DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.619#0056
THE PAINTED POTTERY OP NAXJKRATIS.
•17
which may he found necessary when fuller results
are brought to light in further excavation.
Here is a case in point; various classes of
objects are discovered in the Greek islands and
on the coast of Asia Minor which show decided
traces of an Egyptian influence; Graeco-Egyptian
Naukratis is found, a great trading centre which
undoubtedly had intimate relations in antiquity
with these very sites ; and we are at once tempted
to refer all the Egyptizing influence in early
Greek art to this newly-discovered origin. No
doubt for the faience ware and scarabs of Rhodes,
and possibly for much of the early pottery, this con-
clusion may be perfectly correct; but as regards
Egyptian decoration on vases, the lotus pattern
for instance, we must bear in mind that both
Greece and Asia Minor were conversant with
Egyptian art long before Naukratis was thought
of. Besides, at a site like Naukratis, where clay
must have been difficult to obtain, we should natu-
rally expect that the vases of different styles would
represent, not so much local manufactures, as the
importations of the very mixed races who went to
form its population.
The fact is, we really know as yet very little
about the original locale of any style of vase
paintings; we may speak for convenience sake of
the Kamiros style, the Dipylon style, and so on,
so long as it is clearly understood that these
names are only so applied after the sites where
the vases of the class were first found in any
quantity. We cannot even say that the Kamiros
vases were made in Rhodes at all, especially as
Naukratis has furnished us with a large variety of
fragments of this very class. It will be impossible
to speak definitely on these points until every im-
portant site, especially such as those inKrete for in-
stance, is thoroughly and systematically explored.
After all, the evidence of find is more important
than that of origin; and here at Naukratis,
thanks to Mr. Petrie's careful memoranda, we
have much that will be valuable in future inves-
tigation. As regards the dedicated objects, how-
ever^ I think we must be careful before accepting
too absolutely their date from the level in which
they were found; if, as I suppose, they represent
the votive objects which were from time to time
rejected from the temple on account of surplus
accumulation, or, as in the case of the Phanes
lebes, for political or other reasons, the evidence
of level and accompanying styles goes for very
little; inasmuch as any vase might in point of date
be separated by a century or more from those
among which it is found.
57. The practice of dedicating fictile vases in
temples must have been fairly common in antiquity,
and yet we have singularly few examples which
testify to this custom; partly because few ex-
plorers have been fortunate enough to discover
the temple " limbo " as Mr. Petrie has done;'
more usually no doubt, as we see from the Del-
phian and Delian treasure lists, and from the
excavations at Dodona, the actual temple service
must have been of metal, and the insignificant
character of most of our specimens is probably the
cause of their having been chosen for rejection.
At the same time, the character of most of these
inscriptions would seem to show that the scribe,
whoever he was, had but scant courtesy for the
painter's art; for they are scratched haphazard in
many cases all over the design.2
Now many of these inscriptions, it will be no-
ticed, are not dedicatory, but merely mark posses-
sion, thus ,Ait6\\o)v6<; ifii, or merely 'AiroWcavos.
1 See the instances of so-called favissce quoted by Furt-
wangler, " Besehreibung der Vasens." Berlin, p. 47 and note.
In the stores of the British Museum I recently came across
a fragment of a large black-glazed dish inscribed in roughly
incised letters .... ATAIAAM . . . which seems to have
come from Knidus. It looks very much as if we should
read i? Seim] rai Aa/x.[ar/«, in which case we have here pro-
bably a relic of &favissa of Demeter. The recent discoveries
at the temple of Apollo Ptoos in Boeotia have furnished yet
another parallel case. Here a quantity of fragments of
painted vases were found, many of them bearing incised
votive inscriptions of the fourth century B.C.; others are
inscribed simply HI, apparently an abbreviation of Hi[«pov:
see Bull, de Corr. Sell. ix. p. 479 and p. 523.
2 The lekythos of Tataie" (Koehl, Inscr. Ant. no. 524) is
treated in this way : on the other hand, see the cup of Philto,
Hellenic Journal, vol. vL p. 373.
•17
which may he found necessary when fuller results
are brought to light in further excavation.
Here is a case in point; various classes of
objects are discovered in the Greek islands and
on the coast of Asia Minor which show decided
traces of an Egyptian influence; Graeco-Egyptian
Naukratis is found, a great trading centre which
undoubtedly had intimate relations in antiquity
with these very sites ; and we are at once tempted
to refer all the Egyptizing influence in early
Greek art to this newly-discovered origin. No
doubt for the faience ware and scarabs of Rhodes,
and possibly for much of the early pottery, this con-
clusion may be perfectly correct; but as regards
Egyptian decoration on vases, the lotus pattern
for instance, we must bear in mind that both
Greece and Asia Minor were conversant with
Egyptian art long before Naukratis was thought
of. Besides, at a site like Naukratis, where clay
must have been difficult to obtain, we should natu-
rally expect that the vases of different styles would
represent, not so much local manufactures, as the
importations of the very mixed races who went to
form its population.
The fact is, we really know as yet very little
about the original locale of any style of vase
paintings; we may speak for convenience sake of
the Kamiros style, the Dipylon style, and so on,
so long as it is clearly understood that these
names are only so applied after the sites where
the vases of the class were first found in any
quantity. We cannot even say that the Kamiros
vases were made in Rhodes at all, especially as
Naukratis has furnished us with a large variety of
fragments of this very class. It will be impossible
to speak definitely on these points until every im-
portant site, especially such as those inKrete for in-
stance, is thoroughly and systematically explored.
After all, the evidence of find is more important
than that of origin; and here at Naukratis,
thanks to Mr. Petrie's careful memoranda, we
have much that will be valuable in future inves-
tigation. As regards the dedicated objects, how-
ever^ I think we must be careful before accepting
too absolutely their date from the level in which
they were found; if, as I suppose, they represent
the votive objects which were from time to time
rejected from the temple on account of surplus
accumulation, or, as in the case of the Phanes
lebes, for political or other reasons, the evidence
of level and accompanying styles goes for very
little; inasmuch as any vase might in point of date
be separated by a century or more from those
among which it is found.
57. The practice of dedicating fictile vases in
temples must have been fairly common in antiquity,
and yet we have singularly few examples which
testify to this custom; partly because few ex-
plorers have been fortunate enough to discover
the temple " limbo " as Mr. Petrie has done;'
more usually no doubt, as we see from the Del-
phian and Delian treasure lists, and from the
excavations at Dodona, the actual temple service
must have been of metal, and the insignificant
character of most of our specimens is probably the
cause of their having been chosen for rejection.
At the same time, the character of most of these
inscriptions would seem to show that the scribe,
whoever he was, had but scant courtesy for the
painter's art; for they are scratched haphazard in
many cases all over the design.2
Now many of these inscriptions, it will be no-
ticed, are not dedicatory, but merely mark posses-
sion, thus ,Ait6\\o)v6<; ifii, or merely 'AiroWcavos.
1 See the instances of so-called favissce quoted by Furt-
wangler, " Besehreibung der Vasens." Berlin, p. 47 and note.
In the stores of the British Museum I recently came across
a fragment of a large black-glazed dish inscribed in roughly
incised letters .... ATAIAAM . . . which seems to have
come from Knidus. It looks very much as if we should
read i? Seim] rai Aa/x.[ar/«, in which case we have here pro-
bably a relic of &favissa of Demeter. The recent discoveries
at the temple of Apollo Ptoos in Boeotia have furnished yet
another parallel case. Here a quantity of fragments of
painted vases were found, many of them bearing incised
votive inscriptions of the fourth century B.C.; others are
inscribed simply HI, apparently an abbreviation of Hi[«pov:
see Bull, de Corr. Sell. ix. p. 479 and p. 523.
2 The lekythos of Tataie" (Koehl, Inscr. Ant. no. 524) is
treated in this way : on the other hand, see the cup of Philto,
Hellenic Journal, vol. vL p. 373.