for the slope seemed to have-
been filled in after the foundations for the new temple had been fin-
ished with whatever chanced to be at hand. This was proven by
its whole stratification, as well as by the especial fact that we found
broken fragments of worked stone in great quantities making a:
foundation for the upper strata. These stones had evidently been
employed in older structures, and were, strange to say, of a kind
found nowhere else on the site. It seemed, therefore, that we: