History of Ancient Pottery 16

History of Ancient Pottery 16

Antefixes from Hellenic sites are not so common, nor do they present

the same variety of subject or richness of colour. In many cases, as in

the fourth-century British Museum specimens from Asia Minor,[343] the

decoration is confined to scrolls and floral patterns in low relief,

the palmette being regarded as the most appropriate decorative motive

for this form of tile. An example of this type in the British Museum (C

902 = Fig. 10.), found on the field of Marathon, is inscribed with the

name Athenaios. Many later antefixes with remains of colouring have

been found at Tarentum, the subjects being chiefly heads of women or

mythological personages.

 

Roof-tiles proper have been discovered in large numbers both in Greece

and Italy. Olympia has proved the richest site in this respect, and

there are many specimens in the Museums of Athens and Palermo.[344]

Many of them have coloured decoration, and these terracotta remains are

almost the only evidence we now have of the extensive system of

colouring applied by the Greeks to their temples.[345]

 

At Olympia all the buildings have terracotta roofs except the temple of

Zeus and two others, the dates varying from the seventh century B.C.

down to Roman times. We know from Pausanias[346] that the temple of

Zeus was roofed with marble tiles in imitation of terracotta, an

invention traditionally attributed to Byzes of Naxos. The

covering-tiles of the Heraion roof (see Fig. 9.) end in semicircular

discs painted with ornamental patterns; the flat roof-tiles are of the

concave type described above. The normal sixth-century type of roof is

seen in the Treasury of the Megarians, which has smooth flat tiles and

covering-tiles ending in antefixes with palmette-and-lotos ornament,

and a kymation cornice with lion’s head spouts.

 

A greater variety of tiles is to be seen in the Treasury of Gela.

Here for the first time we note the introduction of a new system,

which consists in nailing slabs of terracotta over the surface of

the stonework, or, to use the convenient German term,

“Bekleidungstechnik.”[347] It is obvious at the first glance that

the origin of this practice dates from the time when buildings were

largely or wholly of wood, which required protection from the

weather. When the wood was replaced by stone, the fashion held its

ground for a time; but with the more extensive use of marble, which

could not well be covered in this manner, it disappeared altogether

in Greece.

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

PLATE III

 

[Illustration:

 

PART OF ARCHAIC TEMPLE WITH TERRACOTTA ROOF, CIVITA LAVINIA, AS

RESTORED

IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

]

 

------------------------------------

 

But the Treasury of Gela is by a Sicilian architect, and it seems

highly probable that the method of decoration employed was not one

usually practised in Greece, but was introduced from the Western

Mediterranean. Though rare in Greece, it is exceedingly common in

Sicily and Southern Italy. The middle temple (known as C) on the

acropolis of Selinus, and buildings at Gela and Syracuse, may be cited

as examples. The principle is also well illustrated in the terracotta

remains of the temple at Civita Lavinia, excavated by Lord Savile in

1890–94, which are now in the British Museum. They have, as far as

possible, been incorporated in a conjectural restoration in the

Etruscan Saloon (Plate III.).[348] It will be noted that most of the

slabs are pierced with holes, by means of which they were attached to

the walls or surface of the entablature; they are mostly decorated with

lotos-and-honeysuckle and other patterns, in relief and coloured, the

same being repeated in colour only on the back of the overhanging edges

of the cornice. These remains belong to two periods, the end of the

sixth century and the fourth century B.C.; they may be easily

distinguished by the differences in the treatment of the ornamental

patterns, while there is a marked absence of colouring in the later

remains. Similar architectural remains in terracotta have been found in

Etruria, and are described in Chapter XVIII. It should be noted that

the Civita Lavinia slabs are flat, whereas those used at Olympia, and

many others in Southern Italy and Sicily, are three-sided.

 

Specimens of ordinary Greek tiles have been found in many parts of the

ancient world, besides those for special architectural purposes already

discussed. Avolio[349] mentions many examples from Acrae and elsewhere

in Sicily, stamped with emblems or names of officials and of makers. At

Olbia, in Southern Russia, tiles were found stamped with names of Greek

aediles (ἀστυνόμοι), like the amphora-handles described below (p.

158),[350] and in Corfu tiles and bricks with names of magistrates

(πρυτάνεις), indicating in each case the existence of public

regulations concerning the potteries.[351] At Kertch (Panticapaeum) Dr.

Macpherson discovered large numbers of tiles with labels on which was

stamped the word [ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ], “Royal,” together with other

inscriptions.[352] These tiles showed the manner of their attachment

one upon the other, and their dimensions answered to the Lydian variety

mentioned above. Other tiles discovered by Mr. Burgon at Athens, by Sir

Charles Newton in Kalymnos, and by Mr. Colnaghi at Kandyla (Alyzia) in

Acarnania, bore labels with inscriptions and designs in relief.[353] On

one of the latter series in the British Museum is the inscription

[ALYZEIÔN], “of the people of Alyzia” (Fig. 11); on another was

inscribed in the manner of the Athenian vases (see Chapters X. and

XVII.) [ΙΠΠΕΟΣ] [ΚΑΛΟΣ] [ΑΡΙ[Σ]ΤΟΜΕΔΕΙ] [ΔΟΚΕΙ], “Hippeus seems

handsome to Aristomedes.”[354]

 

[Illustration: FIG. 11. INSCRIBED TILES FROM ACARNANIA AND CORFU

(BRITISH MUSEUM).]

 

Inscribed tiles from Greece proper are somewhat rare, and the

best-known examples, to the number of sixteen, have been collected by

M. Paris[355]; they are usually inscribed with the word [ΔΗΜΟΣΙΑ] or

[ΔΗΜΟΣΙΟΣ], as a sort of Government stamp. Others have magistrates’

names, as [ΦΡΟΔFΙΣ], Ἀ]φροδ(ε)ισίου, on a tile at Corinth, or the

maker’s name, [FΑΣΤΟΥΚΡΙΤ], Fαστουκρίτ[ου, on one from Thisbe in

Boeotia.[356] Those found by M. Paris at Elateia have either the word

[ΔΗΜΟΣΙΟΣ] or [Ε[Π]Ι] with the name of the magistrate; though all are

fragmentary, it is possible to restore the full formula as πλίνθος

δημοσία ἐπὶ Ἀπελλέα, “government bricks, in the year of Apelleas’

office.”[357] A remarkable tile or _stele_, found near Capua and now in

the British Museum, has an inscription in Oscan, and two stamps of a

boar and a head of Athena, resembling types on Italian coins of the

early part of the third century.[358]

 

[Illustration] [Illustration]

From _Benndorf_ From _Jahrbuch d. arch. Inst._

FIG. 12. CALYX-KRATER FIG. 13. OSTRAKON OF XANTHIPPOS.

 

We may recall the fact that it was with a tile that Pyrrhus met his

death when besieging Argos. Nor is this the only occasion on which

these humble objects have played a part in history. In the

well-known Athenian institution of Ostracism the act of voting was

performed by writing on fragments of tiles or potsherds the names

of those whom it was desired to banish. Recent excavations have

yielded more than one actual specimen of these ὄστρακα or

sherds,—one bearing the name of Megakles (Fig. 12.); another, part

of a painted vase from the pre-Persian débris on the Athenian

Acropolis, the name of Xanthippos, the father of Perikles (Fig.

13); and a third, that of Themistokles.[359]

 

It is also probable that in Greece, as among the Romans, the hollow

floors of the hypocausts, as well as the flue-tiles of the hot baths,

were made of terracotta. The same material was also used for the pipes,

by means of which water was conveyed from aqueducts or drained from the

soil. A drain-pipe from Ephesos in the Museum at Sèvres is noted by

Brongniart and Riocreux,[360] and others have been found at Athens[361]

and in the Troad.[362]

 

Tiles were also employed for constructing graves, as has already been

noted in Chapter II. (see p. 34). In some tombs the floor was paved

with flat tiles, and the roof was constructed of arched tiles forming a

vault. The flat and square tiles were not used for tombs until a

comparatively late period. Some graves had a second layer of tiles to

protect the body from the superincumbent earth.[363] We shall have

occasion to make further allusion to the use of painted terracotta

slabs in Etruscan tombs (Chapter XVIII.).

 

The sarcophagi which played so important a part in the tomb were also

frequently made of terracotta, this material being most commonly

employed in Etruria. We have already mentioned (p. 62) the series of

archaic painted sarcophagi, which have all come from Clazomenae, near

Smyrna, and furnish us with much valuable information on the art of

painting in Ionia in the sixth century B.C. They will receive some

attention from this point of view in Chapter VIII. The British Museum

contains two very remarkable examples of Etruscan terracotta

sarcophagi, which are described in Chapter XVIII., as well as a series

of smaller examples, which are mere cinerary urns. Among other examples

of terracotta as used in tombs may be mentioned here a series of small

reliefs found in tombs at Capua and elsewhere in Southern Italy. They

consist of masks of Satyrs, river-gods, and Gorgons, and are often

highly coloured in red and blue. They are of late archaic work, about

480 B.C., but the exact way in which they were used to decorate the

tombs is uncertain. The British Museum collection contains many

specimens of these objects.[364]

 

There is a curious class of objects which hardly come under the heading

of any other category, but may be conveniently discussed here. Complete

specimens are very rare, but there is one in the Museum at Geneva which

has been identified as a brazier (πύραυνος or ἐσχάρα), and more

recently as a baking-oven (κλίβανος).[365] The form is that of a large

basin on a high stand, hollow underneath, with three square solid

handles projecting upwards from the rim. These handles, of which over a

thousand examples are to be found in various collections, are usually

the only part remaining, sometimes with part of the rim attached. They

are decorated with heads and other devices, usually in relief on square

panels, and the majority of these heads are of a Satyric or grotesque

character, wearing conical caps or adorned with ivy-wreaths. They

probably represent demons of some kind, and are placed there with

superstitious intent, to avert evil influences from whatever was baked

or cooked in the vessel. Similar masks are usually seen attached to

representations of forges and ovens on the painted vases,[366] and

remind us of the pseudo-Homeric invocation of evil deities against the

potters of Samos (see also p. 213 below). Professor Furtwaengler has

identified the heads as those of the Kyklopes, the attendant workmen of

Hephaistos.[367]

 

These objects are found all over the Mediterranean, especially at

Halikarnassos, Naukratis, and Delos, and the last-named place has been

regarded as the centre of their manufacture. They are all of the same

brick-like, coarse, red clay. Some bear the name of their maker,

Hekataios or Nikolaos. Besides the heads already mentioned, heads of

goats or oxen, or of Sirius, thunderbolts and rosettes are used by way

of devices. They have been collected together, and illustrations of all

the different types given by Conze in the _Jahrbuch_ for 1890, p. 118

ff.: two specimens are given on Plate IV. They belong to the

Hellenistic Age.

 

Other objects that exemplify the use of clay or terracotta in Greek

daily life are: moulds for vases and terracotta figures, lamps,

weights, and stamps for various purposes. Many flat discs of terracotta

have been found at Tarsus, Gela in Sicily, Tarentum, and other places,

pierced with two holes and about three inches in diameter.[368] They

are stamped with various devices and inscriptions, but their use is

unknown. Other discs of convex form found at Halikarnassos and stamped

with heads in relief are supposed to have been weights ([λεῖαι) to hold

down the threads of the loom (ἀγνύθες),[369] such as are used by the

Greeks at the present day; others again may be the weights used for

keeping the ends of the folds of a himation in position. Small pierced

cones of terracotta often found in the fields of Greece have been

supposed to have been suspended round the necks of cattle, but are

probably weights of some kind.[370] Lastly, terracotta egg-shaped

objects have been found in Sicily inscribed with various names, and are

supposed to have been voting-tickets used for the ballots of the

tribes.[371]

 

Many examples have been found of terracotta impressions from coins,

which may have been the trial-pieces of die-sinkers or forgers, since

persons of that class, as among the Romans, seem to have employed this

material for their nefarious practices. They are more fully discussed

in Chapter XIX. The British Museum contains a large collection of these

found in the Fayûm in Egypt, all of Roman date; also a copy of a coin

of Larissa from Acarnania. Terracotta medallions with impressions of

gems or seals are not uncommon, especially in Asia Minor and at

Naukratis, and among the latter are many lumps of clay actually used as

seals, with the pattern of the substance in which they were impressed

adhering to the back of them, while on the front is a design from a

signet-ring.[372]

 

* * * * *

 

The subject of =Lamps= is one that is more conveniently and

appropriately treated in the Roman section of this work (see Chapter

XX.), almost all existing examples in terracotta being of that period;

it may not, however, be out of place to include here a few general

remarks on the subject, pointing out the distinctive features of those

of purely Greek origin.

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

PLATE IV

 

[Illustration:

 

GREEK LAMPS AND “BRAZIER-HANDLES.”

1, 3, 4, 6, LAMPS FROM GREEK SITES; 2, 5 BRAZIERS FROM HALIKARNASSOS

AND CYPRUS (BRITISH MUSEUM).

]

 

------------------------------------

 

The invention of lamps was ascribed by Clement of Alexandria to the

Egyptians; and they were certainly in common use among the Greeks.

Herodotos[373] describes those which he saw in Egypt as simple saucers

filled with oil in which the wick floated, and this statement is partly

supported by the form of the lamps found in the earlier tombs of Cyprus

and on sites under Phoenician influence.[374] He also uses the phrase

περὶ λύχνων ἁφάς, “about the time of lighting lamps,” to denote the

evening.[375] The Greek comic writers allude to the use of lamps of

terracotta or metal,[376] and they played a part in religious

ceremonies.

 

The regular Greek name for a lamp was λύχνος (not λαμπάς, which means a

torch), and a lampstand was called λυχνοῦχος; the spout or nozzle in

which the wick was placed was known as μύξος or μυκτήρ, the wick itself

as ἐλλύχνιον.[377] A lamp with more than one nozzle was known as

δίμυξος or τρίμυξος.[378] The simple form was that derived from the

Phoenician lamp, an open saucer with a bent-up lip in which the wick

was placed; but commonly the Greek lamp had a circular or oval body

(the receiver) with flat covered top, in the centre of which was the

filling-hole. To this was sometimes attached a handle permitting the

insertion of a finger, and the nozzle was usually very small and quite

plain. An epithet applied by Aristophanes[379] to a lamp is τροχήλατος,

“made on the wheel”; but evidence points to their being always made in

moulds.

 

The majority of the lamps which have been found on Greek sites are of

Roman date, and they frequently bear Latin inscriptions; those of the

Hellenic period are seldom ornamented, and are usually covered with a

thin black glaze. Others are modelled in the form of human figures,

animals, heads, or sandalled feet; the British Museum possesses a good

example of grey ware from Knidos in the form of a figure of Artemis

(_Cat._ C 421), with the oil-receptacle on the top of her head; another

from Naukratis represents Eros (see for these Plate IV.). One from

Athens was inscribed [ΜΗ ΑΠΤΟΥ], “Do not touch,”[380] an inscription of

similar import to those on the Roman lamps from the Esquiline described

in Chapter XX.

 

Little has at present been done in the way of a scientific

investigation of Roman lamps, but the results of a rough classification

according to shapes show that certain forms are more specially

associated with Greek sites, and moreover frequently bear names of

makers in Greek letters. This is particularly the case with one form,

which appears to be confined to Athens, Corfu, the coast of Asia Minor,

and Cyprus. These lamps, of a pale yellow clay, have a circular body

with flat top, round the edge of which runs a border of impressed

egg-pattern, interrupted on either side by a small plain raised

panel.[381] The handle is small and pierced with a hole, the nozzle

also small, with straight sides. These lamps bear the makers’ names (in

the genitive), Primus ([ΠΡΕΙΜΟΥ]), Abaskantos ([ΑΒΑCΚΑΝΤΟΥ]), etc., the

former being especially common; all are in Greek letters. Some again

only have a single letter or monogram engraved underneath. They are

often very carefully executed, with sharply cut details, and the

subjects are usually mythological (see Plate IV. fig. 1); they appear

to be of very late date, not earlier than the third century after

Christ.

 

Another form which appears to be specially characteristic of Greek

sites is that with a plain or heart-shaped nozzle, sometimes with a

groove incised at the base, but without a handle. They are usually

quite small, with circular bodies. Large numbers of these were found by

Mr. Newton at Knidos in 1859,[382] and by Mr. Barker at Tarsos in

1845.[383] The subjects are mostly poor and devoid of interest,

including animals, rosettes, and various floral patterns. Many of these

lamps bear the signature ROMAINE(N)SIS, the form of the word indicating

that they were made by a Roman residing abroad (_i.e._ at Knidos), not

in Rome.[384] A third form, approximating to the Christian type, has a

small solid handle and plain nozzle, and is confined to sites on or

near the coast of Asia Minor. These, with the remaining types of lamps,

will be more fully dealt with in the Roman section of this work. It

may, however, be worth while mentioning here that Mr. Newton found at

Knidos several lamps of a coarse black ware, covered with thin glaze,

which are mostly of large size. They are circular, and convex above,

and are supplied with two or more long nozzles with blunt terminations

radiating round them (see Plate IV. fig. 6). Between the nozzles are

roughly stamped devices of Satyrs’ heads, flowers, etc., in relief.

These may fairly be regarded as a Greek type.

 

* * * * *

 

The subject of Greek =sculpture in terracotta= is so wide as to demand

a volume to itself; but a discussion of the uses to which clay was put

by the Greeks would not be complete without some mention of their

achievements in this direction. We propose therefore briefly to review

the main features of Greek terracotta statuettes and reliefs, by way of

illustrating the purely artistic use which they made of this material.

 

The subject may be divided under four heads: (1) Large statues; (2)

Statuettes or figurines; (3) Reliefs; (4) Moulds. Large or life-size

statues belong more particularly to the earlier phases of Greek art,

but appear again in its later developments, under Italian influences.

Statues of terracotta were also a common feature of Italian art, being,

in fact, the usual material employed by Etruscan statuaries, as well as

for the decoration of temples (see Chapter XVIII.). Greek terracotta

statues are practically non-existent; and although there are some

female figures nearly life-size and a male torso of almost colossal

proportions in the British Museum, also a Hermes in the Vatican, these

were found at Rome, belong to the Roman period, and, though Greek in

style, are really following an Etruscan fashion.

 

It is characteristic of the Hellenic race that from its earliest