Smith, Arthur H. [Hrsg.]; British Museum <London> / Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities [Hrsg.]: Catalogue of sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (Band 2) (London, 1900)

EXPLORATION AT CYRENE. 219

right thigh and left foot are wanting.—From a Roman
building at Cnidos.

Marble. Height, 1 foot 2 inches.

1360. Unfinished terminal bust, rudely blocked out in marble.
—Cnidos.

Marble. Height, 8 inches.

SCULPTURES FROM CYRENE.

The sculptures that follow were the fruits of a series of
excavations that were carried on at Cyrene, on a small
scale, but with extraordinary success, by Captain (now
Sir E.) Murdoch Smith, of the Koyal Engineers, and
Commander Porcher, of the Eoyal Navy. These officers
were stationed at Malta in 1860, and at the instance of
Captain Smith, who had been previously attached to
Sir C. Newton's expedition to Halicarnassos (cf. j>. 75),
they obtained leave of absence for exploration in the
Cyrenaica. They reached the site of Cyrene in December,
1860, and, with occasional intervals, they carried on their
excavations till November, 1861, assisted by grants from
the Trustees of the British Museum, and by occasional
visits from British men-of-war, for the purpose of trans-
porting the marbles.

Notwithstanding the great antiquity of Cyrene, whose
foundation goes back to mythical times {see vol. i.,
No. 790), the fruits of the expedition belong for the most
part to the Gra3CO-Koinan period. The early cemeteries
were not found, and, so far as can be gathered from the
few details supplied of the temple ■ architecture, the
temples, with perhaps the exception of the small temple
near the Stadium, are not of an early period.