Volume 83, 2008

Der Typus der attischen Girlande wird bestimmt durch zwei vertikale Granatapfelreihen, die in Girlandenmitte aufeinander treffen; zwischen ihnen bleibt leerer Raum, ein vertikaler Spalt. Bekannt ist der attische Girlandentypus von den Sarkophagen. Der Beginn der Produktion attischer Girlandensarkophage wird gegen 120 n.Chr. angesetzt. Der Typus der attischen Girlande indes begegnet bereits an einer späthellenistischen Grabara in Athen. Die hier folgenden Beobachtungen belegen den attischen Girlandentypus des weiteren am Caffarelli-Sarkophag in Berlin. Dieser ist von H. Herdejürgen überzeugend der claudischen Epoche zugeordnet worden. Zwischen dem Sarkophag Caffarelli von etwa 40 n.Chr. und den frühen attischen Girlandensarkophagen klafft eine Zeitlücke von 80 Jahren, also von drei Generationen. Es ist nicht denkbar, daß zwischen 40 und 120 n.Chr. in Attika keine Girlandenreliefs gearbeitet worden wären, eine Werkstattradition aber weiter bestand. Die Existenz kleinasiatischer Girlandensarkophage im 1. und frühen 2. Jh. n.Chr. macht das Fortleben auch der attischen Reliefgirlande in dieser Zeit wahrscheinlich. Vorläufer der attischen Girlandensarkophage sind unter Grab- und Götteraltären zu suchen. Diese Arbeit ist noch zu leisten.

The four ideal sculptures (Venus Felix’s type; Ganymede and Eros group; armoured Venus and Eros group; Hermes and child Dionysus group) at the frigidarium of the bath at Agnano, situated at the 3rd mile along the Via Puteolis-Neapolim, offer useful elements to identify sculptures’ workshops active in Naples during the Roman period. All of these sculptures are dated to the middle of the 2nd century AD, are made of the same type of marble, share congruent aesthetics, as well as stylistic and technical features. This may lead to argue that they belong to one specific workshop, likely to have been from Naples.

The alabastron New York 1981.11.7, here discussed (fig. 2-3), was first published by Dietrich von Bothmer and shortly afterwards by myself.2 These publications are not easily accessible and both are somewhat sketchy and concise. The alabastron forms an extremely puzzling case: there are manifest indications that it should be declared a fake, yet other aspects forbid such a condemnation. I do not know of any other, equally contradictory, vase. After a short introduction dealing with other alabastra that are related in fabric to the Caeretan hydriae (figs.1a-b) I discuss the most glaring absurdities in the painting of the bottle and then quote Bothmer’s arguments in defence of its genuineness. Finally I give a more detailed description of its paintings in relation to the figure scenes of the Caeretan hydriae.

In the first half of the 5th century, the number of representations of religious activities on Attic painted pottery increases significantly, not only in absolute numbers, but also in proportion to overall developments in this material. Taking the importance of religious participation in the concept of Athenian citizenship for a starting point, systematic analysis of women’s and men’s roles in these vase scenes reveals interesting patterns. Women and men perform identical roles in the main categories of animal sacrifice, libation, procession, and offerings at an altar, but the degree of participation of each sex in different types of activity is quite different. Conventional means of explaining various types of representation, such as the distinction between public and private occasions, turn out to be contradicted by the evidence, as do prevalent views on women’s (non-) participation in specific types of sacrifice. The analysis includes issues of provenance, chronology and the influence of individual painters and workshops.

This great work of art bequeathed through time continues to arouse our interest, also because of its scientific features. Studying such an extended temple allows us to experience the sensitivity of its creator, and it evokes a sense of the ways in wich people used to think and feel during that historical period. The architectural features come from the Greek passion for the sciences, in particular for mathematics; ranging from prime numbers 2 and 3, with their odd/even distinction, to their turning into 4 and 9, from the Pythagorean triangles with their 3-4-5 long sides, to the sections comprising of, as in music sheets, the architectural arrangement: science turns into art. With respect to those mathematical sets, one may identify the foot as the unit of measurement used in the Parthenon, as well as discover the intellectual and diagrammatic processes drawing us ever closer to the secret core of this work of art.Faliscan characteristics, and explain two enigmatic images by paying attention to visual narratives: extraction, omission, paradigmata and syntagmata. By excerpting Attic figurative scenes local vase painters created symbolic combinations of different mythological scenes.

In the early classical period the theme of the murder of Aigisthos by Orestes became popular in Athenian vasepaintings. In previous studies the twelve examples of this theme discussed herein have been interpreted as an identical scene. However, it would seem they actually fall into two groups. In the earlier works the painters depict the legend as one of succession to the throne, punishment of the false king, and thus emphasize the aristocratic value-system of their time. In the later examples we see the bravery of Orestes is contrasted to the cowardice of Aigisthos. In this way the new image of Orestes, the hero, embodies the model of virtue for the Athenian citizen; that is, a model of self-sacrifice under democracy.

This is a presentation of largely unknown or even unpublished Laconian bronze material mainly from the Archaic period from two surprising find places on the Greek mainland. On a total of 80 finds from the sanctuary of Apollo Hyperteleatas near Phoiniki (Laconia), which are catalogued here, 62 are bronze products. Of these 38 are certainly, 6 possibly Archaic. Next to these, 15 Archaic Laconian bronzes found on the Acropolis of Athens are presented and catalogued. This small but in several respects important complex has no other links with the find place of Apollo Hyperteleatas in the far-away Laconian province than the mere fact that – as a find place of Laconian bronzes – it is equally surprising. The article aims finally at demonstrating that such eminent bronze products as the krater from Vix and the bronze hydriae from Paestum and Sala Consilina can be attributed without any problem to the same production centre, namely Sparta or Laconia, from where obviously all the other bronzes of similar quality and style, discussed here, originated.

Walled cities in the Roman Empire were inevitably accommodated with city gates which had one, two, three or four passages, depending on era, place and status. From the 1st century BC onwards, particularly in the socalled coloniae, monumental gate complexes were erected with two or more passages, where driving traffic was separated from pedestrian traffic. Where gates are designed with special passages exclusively for pedestrians in the cases discussed in this article (Pompeii, Cologne, Xanten and Trier), extramural buildings are found. Where special pedestrian passages are absent, extramural buildings are not usually found.

In a private American collection is a magnificent, previously unpublished marble bust of Tiberius. This well preserved and slightly over life-size sculptural image belongs to the ‘Florence-Ephesos-Munich’ portrait type of Tiberius (Type IV), created about AD 10 to commemorate Tiberius’ military victories in Illyricum. It is likely that the Bianco bust was produced between that time and the early years of Tiberius’ Principate, when a new portrait type (Type V) was commissioned to represent him as Princeps following Augustus’ death in 14.Pages 161-182.

This note suggests that Tages, the mythical founder of the Etrusca disciplina, is depicted on an engraved Etruscan mirror in the British Museum. The identification, if correct, provides some verification of the literary evidence for the myth of Tages, but it substantially undermines the common equation of Pavatarchies, a youth who appears on another engraved Etruscan mirror, with Tages.

Status in Italic tombs is generally classified through the value, the quantity and the quality of the objects in the corredo. In this paper this methodology is examined and the different objects that are specifically related to status are listed separately. This list is used to individually classify Early Iron Age tombs from Veii, Tarquinia and Verucchio. Those with the clearest expression of high status are used to reconstruct an overall development of increasingly complex leadership between approximately 950 and 700 BC. The different material ways in which this process was expressed in the mentioned settlements is central to this observation.

The Roman religious festival of the Compitalia (‘cross-roads festival’) was celebrated in both city and countryside. It is generally assumed that it originated as a rural cult which was later incorporated in the city, where it became the principal festival of the vici or urban quarters. In this paper it will be argued that the spread of the Compitalia might have been in the opposite direction; in this view the Compitalia, a Roman urban festival with administrative aspects, was spread outside Rome alongside Roman influence. It is not known where the Compitalia were celebrated in the countryside. It will be suggested that ancient ‘Italic’ sanctuaries have been re-used for celebrating the Roman rite of the Compitalia, apparently by now functioning within a Roman administrative and religious system.