Fables, spectacles at the circus, ribald scenes etc. We must confine ourselves to pointing out in the following pages only those lamps that are interesting either because of their shape, or because of the beauty, or importance, or curiosity of the scenes represented on them. BIBLIOGRAPHY. It would be impossible, and also out of place, to mention here the immense series of published works dealing with Lamps in former ages. TOUTAIN'S excellent article < Lucerna » in the Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines, edited by Saglio-Daremberg, contains prac tically all the bibliography until about 1904. A number of Roman Lamps from Egypt have been dealt with by H. B. WALTERS, (Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Lamps in the British Museum, London, 1914). An interesting study, with a profuse illustration of types and shapes, having reference also to the collections of the Alexandria Museum, has been written by FLINDERS PETRIE in Roman Ehnasya, 1994, p. 4 on 14, P. LIII-LXXIV. The Arch. Anzeiger TERRA COTTA STATUETTES (fig. 123). Since the great discovery of terracotta figurines at Tanagra, then in Asia Minor and Fig. 122. in other parts of the Greek world, great interest has been bestowed on this branch of antiquities. The Alexandrian figurines, although little known up to now, are nevertheless of real importance, whether on account of their variety or on account of their delicacy and of the idealisation of certain types. Figurines of a grotesque form generally appear more frequently in the Roman period. Archaeologists have often asked why the ancients placed these figurines in their tombs. Originally " these figurines, which are of a votive character, are evidently connected with funerary beliefs ». (: ་་ « Nothing is more natural than that during centuries of faith, as in the times of the wars of the Medes, religious images representing the divinities should be interred with the de« funct; the corpse was surrounded by his gods; to these were " added his weapons, his jewels, everything he had been fa«<miliar with during his life. Later on when religious senti«ment relaxed, the tradition was still held in respect, though «< its meaning was obscured; and it remained customary to place, in the tomb of the deceased, figurines which would « recall to him, in the other life, the companions of his mortal existence; these personages would give a charm to the semireal life that would still animate him in the tomb; they replace the living beings, slaves, horses, which in heroic ti mes were sacrificed on the tomb of the warrior in order that he might enter Hades escorted by his usual companions ». There is certainly a great deal of truth in this beautiful page of M. Collignon's, but I believe that in Alexandrian and Roman times the original symbolical meaning was completely obscured and that the influence of religious beliefs on this custom was null or almost null. The presence of these figurines seems rather the manifestation of a psychological state easy enough to divine, but difficult to analyse. These figurines, which are nearly always found. in the graves of women and children, and never in those of men or of aged people, are there to indicate in some fashion the delicate affection of the survivors. They represent the flower of memory, the need of putting an atmosphere of life around those who have been prematurely deprived of it; the most solid bonds of affection towards the aged and towards men do not manifest themselves with this naive poetry and delicacy, which have so intimate, so profound, and so natural a meaning when children, youths, and young women are concerned. short, in the less primitive periods, according to my idea, the terracotta figurines placed in the tombs have no precise symbolical signification. By force of tradition, and as the manifestation of a state of mind, just as a strigil or a sword is laid beside the corpses of men of ripe age or of soldiers, so by the side of other corpses, according to age and sex, there are deposited terracotta figurines, wreaths, etc. Fig. 123. In As regards the fabrication of these figurines, there are two processes the larger number are made by the help of moulds, others are made by hand. In both cases the figurines were : baked in the furnace, then dipped into a bath of whitewash, and after that painted. Those painted before baking are very The colours employed are pink for flesh, pink or red (rarely) and blue (very often) for the clothes, and brown or black for the hair. rare. When Alexandrian terracottas are spoken of, it is the usual belief that the larger part of them consist of « genre >> subjects, of caricatures, and of Graeco-Egyptian figurines. This impression will disappear when the figurines are classified according to their chronology and according to their provenance. The terracotta statuettes that have been found in the tombs, or in the layers of soil dating from the Hellenistic period, reproduce in a very large majority of cases young women, children, mythological figures, which are of a purely Greek type, and which have intimate analogies with the figurines of other regions of the Greek world at that period. In proportion as we approach the Roman period, the infiltration of indigenous subjects becomes noticeable, but, among · the section of the population that was of foreign nationality, these native types never became predominant in Alexandria. On the other hand, the figurines which reveal a fusion between the two religions and the two civilisations date chiefly from the Roman period, and these figurines we find principally in the inland provincial towns. BIBLIOGRAPHY. SCHREIBER TH., Die Necropole von Kôm-esch-Schugáfa, p. 305 sq.; BRECCIA Ev., La Necropoli di Sciatbi, p. 107 sq. For the Fayum Terracotas, see further, p. 237 sq. ROOM 17. Glass-case A. A1; O. P. Collection of glass vases, part of them from Alexandria or other parts of Egypt, and others from Syria (purchases or gifts). Alexandria, as we know, during the Imperial epoch was one of the most important centres of the glass industry. This industry, however, was carried on and was in a flourishing condition long before the Greek conquest. Strabo bears witness to the importance of the Alexandria glass-works and Cicero mentions the commerce of importation into Italy. As we pass through the rooms of the Museum we shall find evident traces of the activity of the glass factories of Alexandria as well as of the variety and even of the delicacy of their work. Fig. 12. BIBLIOGRAPHY. - KISA A., Das Glas 1m Alter. tume; BOUDET, Notice historique de l'art de la vererie né en Egypte in Description de l'Egypte, Meioires (Antiquités) t. 11, p. 17 and following; FROEHNER, La verrerie antique; SANGIORGI, Collezione di vetri antichi, Milano, 1914; ROSTOWZEW M., has published in 1914, in connection with a bowl discovered at Olbia, a note on painted glass in the late Hellenistic period, of which M' MORIN JEAN has given a detailed review in the Rev. Arch., 1917, t. V. p. 311 and following; MORIN JEAN, La terrerie en Gaule. In the glass case A: a beautiful collection of bottles and of other vases of elegant form, which exhibit an admirable iridescence: see No. I (7278) with an oval body, long pointed foot and very high neck. (fig. 124); 2 (7271), 3 (7263) shaped like a bird (fig. 125); 4 (7264), 5 (7266), 6 (7211) like amphorae; 7 (7265) a very small phial, its body decorated with a branch of olive leaves in relief; 8 (7297) like an amphora with corded body; several balsamaries of elongated form (Gift of Mr. Rothacker). In glass-case A1 : numerous plates, balsamaries, some of them still wrapped up in dried date-leaves. 1 (2344), 2 (2345): two cups with a yellow ground spotted with mauve. In glass-case P: 1 (3969) Bearded mask in polychrome glass paste; 2 (3961), 3 (3962), 4 (3963). Amphora-shaped vases with multi-colored lines (fig. 126); 5 (3960), 6 (3964), 7 (3959), 8 (3965). Balsamaries of elegant forms, with polychrome lines layers giving an agreeable ef fect (fig. 127). On the small wooden column Q: A large glass vase which was used as a cinerary urn. In glass-case 0: Numerous bottles and balsamaries. On the shelf in the middle: Fragments of murrhine and mil Fig. 125. or In the glass-cases Nos. 1-10, fastened to the pilasters along the walls of this room, many hundreds of handles of amphorae are exhibited chosen from amongst many thousands; they are all marked with a stamp or with a seal. Fig. 125. The meaning of these inscriptions is not quite certain yet. The ancients used large amphorae (there are a number of them placed here and there in all the rooms) for transporting certain commodities, such as wine, oil, corn, fruit, eggs. The handles of these receptacles generally bore a mark which showed their place of origin: Rhodes (the handles from Rhodes are in a very great majority in Alex.), Cnidus, Thasos, Paros, Smyrna, etc. The custom of stamping the amphoras originated at Rhodes. On the Rhodian stamps the maker's nationality is never indicated, whereas almost everywhere else the worker adds his nationality on the stamp. Fig. 127. These stamps, when they are complete, give us. partly on one handle, and partly on the other, or on one handle alone, the following indications: In Rhodes, the name of the priest of the Sun, the month, the name of the maker, and the arms of the town (the rose, the head of the god Helios) or some other emblem; in Thasos, only the place of origin Oaoiov, a kind of horn, etc., and the name of the maker; in Cnidus, the indication of origin Kvidiov or Kridion, the name of the phrurarque and that of the potter, and some emblem. Some archaeologists have attributed an official signification to these stamps, others not. |