DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0051
THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT.
31
now traced back, step by step, to Egyptian originals. The
well-known "Greek honeysuckle'' pattern, for instance, is
found to be neither Greek nor honeysuckle. The Xaukratis
pottery furnishes specimens of this design in all its stages.
In its most archaic form, it
is neither more nor less than
the stock "lotus pattern"
of the Egyptian potters. (')
Taken in hand by the Greek,
it becomes expanded, light-
ened, and transformed. Yet
more important is the light
thrown upon the origin and
development of Greek art.
We have long known that
the early Greek, when emerg-
ing from prehistoric barbar-
ism, must have gone to school
to the Delta and the Valley
of the Xile, not only for his
first lessons in letters and
science, but also for his earli-
est notions of architecture
and the arts. Xow, however,
for the first time, we are
placed in possession of direct
evidence of these facts. We
see the process of teaching
on the part of the elder nation, and of learning on the part
of the younger. Every link in the chain which connects the
ceramic art of Greece with the ceramic art of Egypt is dis-
played before our eyes in the potsherds of Xaukratis.
More novel and curious than all, however, was a series of
discoveries of ceremonial deposits buried under the four cor-
ners of a building adjoining the Pan-Hellenion.(8)
The enclosure wall of the Pan-Hellenion was fifty feet
thick and forty feet high, and it was built about six hun-
HEAD OF APHRODITE.
From tlie ruins of the Temple of Aph-
rodite, Xaukratis. Alexandrian pe-
riod. This head is in the British
Museum, Greek department.
31
now traced back, step by step, to Egyptian originals. The
well-known "Greek honeysuckle'' pattern, for instance, is
found to be neither Greek nor honeysuckle. The Xaukratis
pottery furnishes specimens of this design in all its stages.
In its most archaic form, it
is neither more nor less than
the stock "lotus pattern"
of the Egyptian potters. (')
Taken in hand by the Greek,
it becomes expanded, light-
ened, and transformed. Yet
more important is the light
thrown upon the origin and
development of Greek art.
We have long known that
the early Greek, when emerg-
ing from prehistoric barbar-
ism, must have gone to school
to the Delta and the Valley
of the Xile, not only for his
first lessons in letters and
science, but also for his earli-
est notions of architecture
and the arts. Xow, however,
for the first time, we are
placed in possession of direct
evidence of these facts. We
see the process of teaching
on the part of the elder nation, and of learning on the part
of the younger. Every link in the chain which connects the
ceramic art of Greece with the ceramic art of Egypt is dis-
played before our eyes in the potsherds of Xaukratis.
More novel and curious than all, however, was a series of
discoveries of ceremonial deposits buried under the four cor-
ners of a building adjoining the Pan-Hellenion.(8)
The enclosure wall of the Pan-Hellenion was fifty feet
thick and forty feet high, and it was built about six hun-
HEAD OF APHRODITE.
From tlie ruins of the Temple of Aph-
rodite, Xaukratis. Alexandrian pe-
riod. This head is in the British
Museum, Greek department.