Hellenistic Burials from Cyrenaica Author(s): T. Burton Brown Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 68 (1948), pp.

148-152 Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/626306 Accessed: 14/03/2009 06:35
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NOTES
The Date of al Mina.-In my publication of the al Mina excavations (JHS LVIII, 7-9) I argued that although al Mina itself, owing to the disappearance of the greater part of the ancient site, produced no remains earlier than the eighth century B.C. yet that it existed in a much earlier period could be deduced from the evidence afforded by the 'residential' town at Sabouni where Attic black-figured and Mycenaean pottery were found. Further evidence is now available. In I947 we found in a pocket in the steep side of the acropolis one of the well-known 'dolly' Mycenaean figurines; this was important because the few Mycenaean sherds previously discovered might just as well have been of the XIIth century, i.e. posterior to the invasion of the Peoples of the Sea which marked the beginning of a new era in North Syrian history, whereas the figurine is definitely earlier than that catastrophe. This year (I948) two of the peasants who cultivate the hill site brought me three seals found by them when ploughing; all are earlier than 1200 B.C. and one cylinder belongs to the first half of the second millennium. The connection between Sabouni and the port of al Mina is perfectly clear for all the periods represented on the latter site and should hold good for the earlier periods also. If Sabouni, and ex hypothesi Mina, al were flourishing at the time when Alalakh was a royal city we can be sure that al Mina was the port of Alalakh through which the Syrian town had its contacts-amply illustrated by our discoveries-with Cyprus and Crete. I originally chose the two sites for excavation on the theory that such was the case; now for the first time we have direct evidence for their being contemporary. LEONARD WOOLLEY. slave would be advertised; (2) according to a reasonable emendation Cleophrades on a pot of the very beginning of the fifth century (Beazley, ARV, 128, no. 91) is described as son of Amasis, who should therefore have been respectable; 2 (3) the names of foreign philhellenic kingsPsammetichus and Croesus (Hesp. Suppl. VIII, 36I-4)were borne by reputable Greeks of the sixth century and are not particularly servile names. (Neither for that matter do foreign ethnics imply a slave: there is the Corinthian Phryx (Payne, Necrocorinthia, 162, no. 5), Skythes the tyrant of Zancle, and Sikanos and Sikon (see Dunbabin, Western Greeks, 193), and the names of Themistocles' daughters may be compared; so that such signatures as Lydos, Skythes and Brygos on archaic Attic pots may well be of free citizens or metics.) The fallacy, if there is one, more probably comes later in the argument. R. M. COOK. Museumof ClassicalArchaeology, Cambridge.

Apacis il?TrolEEsv.-Amasis is one of the celebrated names of Attic pottery in the mid sixth century B.C. He signed only as ' maker '. Stylistic study has shown that the signed vases were painted by a single painter, who also painted other vases that are not signed: he is conventionally named the Amasis painter. The name Amasis came to Greece from Egypt, as did Psammetichus.1 It is a likely guess that the Athenian Amasis was named after the Egyptian king,;whose accession is dated about 568. But king Amasis was at first a nationalist, and so it is not probable that his name was borrowed for a Greek till he had been converted to philhellenism. The chances then are that, if the Athenian Amasis was so named at birth, he was born little if at all before 565 and would not have been a leading craftsman (or the master of a pottery) before 550 at the very earliest. In a recent lecture at Oxford on the shapes of Attic vases H. Bloesch discussed-if I may so call him-the Amasis potter: one man, he considered, shaped not only the majority (at least) of the vases painted by the Amasis painter but also two earlier vases painted by Lydos (Berlin F. I685 and B.M. B. I48: G. M. A. Richter, Metr. Mus. StudiesIV I74 nos. 6 and 2). But if the current chronology of archaeologists is correct, Lydos painted these two vases in the 55o's. If all this is sound, the Amasis potter cannot himself have been called Amasis and therefore in this instance nTroiTqCE not refer to the workman who shaped does pots. If this conclusion is unacceptable, one of the steps of the argument must be wrong. It may for instance be doubted whether the Athenian Amasis was so named at birth. But if lie was born free there is no obvious reason for changing his name, and I do not think he can have been a slave for three reasons: (i) it is hard to believe that the name of a 1 Two sixth century Greeks named Psammetichus are the nephew of Periander of Corinth, and the son of Theocles who commanded the foreigners in the Egyptian expedition that reached Abu Simbel in 59i-89.

Hellenistic Burials from Cyrenaica.-At Cyrene, during the summer of I947, the Antiquities Department of the British Military Administration of Cyrenaica cleared fallen debris from some of the Hellenistic tombs to the northeast of the city,1 and near the line of the modern road to Apollonia. In the course of these operations some intact burials came to light. The earliest of these interments were in two graves, of oblong plan, cut in the rock where there is a slightly sloping limestone shelf in a little valley. There was in this place a quantity of similar graves which had been already opened by robbers. All were reasonably well cut in the rock, but the surfaces were not smoothed. The area of these graves (not yet explored fully) may have been enclosed by a wall of large well-cut oblong blocks of stone, left rough on their outer surface, as appears from one straight length, two courses high, of such a wall unearthed in I947. A little higher up the slope from the graves and wall are the remains of a large tomb, cut in the rock and faced with excellent masonry (probably Hellenistic) most of which, with the elaborate colonnaded and painted facade, has fallen. The graves were each covered with a single slab of stone, well cut (but not highly finished) and shaped like a ridged roof with a square platform in the middle, perhaps to serve as a base for a statue or stela. At either end of these covering slabs there are simple vertical projections at the corners. This is a commonly found type of grave in the area for some twenty miles radius round Cyrene. Stone sarcophagi with similar covering slabs are also found very frequently in that area. One of the intact graves (Cyrene A.), inside measurements of which were:--length 7' 7", width 2' 10", height 2' 8", was cut with its length running north-west-south-east, and contained two bodies extended on their backs, lying head to foot. Both bodies may have been of males of about twenty years of age. The skull of one had been struck from the front by an edged weapon held horizontally which had nearly penetrated to the brain cavity. Faces in each case were turned to the southwest. The contents of the grave were pottery vessels, a pair of bronze tweezers of which the ends were shaped like spoon bowls, and a quantity of grain. The tweezers were lying on one body, and the pottery either on, or behind, the bodies, several pieces being in the corners behind the heads. The grain was in a pile on the floor of

2 It is not certain but likely that this is our Amasis, since the name is not common and the occupation agrees. 1 These tombs frequently have elaborate architectural facades. often cut in the rock, similar to those found near Alexandria, at Sciatbi. 148

NOTES
the grave, at the back of one body. see Fig. i, was as follows:37/47. The pottery,2 for which

149

feet of the body, and the grain was on the floor of the grave. The pottery, for which see Fig. I, was:Lekythos. Height 14 cm. Buff clay, lustreless black glaze. Slight vertical ribbing on the body, the ribs divided by incised lines.10 49/47. Bowl with two horizontal handles. Width overall I8-7 cm. Buff clay and lustreless black glaze. Underside of foot reserved and painted with two concentric circles and a dot.1l 50/47. Flower-pot shaped vessel, with one horizontal handle. Height I3-3 cm. Rough brownybuff clay with bands of dull red paint. 51/47. Jug. Similar to 38/47. 52/47. Bowl. Similar to 41/47. 53/47. Lamp. Similar to 46/47. 54/47. Bottle with two vertical handles. Height 38-7 cm. Browny-buff clay with bands of dull dark red paint. There is no reason to date Cyrene B. differently from Cyrene A.12 A small deposit, which appeared to be intact, was found on the floor of, and at the entrance to, a roughly hewn room cut in the rock to the right of the forecourt of a finely decorated Hellenistic tomb. This deposit consisted of several glass bottles, some (three complete and four fragments) being of thick heavy glass, which presumably would have been moulded, and others (one complete and five fragments) of light thin glass. There were also pieces of lacrymateria,13 of about 15 cm. in height when complete, and a lamp of Broneer's Type X, with one unpierced lug handle to the right.l4 This deposit was associated with a quantity of human bones, representing at least twenty interments. These bones were in a very confused state, and may have been brought from elsewhere."l Another Cyrene tomb cleared, a fairly large one with a very simple facade partly cut in the rock and partly finished in masonry, had in front of it an interment under a stela, now broken and with no visible inscription, which had been erected on slabs cut possibly from the original floor of the forecourt. The cavity of the grave (length east-west) under the slabs was cut in the steps at the foot of the facade. There was practically no trace of bones. The pottery, all at the eastern end, consisted of two rather rough jugs (56/47 and 57/47, height 35-5 cm.) of buff pottery, with traces of horizontal lines of red paint, a flat dish with a wide flat rim (58/47, width 4I-5 cm.) of rough buff pottery,16 and a lamp of red clay, of Broneer's type XXIV.17 One glass vessel (6 /47) was found in this grave, and another (62/47) was in a gap between slabs of the base of the stela. 6I/47 was of thin glass, 62/47 of thick heavy glass. A bronze mirror plate (64/47, width 14 cm.) was found towards the western end of the grave. This had fragmentary remains of an embossed plate attached 48/47. 10 For parallels to the shape see CVA, Denmark fasc. 4, P1. I78, no. 13 and CVA, Cambridge, fasc. I, P1. XLI, nos. 4-6. 11 For parallels to the shape see CVA, Sevres, P1. 25 nos. 20 and 2I, CVA, Oxford fasc. I, P1. XLVIII, no. 44, CVA, Cambridge fasc. I, P1. XLI, no. 24, and CVA, Musee Scheurleer fasc 2, III L P1. 3, no. I7. 12 It does not seem unreasonable to suggest a date in the later half of the fourth century for both these tombs. 13 Professor Ure, op cit. 22, says of these vessels that they might be from as early as the first half of the third century. 14 Broneer dates his type X at Corinth to the period of 250 to I75 B.C. For these objects, see the group on the top left hand corner of Fig. 2. 15 The pottery and glass was, however, all together in one place on the stone floor of the room, and nestling just within the shelter of the edge of a small step down from the threshold. 16 These types are well known at Cyrenaica. See Fig. 2 for illustrations. 17 Broneer dates this type to the second half of the first century A.D. at Corinth.

Pelike. Height 22 cm. Pinkish buff clay, covered with a (partly) streaky and slightly lustrous blue-black glaze.3 38/47. Jug. Height overall io cm. Pinkish red clay, good black glaze.4 39/47. Oinochoe. Height overall 9-6 cm. Clay and glaze as 38/47.5 40/'47. Hydria. Height 11-5 cm. Soft pinkish-buff clay, unglazed. The two little handles on either side are not separated from the body.6 4I1/47. Bowl. Width I3-2 cm. Rough surface, pinkish buff clay. No glaze. 42/47. Bowl with two handles. Width including the handles I6-8 cm. Red clay, good black glaze. Underside of foot not glazed and painted with two concentric circles and central dot in black. Inside the bowl are four impressed palmettes.7 43/47. Bowl similar to 42/47. Width overall I8-4 cm. Inside the bowl an impressed circle two cm. across, with six small impressed palmettes. 44/47. One handled bowl. Width I5-6 cm. Red clay, good black glaze. Inside the bowl two concentric circles of impressed dots, about 5 cm. across.8 45/47. One handled bowl. Width Io-8 cm. Pinkish buff clay, and poor quality black glaze. 46/47. Lamp. Length 9'3 cm. Red clay, brownyblack glaze. Broneer's type IV.9 47/47. Lamp. Similar to 46/47. The bowls of this tomb may be compared with the bowls from Tomb 33 at Rhitsona in Boeotia, dated by Professor Ure to the later part of the fourth century. Except the jug 38/47 none of the types of pottery, when found elsewhere, has been dated to the fifth century. The other intact grave (Cyrene B.), was cut adjacent to Cyrene A. and at right angles to it. It measured (inside) :-length 6' o", width 2' 3", height 2' 4", and contained one body, extended, possibly on its back, with the head to the north-east and the face turned to the northwest. The jaw had been dragged down to a position at right-angles to normal. The contents of the grave were pottery vessels and grain. The vessels were mostly at the 2 For many parallels see the very valuable paper by H. A. Thompson, HesperiaIII 311 ff. 3 For parallels to the shape see Clara RhodosIII, fig. 271, CVA, Musee Scheurleer, fasc. I, III, L and N, pl. I, no. 3 (from Kertch.), and Thompson HesperiaIII 333-334. 4 For parallels to the shape see CVA, Cambridge II, P1. XXX, no. 4 (dated by Dr. Lamb to Vth. century, a date perhaps too early), and references quoted therein, CVA, Sevres, P1. 25, CVA, Denmark fasc. 4, P1. I76, 6.7.8., and CVA, France, Compi6gne, P1. 24, no. 54. Another example is illustrated by Breccia, Necropolis of Sciatbi, P1. L, no. 88. 5 For parallels to the shape see CVA, Sevres, P1. 25, nos. 9 and I (from Cyrenaica), and CVA, Oxford fasc. i, P1. XLVIII no. I3. 6 For parallels to the shape see CVA, S6vres, P1. 24, no. 7 (from Benghazi), which as Professor Beazley pointed out is to be dated as IVth century (in JHS LVI 253). See also C[A, Denmark fasc. 4, P1. I8I, no. 2 (from Rhodes), and CVA, Oxford fasc. i, P1. XLVIII, no. 35. 7 For a near parallel see Ure, Black glaze potteryfrom Rhitsonain Boeotia,P1. XVI, no. 24. 8 For a bowl with this shape of handle see CVA, Sevres, P1. 25, nos. 42-44. 9 Broneer, Excavationsat Corinth Part II, 39 ff. He IV, says that the latest examples of Type IV cannot be earlier than the end of the IVth century, and that the horizontal handle does not occur after the IVth century. Similar lamps are illustrated in Clara Rhodos VI-VII, fig. I87. It may be of interest to recall that this type of lamp does not occur at Sciatbi.

150

NOTES

38(47 371 47

39147

41147 4614 7 48/47 40/47

42/47

44147

43/47

50/ 47

54 /47

FIG. i.-FoURTH

CENTURY

POTTERY

FROM CYRENE.

NOTES

'5'1

c
58/47 56147

61 /47

62/47

63/ 47

8 /47

17/47

5 /47 3/47

23/47

22/47

19 /47

35 /47

1/47

34 /47

20/47

30/47 4 /47 6/47 14/47 FiG. 2.-THIRD CENTURY CYRENE To AND LATER POTTERY FROM CYRENAICA. 21/47

63/47:

REMAINDER

TOCRA.

152

NOTES
8/47. Hydria.
clay.24

to one side, which was perhaps of silver and of which the designs were architectural, including a columned facade, and floral. On the earth floor of the forecourt, where the stone floor had been partly cut away in front of the stela interment, was another lamp of Broneer's type XXIV, covered by an inverted dish similar to 58/47, which had been full of a substance now pale yellow in colour, and possibly once a cereal food. A fire had been burnt round this lamp and dish. This tomb is perhaps of the first At Tocra, in July 1947, Arab workmen opened two built tombs lying about one hundred yards south of the southeastern angle of the city walls. The excavation was completed by the Antiquities Department. The tombs lay side by side, orientated east-west, and were constructed of two courses of beautifully cut blocks (internal height of tomb I-17 metres),18 the top course of the sides being of a single block of the full length of the tomb (2'43 metres), and the bottom course of twvo blocks, each of half that length. A thin wall built of similarly shaped blocks divided the tombs. The more northerly one had a simple chamfered cornice running along the top of the side walls. Both tombs were roofed by rather rough slabs laid across their length. In each, one body was laid extended on its back, with its head to the west and the face looking upward. In the northerly one (Tocra A.), eight small white (? pottery) beads, covered with a powdery gilding, and some fragments of a bronze plate covered with a thin sheet of gold were found near the head of the body. At the other end of the same grave two small pottery bearded masks were found. These were of pinkish-red clay, and had traces of white and blue paint on the beards. The other objects in this grave were pottery vessels, described below and illustrated in Fig. 2. Thirteen saucers, two (22/47 and 28/47) being covered wvith lustrous but rather poor quality black glaze, and decorated with four impressed palmettes, were arranged symmetrically round the base. Another saucer is covered with an almost lustreless black glaze. The others are all of buff, greenish or pinkish clay, and are undecorated. All are comparatively small, about 10 cm. across. In addition, there were:23/47. Bowl, with two horizontal handles, bent slightly upwards. Width overall I3-5 cm. Pink clay, covered with an almost lustreless black glaze. 24/47. Lamp. 8 cm. across. Light red clay. Broneer's type IX.19 35/47. Amphora. Height 25 cm. Rough pink clay.2? 14/47. Bottle. Height 2 cm. Rough iron grey clay.'2 15/47. Amphora. Height 88 cm. Rough pink clay.22 16/47. Amphora. Height 69 cm. Rough pink clay.23 In the other Tocra Tomb (Tocra B), a bronze mirror The other plate (65/47, diameter 14 cm.) was found. contents of Tocra B were pottery vessels:i/47. Lamp. Reddish buff clay. Length 7-8 cm. One unpierced lug to the right. Broneer's type IX.
2/47. I7/47. Amphora. Height 37'2 cm. Pinkish-buff clay. century A.D.

Height 40-3 cm.

Rough pinkish-buff

In addition, there were five saucers, of pink or buff clay. One was covered with nearly lustreless black glaze, another with good lustrous reddish orange wash.25
T. BURTON BROWN.

3/47.

Jug. Height 67 cm. Reddish-buffclay. Lustreless black glaze, burnt to reddish-brown in patches.

Lamp.

Similar to 1/47.

The width of the tombs was the same as their height. 19 For a parallel see Broneer, op. cit., P1. IV, no. 142 (type IX, of a date of' not before the third century '). 20 For a parallel see Breccia, op. cit., fig. 52. 21 For a rather remote parallel see Breccia, op. cit., fig. 47. 22 The shape of the high neck and the handles, though not that of the body, is paralleled at Sciatbi, Breccia, op. cit. fig. 53. A not dissimilar vessel is illustrated in Petrie, I, NJaucratis PI. XVI, no. 7. 23 For this shape, compare Breccia, op. cit. fig. 55. and Ann IV-V, 251 and fig. 2. (The Italians dated this to about 200 B.C.) See also Petrie, Tanis II. amphora P1. XXXIII, no. 12 and p. 65, and Petrie Naucratis I, P1. XVI, no. 2.
1"

The North-West Stoa of the Athenian Agora.The stoa investigated by the Americans in the N.W. corner of the agora of Athens has won with good reason a notable place among ancient monuments, both as a subject of topographical controversy and as an interesting architectural type. I should like to turn to it again for a short time and in particular to examine at greater length than was possible in a brief review 1 C. Anti's theory of its genesis, given in Chap. IX of his Teatri GreciArcaici. As the non-committal name given to it in my heading shows, I should like for the present to steer clear as far as possible of the difficult problem of its identification. Anti confidently assumes that the building was the Stoa Basileios; indeed his theory of the origin of the type depends partly on the correctness of this assumption. But the identification has been the subject of a good deal of dispute; even H. A. Thompson, while putting forward with sober confidence his view that the stoa is both the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios and the Basileios, admits in the end that ' an element of uncertainty must persist '.2 I accept Thompson's view, but certainly not with sufficient confidence to use it as a corner-stone in building up any theory. It is very distracting when one finds that whereas Anti links up his Royal Stoa with oriental palaces, A. Rumpf3 looks the other way in space and time and regards his Royal Stoa (a building of very different type-the spacious hypostyle hall west of the North-West Stoa and north of the temple of Hephaestus) as of the Stamnmutter the Roman basilica. ' They ran away in opposite directions, and vanished to the east and to the west.' Both of course use the name Basileios to support their identifications. One may perhaps be excused for giving up the riddle for a while and concentrating on the architectural form of the North-West stoa as we undoubtedly have it. Anti is of course primarily concerned with the theatre, and in Chap. IX with the origin of the scenaa paraskeni,with which he very reasonably thinks the Stoa Basileios has affinities. The Stoa is only of secondary importance for him; I should like to reverse the emphasis and not concern myself greatly with the skene,but even so it will be necessary to say a little about Anti's main theory. He points out a close resemblance between the skene with paraskeniaand a type of palace-building which occurs over a wide range in place and time, and is found in the east, especially Persia, and at Larissa on the Hermus, and is assumed by him for the palaces of Greek rulers, including Peisistratus and other tyrants. He thinks that this type was consciously adopted, in what he calls the theatre of Euripides, as the most appropriate form for a permanent standardized scenebuilding, carried out in stone, and that it was not foreshadowed by the earlier and flimsier scene-structures, which in his opinion were flat-fronted. As regards the date of the first stone skene,with its paraskenia,Anti had not had an opportunity of studying Pickard-Cambridge's views on the subject in The Theatreof Dionysus; Pickard-Cambridge pushes the date down into the fourth century, which would make it more difficult to link up the skenewith its alleged
24 For a parallel to this shape (including the very unusual type of foot) see Breccia, op. cit., P1. XXXVI. 25 Grave 66. at Rhitsona (Ure op. cit. P1. XVIII) contained a lamp of Broneer's type IX and saucers of the outline of saucers found at Tocra. It also contained vessels of red, glazed black, unglazed buff and unglazed pink, as also found at Tocra. Ure dates this tomb to about the middle of the third century, 'or possibly from the first half of it ' (p. 22). 1 JHS, LXVII, I37 f. 2 Hesperia,VI, 226. 3 Jahrbuch,LIII, I 7 ff.