DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4856#0028
22
In addition to the cylinders and scarabs, we found at Enkomi a limited number of
gems engraved more or less rudely with designs of the Mycenaean type. It is noticeable,
however, that these gems are never of the lentoid shape so remarkable among those of
Mycenae and elsewhere.1 We found only one gem of that shape, and it was unengraved.
Our gems take the form of conical rings with hoops not large enough for the finger,
but meant rather to be worn as ornaments or carried as seals. This also coincides
with later usage. Lately, however, the Museum has acquired from Cyprus a fine
specimen of the lentoid shape in haematite.
PORCELAIN.
Pl. ill.
The objects in porcelain are of two classes, the one obviously Egyptian in the
designs executed on them in outline, the other distinguished by being modelled in the
manner of sculpture, taking the form of a horse's head, a ram's head, or a female head.
As regards the former class (Figs. 40 and 63, No. 1042), the designs on
them are so purely traditional and mechanical that they may fairly be ranked
with the series of Phoenician silver and bronze bowls from Nimroud of
about the 8th century b.c. At all events they convey the impression of being
imitations of pure Egyptian work. How widely different is the aspect of the
other class in an artistic sense! The horse's head with his ears laid back is
as perfect a piece of artistic naturalism as could be conceived. The ram's
head is perhaps more formal, yet it must be remembered that the head of a ram,
with its great excess of bony structure, has, by its very nature, a permanency of
form which allows of almost no artistic change from age to age. On the other hand,
the two vases in the shape of women's heads (PI. Ill and Fig. 61, No. 1211) again go
to nature in her changeable moods, showing a type of woman which has nothing whatever
in common with Egypt or Assyria. The one seems to be Greek, not only in her
features, but also in the way in which her hair is gathered up at the back in a net, just
as on the 6th century Greek vases of this shape. Greek vases or rhytons of this shape
having the head of a woman surmounted by a drinking cup are not rare. They differ, of
course, in being of a more advanced artistic style, and in having a handle. But it may
fairly be questioned whether these differences can represent any very long period of time.
It is not necessary here to discuss the date at which the horse makes his first
appearance in Egyptian art, because our porcelain rhyton with the horse's head is
obviously quite foreign in artistic style to the spirit of Egyptian art all through its
existence. Equally the technical process of the porcelain is not Egyptian. The
momentous question is, Who were the foreigners who made these Enkomi rhytons, with
their striking naturalism and their suggestion of kinship with the Greeks ? For the
The Vaphio gems are engraved in the Ephemeris Archaiologike, 1889, pl. 10.
In addition to the cylinders and scarabs, we found at Enkomi a limited number of
gems engraved more or less rudely with designs of the Mycenaean type. It is noticeable,
however, that these gems are never of the lentoid shape so remarkable among those of
Mycenae and elsewhere.1 We found only one gem of that shape, and it was unengraved.
Our gems take the form of conical rings with hoops not large enough for the finger,
but meant rather to be worn as ornaments or carried as seals. This also coincides
with later usage. Lately, however, the Museum has acquired from Cyprus a fine
specimen of the lentoid shape in haematite.
PORCELAIN.
Pl. ill.
The objects in porcelain are of two classes, the one obviously Egyptian in the
designs executed on them in outline, the other distinguished by being modelled in the
manner of sculpture, taking the form of a horse's head, a ram's head, or a female head.
As regards the former class (Figs. 40 and 63, No. 1042), the designs on
them are so purely traditional and mechanical that they may fairly be ranked
with the series of Phoenician silver and bronze bowls from Nimroud of
about the 8th century b.c. At all events they convey the impression of being
imitations of pure Egyptian work. How widely different is the aspect of the
other class in an artistic sense! The horse's head with his ears laid back is
as perfect a piece of artistic naturalism as could be conceived. The ram's
head is perhaps more formal, yet it must be remembered that the head of a ram,
with its great excess of bony structure, has, by its very nature, a permanency of
form which allows of almost no artistic change from age to age. On the other hand,
the two vases in the shape of women's heads (PI. Ill and Fig. 61, No. 1211) again go
to nature in her changeable moods, showing a type of woman which has nothing whatever
in common with Egypt or Assyria. The one seems to be Greek, not only in her
features, but also in the way in which her hair is gathered up at the back in a net, just
as on the 6th century Greek vases of this shape. Greek vases or rhytons of this shape
having the head of a woman surmounted by a drinking cup are not rare. They differ, of
course, in being of a more advanced artistic style, and in having a handle. But it may
fairly be questioned whether these differences can represent any very long period of time.
It is not necessary here to discuss the date at which the horse makes his first
appearance in Egyptian art, because our porcelain rhyton with the horse's head is
obviously quite foreign in artistic style to the spirit of Egyptian art all through its
existence. Equally the technical process of the porcelain is not Egyptian. The
momentous question is, Who were the foreigners who made these Enkomi rhytons, with
their striking naturalism and their suggestion of kinship with the Greeks ? For the
The Vaphio gems are engraved in the Ephemeris Archaiologike, 1889, pl. 10.