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Excavations at Sparta, 1924—25: The Acropolis. The Finds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

A. M. Woodward
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Extract

The outstanding feature of the excavations of 1925 was the discovery, in the circumstances above described, of substantial portions of a marble statue, of more than life size, representing a helmeted warrior. These comprise (1) the head and armless torso down to the waist; (2) two portions of the marble crest, which join each other, and fit on to the helmet; (3) the left leg, from knee to ankle; (4) part of the right foot, lacking heel and toes (material, scale, and style as far as can be seen in its damaged condition, make the attribution practically certain); (5) a small piece from the rim of the marble shield, which we must restore the figure as holding.

There are two cuttings for the crest on the top of the helmet, of which that nearer the front is ·085 m. long, the other ·10 m.; a plain surface lies between them, ·026 m. long; the cuttings are nearly straight-sided, but vary in width between ·028 and ·035 m. A part of the tenon of the crest was found broken off short in the rearward cutting, and has since been rejoined to the fragment to which it belongs.

Damage: both arms are missing, being broken away at the shoulders, and in addition the surface has been flaked off from the back of the right shoulder and the chest close to the arm-pit.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 26 , November 1925 , pp. 253 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1925

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References

page 253 note 1 On publishing this important find I wish to record my indebtedness for many helpful suggestions received from friends and colleagues in Athens and elsewhere. It has been impossible to analyse and acknowledge this help in detail, and I fear that in spite of it the task has been inadequately performed. For any errors in reasoning or conclusions the responsibility is mine alone.

page 254 note 1 The cheek-pieces are shewn as rigid, not hinged. This type of ornamented παραγναθίς with rams' heads is not rare. Among early works of art, cf. a figure (with spear held horizontally) on the N. frieze of the Treasury, Knidian (Fouilles de Delphes, iv. Pl. XIV)Google Scholar; the helmet of Achilles on the vase by Amasis (Pfuhl, Malerei und Zeichnung, iii. Fig. 218); that on the kylix by Pamphaios (Ibid., Fig. 345). For a later example, with the cheek-pieces folded back on to the frontal, cf. the Athena Giustiniani, dating from the late fifth century, and known in many replicas (Rome, Terme, 112 = Helbig3, 1362; Vatican, Br. Nuovo, Amelung, 114; Cassel, No. 12 in Fräulein M. Bieber's Catalogue, and full bibliography, ad loc., etc.).

page 254 note 2 The remains visible have been outlined on the cast, and shew well in pl. XX. Parallels for such decoration on helmets can be found in plenty on vases, both Orientalising and Attic; e.g. Pfuhl, op. cit., Figs. 267, 292, 314, 315, 345; and cf. the Klazomenai sarcophagus, Ibid., Fig. 140.

page 255 note 1 Furtwängler, , Aegina, ii. Pl. 96Google Scholar, No. 22 (= Glypt. 76).

page 256 note 1 Cf. op. cit., pl. 101. No. 148 (= Glypt. 152).

page 256 note 2 It does not look as if this mark was originally due to rain-drops alone; it resembles a deep irregular scratch.

page 257 note 1 Cf. the bearded snakes on the bronze greaves, Olympia, Bronzen, Nos. 990, 991 and Pl. LXI.

page 258 note 1 These five pieces are now in the National Museum at Athens. Pending the possible discovery of further fragments it has not seemed advisable to set up the torso on a permanent base.

page 259 note 1 Certain small differences are to be seen in the treatment of the two cheek-pieces.

page 259 note 2 On the analogy of Aegina, and allowing for the fact that our statue is larger than the Aeginetan pediment-sculptures, we should require a temple measuring ca. 34 × 17 metres. No such temple ever stood on the Spartan Acropolis.

page 260 note 1 Cf. Collignon, S.G. i. Fig. 190.

page 260 note 2 Cf. the heads mentioned below, p. 261 f.

page 260 note 3 Cf. Joubin, Sculpture Grecque entre les Guerres Médiques et l'Époque de Périclès, Figs, 1 and 22. For a more recent alternative suggestion by Br. Schröder, who would place on the Naples body of Aristogeiton the bearded head of a Herm from the Townley collection (B.M. Sculpture, iii. 1609), cf. Jahrb. xxviii. (1913), pp. 26–34, and esp. Figs. 7, 8 (Cf. also Picard, , Sculpture Antique, i. p. 345 f. and Fig. 99Google Scholar). This is no nearer to the Spartan head in style.

page 261 note 1 Cf. Joubin, op. cit., Figs. 23, 24, 25.

page 261 note 2 Olympia, Bronzen, No. 1, and pl. I. 1; Perrot-Chipiez, viii. p. 463 f., and Figs. 235, 236.

page 262 note 1 Olympic Victor Monuments, p. 162 f.

page 262 note 2 He regards it as portraying Phrikias of Pelinrra, victor as ῾Οπλιτοδρόμος in 508 and 504 B.C.

page 263 note 1 I.e. on those of Herakles, and Kyknos, , Fouilles de Delphes, iv. Pl. 42Google Scholar; and H. and the stag, Ibid., Pl. 41.

page 263 note 2 It is easier to suggest than to define, or prove, some ‘Peloponnesian’ influence.

page 263 note 3 Plut. ii. 550 D; cf. Müller, , Dorians (E. T.), iii. 7, § 7Google Scholar; Dawkins, , B.S.A. xii. p. 325Google Scholar (where the Greek is quoted as κείρεσθαι τὸν μύστακα etc.).

page 264 note 1 Cf. the other attempts at solving the difficulty, summarised by Hitzig-Bluemner, , Pausanias, i. p. 784.Google Scholar

page 264 note 2 So Dickins, , B.S.A. xii. p. 405.Google Scholar

page 265 note 1 For the permission granted by Lycurgus to bury the dead near Sanctuaries, cf. Plut., Lyc. c. 27.

page 265 note 2 Herodotus, v. 41–46.

page 265 note 3 Poralla, Prosop. d. Laked., s.v. Kleomenes, suggests ‘Kurz vor 516’: 520 seems the earliest possible date.

page 265 note 4 Herodotus, v. 41.

page 266 note 1 Found inside the portico, in the black deposit, close against the north wall. The drawing by Miss Tankard, published in the preliminary report for 1924 (Fig. 5), was made at Sparta, before all possible location of the fragments had been completed. They were brought to Athens later, and cleaned by M. E. Gilliéron, who set them in plaster, and made the drawing here published, in collaboration with the Director.

page 267 note 1 A parallel on a Laconian vase is quoted below.

page 267 note 2 It is perhaps due merely to accident that this point turns up at right angles.

page 267 note 3 Cf. the wrinkled brow of the terracotta antefix from the Athenian Acropolis, Ross, , Arch. Aufs, 1, 5Google Scholar (reproduced in Roscher, l.c.). For other antefixes, which offer more or less close parallels to our Gorgoneion, cf. Koch, Dachterrakotten aus Campanien, Pls. V. 5–7; VI. 3; XXIV. 3 b (a sima); XXVIII. 5 (a frieze-fragment). All these are snakeless and, on the whole, the closest analogy is pl. V. 7.

page 268 note 1 With snakes, cf. B.S.A. xiii. p. 134, Fig. 10 c; Pfuhl, op. cit., iii. Fig. 198; both on the outside of vases. Without snakes, Pfuhl, loc. cit. Fig. 197 (a shield-device), and on the bases of many types of vase. Note, however, the noble snake in the hair of the Gorgoneion on the base of the fragmentary plate, B.S.A. xv. p. 156, Fig. 19.

page 268 note 2 Lead figurines confirm the popularity of this type of device at Sparta, e.g. B.S.A. xv. p. 138, Fig. 10, Nos. 22, 23.

page 269 note 1 For the corselet, found in the Alpheios before the German excavations, Olympia, Bronzen, Pl. LIX.; for the tripod, Ibid., Pl. XXXVII. No. 696.

page 269 note 2 Especially the fragment, Wiegand, Porosarchitektur, p. 218, Fig. 232; cf. Dickins, , Acrop. Mus. Cat. i. pp. 67 ff.Google Scholar

page 269 note 3 Found in the burnt deposit in the E. half of the portico.

page 271 note 1 Found outside the N.-W. corner of the portico; an almost exact replica was found in 1925, further west.

page 271 note 2 Cf. Collignon, , in Rev. Arch., 1908, pp. 153 ff.Google Scholar, and Mon. Piot, xx. (1912–13), pp. 1–38.

page 271 note 3 Collignon, locc. citt.; Poulsen, Orient und fruhgr. Kunst, p. 163; Picard, Sculpt. Antique, pp. 79 f., 257, and Fig. 22.

page 271 note 4 Found close to No. 3.

page 271 note 5 The epsilon, which does not seem consistently to have the hasta prolonged downwards, must not be taken too strictly as indicating a still earlier date (before 500), for such irregularities of script are natural in a private dedication.

page 273 note 1 I.G. v. 1, 983; for other compounds, see Poralla, op. cit., Nos. 265, 446, 485, 578–580, and Tod, , J.H.S. xxxiv. (1914), P. 63Google Scholar; and cf. Bechtel, , Gr. Dialekte, ii. p. 334, § 42.Google Scholar

page 273 note 2 Found close to Nos. 3 and 5.

page 273 note 3 Cf. Liddell and Scott, s.v. It can hardly be from the Epic form of the adjective χάλκε(ι)ος

page 273 note 4 In terracotta they were far more numerous.

page 274 note 1 For other inscribed bronze bells from the site cf. B.S.A. xxiv. p. 117 f.; and for another example found in 1924, see Prelim. Report, 1924, Fig. 7 (= J.H.S., 1924, p. 259, Fig. 3).

page 274 note 2 Bechtel, op. cit., ii. p. 329, § 34. The uncontracted form of the nominative is most unusual.

page 274 note 3 Cf. πενπάκι I.G. v. 1, 222; πενπε (=πέμπε) Ibid., 1119, 1. 7; the common use of ἐν πολέμοι on tombstones of the fifth century; and ῾Ενπεδίας a Spartan on an inscription at Delphi, , B.C.H. xxvii. (1903), p. 58, I. 6.Google Scholar

page 274 note 4 Cf., however, ῾Ενπεδίας Thuc. v. 19, and the man mentioned in the previous note.

page 274 note 5 I.G. vii. Index (three times).

page 275 note 1 Many of the numerous gryphon-heads in bronze found at Olympia shew similar curls. Bronzen, pls. XLV.–XLVII., Nos. 793, 794, 803, 804, 805, 807, have one curl on each side of the neck, and Nos. 796, 797 and 806 have two. None of these exhibits the squared scale-pattern; and their ears usually are more prominent than on our piece.

page 275 note 2 B.S.A. xiii. pp. 77 ff. The end of the seventh century seems the likeliest date for it.