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A Euboean Centaur1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

V. R. Desborough ,
R. V. Nicholls  and
Mervyn Popham
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Extract

The statuette of a centaur at Plates 8–9 was found during excavations at Lefkandi in Euboea, conducted by the British School at Athens during last summer. Standing 36 centimetres high, it is among the earliest representations of a centaur yet known from the Aegean area, and the largest of terracotta centaurs. Its outstanding interest seemed to the authors to call for a more detailed publication than the normal brief preliminary account of the excavation and its finds.

It has an unusual archaeological history, suggesting that it was a valued object before it was eventually buried in a cemetery at Lefkandi. This cemetery, which lies on a small hill called Toumba, overlooking the modern fishing village of Lefkandi, was an unexpected discovery. Trials were made during 1969 in this vicinity in the hope of finding the Submycenaean and Early Protogeometric settlement which went with the nearby cist graves. The virtual absence of remains of this period on the main town site of ‘Xeropolis’ had led to the belief that at this time the inhabitants may have temporarily moved to the Toumba area, a smaller and more easily defensible hill and one with a natural supply of water. However, our trial there found not the settlement we hoped for, but another cemetery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 65 , November 1970 , pp. 21 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1970

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References

2 A general account of the British School's excavations at Lefkandi has been published in Excavations at Lefkandi, Euboea, 1964–6 edited by Popham, M. R. and Sackett, L. H., the directors of the dig: mention of the first test in the cemetery is given at pp. 23–4.Google Scholar An outline of subsequent work in the cemetery, carried out in the main in co-operation with the Greek Archaeological Service represented by Mr.Themelis, P., will be found in Archaeological Reports for 1967–1968Google Scholar and AAA 1969, i. 98–102.

3 The absence of any close imitation of an Athenian lekythos may be accidental, as one has been found at Chalkis (Andreiomenou, , Χαριστήριον εἰς Α. Κ. Ὄρλανδον, Β′, pl. 46, γ.Google Scholar)

4 Higgins, , Greek and Roman Jewellery, 92–4Google Scholar; Smithson, , Hesperia xxxvii (1968) 111 ff.Google Scholar; unpublished tombs from Lefkandi.

5 Cf. Smithson, , Hesperia xxx (1961) 173 (no. 58)Google Scholar; Müller-Karpe, , JdI 77, 108, Abb. 26, 3.Google Scholar

6 Cf. Kerameikos v. 1, pls. 159, 160; unpublished tombs at Lefkandi.

7 In Athens, and apparently also at Lefkandi, objects of bronze were remarkably scarce in Protogeometric times.

8 Cf. Coldstream, , Greek Geometric Pottery, pl. 1 k.Google Scholar

9 Heurtley, and Skeat, , BSA xxxi (1930–1931) pl. 4, no. 56.Google Scholar

10 Unpublished, of Late Protogeometric date, in the Serraglio cemetery on Kos: I am much indebted to Dr. Morricone for permission to mention these. Argolid, : Asine, 429, fig. 278 (jug).Google Scholar

11 Coldstream, , Greek Geometric Pottery, 265Google Scholar; Bass, , AJA lxvii (1963) pls. 83 and 84 (Dirmil)Google Scholar; Weickert, , Ist. Mitt. vii (1956) pl. 36, 4 (Miletus).Google Scholar

12 BSA l (1955) pl. 48 e.

13 For example, SCE iv 2, fig. 2, 1 (Lapithos tomb 417: eleventh century).

14 Ker. iv, pp. 20, 40, pl. 26.

15 The writer has not yet had the opportunity to examine this find at first hand and so is deeply indebted to his co-authors, to Mr. Popham not only for the catalogue descriptions but also for checking on several related points, and to Mr. Desborough for many invaluable comments and suggestions.

16 Cf. The indistinct weapon (branch or stone?) wielded in a later centaur group, Athens 12504: AM lv (1930) 144–5, Beil. 38–9.

17 Cat. Sotheby 11 July 1967, 71 lot 280, with plate facing. Exhibited in City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1968.

18 ‘Greek Votive Statuettes and Religious Continuity, c. 1200–700 B.C.’ to appear in Auckland Classical Essays in Honour of E. M. Blaiklock (Auckland University, distributed by O.U.P.).

19 Examples cited from Melos, Delphi, Thebes, Athens, Mycenae, Argive Heraeum, Asine, Tiryns, Epidaurus, and Amyclae. See in general Prähist. Zeitschr. xix (1929) 314–39; JdI lviii (1943) 183–98; Higgins, R. A., Greek Terracottas 12–13, 16, 139.Google Scholar

20 Initially at Myrtou and Ayia Irini and later at Idalion.

21 Cf. BSA lx (1965) 332–5; Atti e Memorie del 1° Congresso Internazionale di Micenologia iii. 1078–9.

22 AM lxv (1940) 57–102, pls. 46–62; AA 1964, 220–31, fig. 10. For contrary views cf. Boardman, J., Greek Emporio 188Google Scholar; Higgins, op. cit. 18.

23 Several of these to be published for the first time in the article cited above, n. 18.

24 AM lii (1927) 38–9, Beil. 6.

25 e.g. the Lefkandi centaur itself and, in about the same time-range, the stag from the Kerameikos in Athens: Kübier, K., Kerameikos iv. 20, 40, pl. 26.Google Scholar

26 e.g. from L.H. IIIC graves in Rhodes, : Ann. vi–vii (1923–1924) 135. 171, 197, figs. 57, 98, 120Google Scholar; xiii–xiv (1930–1) 293–4, figs. 35, 39, pl. 22; Higgins, op. cit. 6, pl. 5b.

27 AJA lxiv (1960) 11–12, nos. 43–6, pl. 4; AM lxxviii (1963) 149–53, Beil. 54.

28 Χαριστήριον εἰς ᾿Α. Κ. Ὀρλάνδον ii. 160–73; Πεπραγμένα τοῦ Β' Κρητολογικοῦ Συνεδρίου i. 182.

29 Ann. xix–xxi (1941–3, N.S. iii–v) 54–6, figs. 43–6; Borda, M., Arte Cretese-Micenea nel Museo Pigorini 55–6, no. 1, pl. 43. 2.Google Scholar

30 1° Congr. di Micenologia i. 89, pl. 3. 5.

31 PM ii. 128–39, fig. 69 k l.

32 Their summary modelling normally makes identification of their animal parts rather hazardous, just as it gives one second thoughts about claiming Heraklion 3102, seemingly part of a large wheel-made cow with human hind legs, as Pasiphae!

33 Β΄Κρητ. Συν. i. 108–9, pl. 2.

34 BMQ v (1930–1) 51–2, pl. 23. 3.

35 Archaeological Reports 1965–6, 49, fig. 9, right.

36 Heraklion Museum 1812.

37 KretChron xii (1958), 179–299.

38 e.g. Chr. Zervos, L'Art de la Crète figs. 750, 792.

39 BCH lxxxvii (1963) 370–3, fig. 68 a; Χαριστ. Ὀρλάνδον Β΄ 161–3, pl. 21 a; AOF xxi (1966) 62, fig. 6; Β΄ Κρητ. Συν. i. 182, pl. 34.

40 Cf. 1° Congr. di Micenologia iii. 1086–7.

41 Ibid. i. 87–90 (C. Laviosa). For the head see also Frödin, O., Persson, W., Asine 74–6, 308 no. 1, figs. 206, 211Google Scholar; JdI lxxix (1964) 1–2, fig. 4.

42 e.g. the especially large examples recently found in a shrine at Mycenae, : Antiquity xliii (1969) 91–7Google Scholar, pls. 9–13.

43 Higgins, op. cit. 20, 140, pl. 6 a, b.

44 Χαριοτ. Ὀρλάνδον ii. 164–9 pls. 23–5.

45 Ohnefalsch-Richter, M., Kypros, the Bible and Homer 247–51, figs. 173–5, pls. 47, 104Google Scholar (mainly more evolved handmade varieties).

46 SCE ii. 671, 675 f., 785, 817, pls. 227–8.

47 Cf. proposal to conflate Levels 1 and 2 and assign both to about the early twelfth century: PEQ 1956, 29, 37.

48 e.g. Ohnefalsch-Richter, op. cit. 248–9, fig. 173, pl. 104. 6 (on decoration).

49 As Higgins, op. cit. 17–18, 20–1.