DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17532#0023
Excavations at Naukratis.
•17
B.
THE INSCRIBED AND PAINTED POTTERY.
By C. C. Edgar.
§ i.—All archaeological scholars are familiar with the splendid find of
Greek pottery which we owe to Mr. Petrie and Mr. Gardner, and with the
incised dedications on which are preserved the handwriting and names of
the early inhabitants of Naukratis. Those interested in either subject will
find in the following pages some additional material selected from the
results of the recent excavation.
But before proceeding to describe this material in detail I wish to say
something of a more general character concerning the question to what date
the early Greek remains at Naukratis are to be assigned, and whether the
results of excavation confirm or disprove the well-known statements of
Herodotus regarding the origin of the Greek settlement. The problem as to
the age of Naukratis is of archaeological as well as of historical interest,
because so few Greek antiquities earlier than 550 b.c. have as yet been
satisfactorily dated.
1.
Mr. Petrie {Naukr. i.), supported by Mr. Gardner {id. i. and ii.),
argued that the Greeks had settled in Naukratis and founded temples
there as early at least as 630 b.c., and that, among other things, the
fabric of pottery which is now known as Naukratite had been started by
about 620 b.c. These conclusions, although contested at the time, appear
to be generally acquiesced in. They are accepted for example by M. Joubin
in a discussion of Naukratite art (B.C.H. 1895, p. 80 ff.), and by M. Perrot in
the latest volume of his magnum opus, and made to serve as chronological
data. If one inquires into the evidence on which this confidence is reposed,
it will be found to consist almost entirely of certain careful observations
made by Mr. Petrie during the excavations of 1885. Let me begin by
restating them.
•17
B.
THE INSCRIBED AND PAINTED POTTERY.
By C. C. Edgar.
§ i.—All archaeological scholars are familiar with the splendid find of
Greek pottery which we owe to Mr. Petrie and Mr. Gardner, and with the
incised dedications on which are preserved the handwriting and names of
the early inhabitants of Naukratis. Those interested in either subject will
find in the following pages some additional material selected from the
results of the recent excavation.
But before proceeding to describe this material in detail I wish to say
something of a more general character concerning the question to what date
the early Greek remains at Naukratis are to be assigned, and whether the
results of excavation confirm or disprove the well-known statements of
Herodotus regarding the origin of the Greek settlement. The problem as to
the age of Naukratis is of archaeological as well as of historical interest,
because so few Greek antiquities earlier than 550 b.c. have as yet been
satisfactorily dated.
1.
Mr. Petrie {Naukr. i.), supported by Mr. Gardner {id. i. and ii.),
argued that the Greeks had settled in Naukratis and founded temples
there as early at least as 630 b.c., and that, among other things, the
fabric of pottery which is now known as Naukratite had been started by
about 620 b.c. These conclusions, although contested at the time, appear
to be generally acquiesced in. They are accepted for example by M. Joubin
in a discussion of Naukratite art (B.C.H. 1895, p. 80 ff.), and by M. Perrot in
the latest volume of his magnum opus, and made to serve as chronological
data. If one inquires into the evidence on which this confidence is reposed,
it will be found to consist almost entirely of certain careful observations
made by Mr. Petrie during the excavations of 1885. Let me begin by
restating them.