DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0029
PREHISTORIC PERIODS 9
Sir Arthur Evans1 from the association near the East Hall
of the Palace of four massive bronze locks of hair embedded
in a heavy deposit of carbonized wood. The bronze locks
for long had remained in the Candia Museum unidentified.
But comparison with smaller figures, such as a miniature
ivory head with bronze-wire tresses attached2 and a similar
head without the tresses but with
the attachment holes clearly seen,3
showed the purpose of these larger
bronzes. The charcoal deposit
indicated the material to which
they were attached. From the
scale of the tresses Sir Arthur
computes, on the principle of ex
pede Herculem, a colossal wooden
statue of a female some 9 feet in
height. He proposes a most inter-
esting parallel with the statue of
Apollo Aleus found at Ciro4 in
Calabria, which had a marble head
with a wig of bronze hair, marble
hands and feet, and a presumed
wooden body, long perished.5
This evidence for the existence of large wooden statues
at Knossos at once throws back the history of the Hellenic
xoanon, at any rate from the point of view of technical
processes, to a very remote pre-Hellenic age. Of the actual
technique of this Cretan statue we know nothing, but must
draw the inevitable inference that it was fashioned according
to the manner of woodcarving and achieved with knife and
chisel and perhaps plane, though the use of the latter tool is
Scale
Fig. 2. Suggested restoration
of head of statue, with bronze
curls on a wooden figure.
1 Palace of Minos, iii,p. 522; E. J. Forsdyke, Minoan Art (British Academy),
1929, p. 20. 2 Ibid., p. 432, fig. 298. 3 Ibid., p. 433, figs. 299 and 300.
4 For this work see the references in Evans, op. cit., p. 523, and Maclver,
Greek Cities in Italy arid Sicily (1931), p. 68.
5 Pindar, Pyth. v. 40, speaks of a statue of a single cypress block dedi-
cated at Delphi by Cretans.
3904 n
Sir Arthur Evans1 from the association near the East Hall
of the Palace of four massive bronze locks of hair embedded
in a heavy deposit of carbonized wood. The bronze locks
for long had remained in the Candia Museum unidentified.
But comparison with smaller figures, such as a miniature
ivory head with bronze-wire tresses attached2 and a similar
head without the tresses but with
the attachment holes clearly seen,3
showed the purpose of these larger
bronzes. The charcoal deposit
indicated the material to which
they were attached. From the
scale of the tresses Sir Arthur
computes, on the principle of ex
pede Herculem, a colossal wooden
statue of a female some 9 feet in
height. He proposes a most inter-
esting parallel with the statue of
Apollo Aleus found at Ciro4 in
Calabria, which had a marble head
with a wig of bronze hair, marble
hands and feet, and a presumed
wooden body, long perished.5
This evidence for the existence of large wooden statues
at Knossos at once throws back the history of the Hellenic
xoanon, at any rate from the point of view of technical
processes, to a very remote pre-Hellenic age. Of the actual
technique of this Cretan statue we know nothing, but must
draw the inevitable inference that it was fashioned according
to the manner of woodcarving and achieved with knife and
chisel and perhaps plane, though the use of the latter tool is
Scale
Fig. 2. Suggested restoration
of head of statue, with bronze
curls on a wooden figure.
1 Palace of Minos, iii,p. 522; E. J. Forsdyke, Minoan Art (British Academy),
1929, p. 20. 2 Ibid., p. 432, fig. 298. 3 Ibid., p. 433, figs. 299 and 300.
4 For this work see the references in Evans, op. cit., p. 523, and Maclver,
Greek Cities in Italy arid Sicily (1931), p. 68.
5 Pindar, Pyth. v. 40, speaks of a statue of a single cypress block dedi-
cated at Delphi by Cretans.
3904 n