Volume 88, 2013

The swastika is a venerable motif found in the arts of diverse peoples, cultures, and periods, with a symbolism that is, overall, benign. In the vase-painting of Geometric Greece, however, it is usually regarded as mere ‘filling ornament’ with no symbolic value. There have been two exceptions: one theory is that it is a solar sign, another that it is an ‘ideogram of motion’. There is, in all likelihood, no single, overarching symbolism for the motif in Geometric art. Still, on a series of Geometric vases (such as the Hirschfeld Krater, Athens NM 990), patterns emerge that suggest another explanation: the swastika can be a marker of violence and death.

The early 20th century excavation of Banditella cemetery at Marsiliana d’Albegna (Manciano, GR) provided a list of the grave-goods placed into the burials. A close analysis of all the tombs’ contents enables us to point out some recurring grave-goods associations, which are presumably related to different hierarchical levels within the gens buried in the cemetery. The plan of the necropolis allows us to elaborate on the distribution of the identified grave-goods associations and the possible relationships between burials. They often appear to have been arranged in discernible patterns, such as in groups around chariot graves, or to have been disposed according to relationships between high-ranking male and female tombs and middle- and low-ranking tombs. Moreover, the finding of two nearly life-size anthropomorphic images within two burials (‘Circolo degli Avori’ and ‘Circolo della Fibula’) leads to some remarks on the interpretation of such statue-like objects, which are known from a very few examples from Vulci and its territory.

This article proposes that two kraters mentioned in inscriptions should be recognized as bronze volute-kraters. Studies of the stele of Phanodikos have tended to ignore the appearance of his krater, with its stand and strainer. Evidence from vase-painting, literature, inscriptions and surviving bronze vessels combine to suggest that the presence of all three elements points towards this having been a krater lakonikos. In the case of the krater dedicated by Phalaris, it is the presence of figural decoration on either side and its subject matter that supports the suggestion.

The study focuses on an Etruscan bronze vase in the form of a siren, worked in sphyrelaton and repoussé technique and decorated with gold leaf. The processing technique and the comparisons with bronzes from Greece and Magna Graecia show a strong Corinthian influence, just softened by the effects of the Ionic style. The vase, made in Vulci in the second quarter of the 6th century BC and probably found in a tomb, was certainly connected to the symposium. In the archaic age the equation sea = wine may have helped to identify the siren in the savior of the soul of the deceased.

The colours of the fired clays of architectural terracottas are among their most obvious characteristics. Breaking easily and being susceptible to wear and tear, they often appear without recognizable shape or form. The question is therefore frequently asked whether it is possible to classify an unadorned architectural terracotta fragment on the basis of the colour of its fired fabric alone. A corpus of pre-Roman material from the acropolis of the ancient city of Satricum (Le Ferriere, province of Latina, Italy) is used to consider this method of visual decision-making in terracotta classification, thanks to the categorical way in which colorimetric observations have been made for this large volume of finds. The use of Munsell colour classifications within macroscopic fabric descriptions is reassessed in light of the history of analytical study of this corpus of terracotta material.

The orientation of the temple as well as inscriptions from the sacred enclosure in Campo della Fiera near Orvieto (Volsinii veteres) strongly suggest that gods of the underworld were worshipped there. Apa (Father) is probably a hypostasis of Tinia (Iupiter) as infernal god. The deities Tluschva belong to the pars hostilis of the Etruscan heaven (sky). Circumstantial evidence shows that Campo may be the place of Fanum Voltumnae, the Etruscan federal sanctuary, not of chthonian but of katachthonian gods. The Latinized name Voltumna is akin to Veltune, whose image is visible on a famous mirror from Tuscania, which was probably made in the Ager volsiniensis.

Thorikos is located in the silver-rich Laurion region of southeast Attica, Greece. During the Classical and Early Hellenistic period, the metallurgical activities in the Laurion boomed and silver processing workshops, demanding large quantities of water, were spread over the entire area. This paper examines the role of water use and management in a selection of metallurgy workshops in the Thorikos area in order to enhance our understanding of the production of silver in the Thorikos deme.

It is not easy to date late red-figure vases from Athens by relaying only on drawing styles. This review of the evidence for the chronological development of the vases will argue that rather the shape is of relevance than the painting of the pots. It is remarkable, how potters were very precisely repeating particular shape models. Individuality was only expressed by variations of the foot or the mouth of the vases. Yet, the whole appearance followed the common contemporary taste. Thus, the overall shapes of the pots are generally suited to create chronological rows. These rows can be connected with the linear development of the firmly dated Panathenaean amphoras, which provides a reliable frame of reference. As the workshops have developed high and low shape variants (kraters), special forms (hydriae) and slightly differing variants for different sizes of the same shape (pelikai), the exact analysis of profile drawings is necessary to set up separate chronological rows for the variants to establish a reliable chronology. However, this article will also illustrate that we are able to identify the particular workshop by distinct decorative elements applied to their products, which might even allude to an awareness for branding.

A ten-years-old trend would separate two incompatible schools regarding the iconography of Magna Graecia: the ‘Philodramatists’ (according to them, the Apulian vases are directly inspired by tragedies) and the ‘Iconocentrists’ (who think that the painters would have used pregiven schemas designed in their own workshop). The reality is different. The point is to define whether the Apulian imagery simply mirrors a theatrical work (so that identifying this work would be enough) or whether the images – with or without the impulse of a text – are influenced by multiple elements (such as wall paintings, reliefs or engravings) coming from various eras – what is called the iconographic tradition.

In 2006 during the excavations in the centre of Sint-Oedenrode (NL), an extraordinary Hellenistic amethyst gem in a later gold pendant was discovered in a decidedly medieval context. It depicts in three-quarter view the head of a young man wearing a laurel wreath wrapped with a diadem. Despite intense abrasion to the surface of the gem, the ends of the diadem are visible fluttering on both sides of the man’s neck; the remains of a club above his shoulder, moreover, clearly identify him as the young Herakles. The gemstone can be dated by material, shape, technique, and style to the late 3rd or the first half of the 2nd century BC. It reproduces a true copy of the head of a classical Greek statue created ca 350 BC, which by the evidence of 20 surviving Roman marble copies of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD must have been quite famous. This statue type is known as the ‘Herakles Lansdowne’ after a copy found in the Villa Hadriana in Tivoli near Rome, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu. By adding a laureate diadem the Hellenistic gem engraver characterized the young man as a ruler. But the entirely idealized head only allows suggestions as to who might have been assimilated to the hero.

This article aims to provide an overview of the archaeological research on Roman public baths in modern Libya. Besides a summary of the available literature, it also offers a critical reinterpretation of some of these bath buildings and tries to perceive possible recurrent patterns or remarkable features on an architectural level. The differences between the baths of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica are approached by analyzing the cultural and historical background of both regions. An appendix at the end of the article regroups some of the important information about the separate bath houses in a useful table.

The discovery of the bronze seated boxer during excavations in 1885 on the Quirinal in Rome counts as one of the most spectacular finds in the archaeology of Rome. Initially described by R. Lanciani, it was long assumed that the statue was buried in late antiquity, together with the so-called Hellenistic prince, in order to protect it from danger. This article revisits the case of its discovery in detail, and demonstrates that the statue was in fact deposited during the 2nd century CE to mark the construction of a large building. Subsequently, the case is compared to other examples of construction-related depositions of sculpture.