DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.619#0057
4S
NAUKRATIS.
May it not be that the inscriptions were in most
of these dedicated objects only put on by the temple
officials as a final act before burial, in order that
no sacrilegious person should in after times be
so misguided as to apply to his own use what
was thus unmistakeably marked as belonging to
Apollo ? This would explain a great deal that is
otherwise unintelligible about these inscriptions;
the striking contrast for example, between the
studied calligraphy of the Phanes rim on the one
hand, and on the other hand, the clumsy and
seemingly hurried scratching upon the painting in
pi. vi. no. 5, which is nevertheless part of what
must have been a very fine vase. Looking more-
over at nos. 1 and 2 of the same plate, where
the inscription has evidently been inserted by the
dedicator himself, observe how careful the scribe
has been not to let the writing interfere with the
design. What I wish therefore to point out is,
that we must in these inscriptions distinguish
between those which contain the word avedrjKc, or
a dedicator's name, and are therefore probably
about contemporary with the manufacture of the
vase itself; and those which, merely marking the
ownership of the god, may have been added, at
the time of their rejection, by the officials of the
temple ; and which in that case may represent a
period much later than the actual origin of the vase.
On the whole, the evidence of these Naukratian
inscribed vases is strongly in favour of what I
have always felt to be the case, that painted vases
among the Greeks were seldom or never used in
daily life; they were a special fabric made ex-
pressly for dedication, or, in the case of those
who could afford them, for burying with the
dead; besides, if they had been in daily use, how
could we possibly fail to meet with any mention
of them throughout the whole of Greek literature;
the only instance in which they are mentioned
distinctly states that the class there referred to,
the white " Athenian " lekythi, are made expressly
for the dead; Aristoph. Eccl. 996, os rots veKpola-t
£"yypa(f>ei rds \t)kv0ov<;. It is true, I allow, that
many cases are known (several among the Nau-
kratis collection) of painted vases which have been
rivetted in ancient times; but the precautions
against tomb-robbing in antiquity, and this very
practice of incising deterrent inscriptions3 shows
that the question of a second interment of a vase
might, and probably did, often arise; and we
know only too well that objects buried with a
body were as a general rule broken before being
put in the tomb. A vase thus anciently mended
may then either have come from a tomb or may
have been broken in the factory and, mended
there, would be purchased at a bargain by the
pious but economical relative of the deceased.
58. Glancing now generally over the large series
of painted vase fragments from Naukratis, we are
dealing with a period from 650 b.c. if we may accept
Mr. Petrie's date, downwards to the Christian
era ; and within that period we have representa-
tives here of almost all known, and a few hitherto
unknown, fabrics that existed in the Greek world.
This in itself is a valuable fact, because we may
naturally conclude that what is not here repre-
sented was probably out of the ken of the Nau-
kratians in point of date ; and therefore we may,
I think, look upon Naukratis as a terminus ante
quern; just as, on the other hand, the Akropolis of
Tiryns gives us a terminus post quern, if we may
consider the date of its destruction as fixed, by
Dr. Schliemann's discoveries, at about this period;
at any rate, whereas at Naukratis there is none
of the so-called " prehistoric " pottery; on the
Akropolis at Tiryns, according to Dr. Schliemann,
no single specimen was found which can be referred
to the Hellenic period.
And this date for Naukratis is interesting,
because it practically fixes two classes of vases
at least, as earlier than 650, I mean the vases of
the "Geometric" style and the so-called "Island"
type. It is certainly a remarkable thing that we
have not in the whole of the Naukratis collection
8 The Tataie lekythos says, " whosoever steals me, shall be
blind."
NAUKRATIS.
May it not be that the inscriptions were in most
of these dedicated objects only put on by the temple
officials as a final act before burial, in order that
no sacrilegious person should in after times be
so misguided as to apply to his own use what
was thus unmistakeably marked as belonging to
Apollo ? This would explain a great deal that is
otherwise unintelligible about these inscriptions;
the striking contrast for example, between the
studied calligraphy of the Phanes rim on the one
hand, and on the other hand, the clumsy and
seemingly hurried scratching upon the painting in
pi. vi. no. 5, which is nevertheless part of what
must have been a very fine vase. Looking more-
over at nos. 1 and 2 of the same plate, where
the inscription has evidently been inserted by the
dedicator himself, observe how careful the scribe
has been not to let the writing interfere with the
design. What I wish therefore to point out is,
that we must in these inscriptions distinguish
between those which contain the word avedrjKc, or
a dedicator's name, and are therefore probably
about contemporary with the manufacture of the
vase itself; and those which, merely marking the
ownership of the god, may have been added, at
the time of their rejection, by the officials of the
temple ; and which in that case may represent a
period much later than the actual origin of the vase.
On the whole, the evidence of these Naukratian
inscribed vases is strongly in favour of what I
have always felt to be the case, that painted vases
among the Greeks were seldom or never used in
daily life; they were a special fabric made ex-
pressly for dedication, or, in the case of those
who could afford them, for burying with the
dead; besides, if they had been in daily use, how
could we possibly fail to meet with any mention
of them throughout the whole of Greek literature;
the only instance in which they are mentioned
distinctly states that the class there referred to,
the white " Athenian " lekythi, are made expressly
for the dead; Aristoph. Eccl. 996, os rots veKpola-t
£"yypa(f>ei rds \t)kv0ov<;. It is true, I allow, that
many cases are known (several among the Nau-
kratis collection) of painted vases which have been
rivetted in ancient times; but the precautions
against tomb-robbing in antiquity, and this very
practice of incising deterrent inscriptions3 shows
that the question of a second interment of a vase
might, and probably did, often arise; and we
know only too well that objects buried with a
body were as a general rule broken before being
put in the tomb. A vase thus anciently mended
may then either have come from a tomb or may
have been broken in the factory and, mended
there, would be purchased at a bargain by the
pious but economical relative of the deceased.
58. Glancing now generally over the large series
of painted vase fragments from Naukratis, we are
dealing with a period from 650 b.c. if we may accept
Mr. Petrie's date, downwards to the Christian
era ; and within that period we have representa-
tives here of almost all known, and a few hitherto
unknown, fabrics that existed in the Greek world.
This in itself is a valuable fact, because we may
naturally conclude that what is not here repre-
sented was probably out of the ken of the Nau-
kratians in point of date ; and therefore we may,
I think, look upon Naukratis as a terminus ante
quern; just as, on the other hand, the Akropolis of
Tiryns gives us a terminus post quern, if we may
consider the date of its destruction as fixed, by
Dr. Schliemann's discoveries, at about this period;
at any rate, whereas at Naukratis there is none
of the so-called " prehistoric " pottery; on the
Akropolis at Tiryns, according to Dr. Schliemann,
no single specimen was found which can be referred
to the Hellenic period.
And this date for Naukratis is interesting,
because it practically fixes two classes of vases
at least, as earlier than 650, I mean the vases of
the "Geometric" style and the so-called "Island"
type. It is certainly a remarkable thing that we
have not in the whole of the Naukratis collection
8 The Tataie lekythos says, " whosoever steals me, shall be
blind."