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I.—A Second Silver Treasure from Cyprus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

Ormonde M. Dalton
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Extract

In the early summer of 1902 a large and important discovery of Byzantine silver plate and gold jewellery was made at Karavás, a village close to the ancient Lapithos, about six miles west of Kyrenia on the north coast of Cyprus. The spot was not far from the monastery of Acheiropoietos, close to which another find of silver of a similar period had been made a few years previously, the objects being acquired by the British Museum and described in Archaeologia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , 1906 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1906

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References

page 1 note a Vol. lvii. 159 ff

page 3 note b See Archaeologia, lvii. 166, and Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities in the British Museum, p. 86Google Scholar

page 3 note c It, may be compared with the dish shown in Archaeologia, lvii. plate xvi. fig. 2, and with similar dishes in the Stroganoff Collection (see the above-mentioned catalogue, p. 86, No. 397.)

page 4 note a On the Roman marriage in art see Rossbach, , Römische Hochzeits und Ehedenkmäler (Leipsic, 1871)Google Scholar, and Marquardt and Mommsen, Handbuch der römischen Alterthümer, vii. 41 f. On representations of Early Christian Marriages see Pelka, O., Altchristliche Ehedenkmäler (Strasburg, 1901).Google Scholar

page 4 note b Zeitschrift für Numismatik, xxi. pl. i. fig. 1; Macdonald, G., Coin Types (Glasgow, 1905), 234, and pl. ix. fig. 7.Google Scholar

page 5 note a Macdonald, as above, pl ix. fig. 8; Pelka, 108Google Scholar.

page 5 note b British Museum Catalogue, as above, Nos. 130 and 131.Google Scholar

page 5 note c Storia dell' arte Cristiana, vi. pl. 479, fig. 3.Google Scholar

page 5 note d Schlumberger, G., Monuments et Mémoires publiés par l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Fondation Eugène Piot), vol. vi. 1900Google Scholar; Graeven, H., Photographs of Early Christian and Mediæval ivory-carvings, 2nd Series, Italian collections, Nos. 57–61 (Rome, German Archæological Institute, 1900). The marriage scene is on Photo No. 61Google Scholar. See also Byzantinische Zeitschrift, x. (1901), 566.Google Scholar

page 5 note e Enumerated by Kondakoff, Transactions of the Moscow Archæological Society, vii. 179. I owe this reference to M. Gabriel Millet.

page 5 note f Pelka, , as above, 143Google Scholar.

page 5 note g As on the Projecta casket in the British Museum (Catalogue, pl. xiv.).

page 6 note a A. Odobesco, Le trésor de Pétrossa, 154; convenient series of illustrations of other early silver dishes will be found in Odobesco, 148 ff, and A. Venturi, Storia dell' arte italiana, i. 493 ff.

page 6 note b Very frequently published. From a photograph, by Venturi, A., Storia dell' arte Italiana i. 497 (Milan, 1901)Google Scholar. From Drawings, by Delgado, A., El gran disco di Theodosio (Madrid, 1849)Google Scholar; Arneth, J., Vie antiken Gold-und Silber-Monumente des K. K. Münz-und Antiken Cabinettes (Vienna, 1850)Google Scholar; Beilage, pl. iv.; J. Didron, Annales archéologiques, xxi. (1861), 309; Ch. Cahier, , Nouveaux Mélanges d'archéologie, i. (Paris, 1874)Google Scholar, pl. vii.; J. Strzygowski and E. Pokrovsky Materials for Russian Archælogy (continuation of the Compte rendu of the Imperial Archæological Commission), No. 8 (St. Petersburg, 1892), pl. v.; A. Odobesco, Le trésor de Pétrossa, 158, fig. 72. See also Hübner, E., Die antiken Bildiverke in Madrid (Berlin, 1862), 213 ff.Google Scholar

page 6 note c Obobesco, 121.

page 6 note d Ibid. 149, fig. 63. The helmet on this dish is very like those of the Joshua rotulus and of the Paris portion of the Kyrenia treasure.

page 7 note a Ch. Cahier, Nouveaux Mélanges d'archéologie, ii. 1–14 ff.; H. Graeven, Photographs of Ivories, Series i. Nos. 51 and 52; West-wood, Fictile Ivories, 72; Da Sommerard, Les arts au Moyen Age, Album, 2nd Series, chap. v. pl. xxix.

page 7 note b Individual miniatures from this famous Psalter of the “aristocratic group “(see below, p. 19) have been frequently reproduced, among others by Labarte, Histoire des arts industriels; Ch. Bayet, L'art byzantin, 159, 161, and 162; H. Bordier, Description des ornements, etc. des MSS. grecs de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 111; G. Millet in A. Michel's Histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps Chrétiens, 222–3.

page 8 note a Photograph No. 535, Series C, in the Collection of the Hautes Études, Millet, G., La collection ChrÉtienne et Byzantine des Hautes Études, 1903, p. 45.Google Scholar Reproduced by Labarte, Histoire des arts industriels, 2nd ed. ii. (1873), pl. xlix.

page 9 note a Tikkanen, J. J., Die Psalterillustration im Mittelalter, i. 28. (Helsingfors, 1895.)Google Scholar

page 10 note a 1 Samuel xvi. 12. In the Septuagint the passage is: καὶ ἀπέστειλε καὶ εἰσηγαγεν αὐτον.

page 10 note b On the doors of St. Ambrose at Milan, to which reference is made immediately below, the angel of victory is winged in the scene of the defeat of Goliath.

page 10 note c A. Goldschmidt, Die Kirchenthür des heiligen Ambrosius in Mailand. Strasburg, 1902. Professor Goldschmidt believes the door to date from the close of the fourth century, and thinks that it was made in Italy to the special order of St. Ambrose. Professor Strzygowski (Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 1902, xi. 666)Google Scholar, while accepting the early date, holds the work to be more probably of Syrian origin imported into Italy perhaps at the time of the Crusades. He argues that the removal of every head in the sculptured figures points to deliberate mutilation, and suggests that the doors must have at one time been in a country under Arab domination. But to this it has been replied that a monument so mutilated would not have been thought worth transporting to the West.

page 11 note a On the substitution of the angel, see J. J. Tikkanen, as above, i. 116Google Scholar.

page 12 note a Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, section ii.

page 12 note b Russian Treasures, i. 187–192, and pls. xviii. and xix.Google Scholar

page 12 note c The Reliquary and Illustrated Archæologist, 1898, pp. 109–112Google Scholar; Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum, 1899, p. 140.Google Scholar

page 12 note d Catalogue, of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, No. 276, pl. v.

page 12 note e Cesnola, Cyprus, pl. vi. For the Hungarian examples see J. Hampel, Alterthümer des frühen Mittelalters in Ungarn, i. 371.

page 12 note f Journal of the Imperial Russian Archæological Society, vol. xii.: Transactions of the Classical, Byzantine, and W. European Section, book v. 506–510.

page 12 note g Archaeologia, lv. 180.Google Scholar

page 13 note a Catalogue, No. 279.

page 13 note b Fröhner, W., Le Château de Goluchow; L'orfèvrerie, pl. xvii. p. 74. Paris, 1897.Google Scholar The bracelet was also formerly in the Tyszkiewicz collection.

page 13 note c The whole question is discussed by Mr. Smirnoff, of the Museum of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, in the Journal of the Imperial Russian Archæological Society, vol. xii; Transactions of the Section for Classical, Byzantine, and West-European Archæology, book v. pp. 506–510.

page 13 note d As illustrated upon the glass money-weights. Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, Nos. 660–685.

page 13 note e Archaeologia, lvii. pl. xvii.Google Scholar

page 13 note f Smirnoff, , as above, 507.Google Scholar

page 13 note g Græcolatinæ Patrum Bibliothecæ Novum Auctarium (Paris, 1648), i. 644. The passage relates a miraculous transformation of tin into “ἄργυρον πρώτιστον τον καλούμενον πεντασɸράγιστον.”

page 16 note a C. I. G. IV. 8644, 10; 9374. The first inscription is possibly as early as Justinian.

page 16 note b See the catalogue previously referred to, where several references to Byzantine stamps will be found.

page 17 note a For the stamps, see Compte rendu de la Commission Impériale Archéologique, St. Petersburg, 1878, pp. 148 and 157; L. Stephani, Die Schlangenfütterung, etc. p. 6, no. 17; Arneth, J., Die antiken Gold-und Silber-Monumente, etc. Vienna, 1850Google Scholar, Beilage pl. iv.; and Archaeologia, lvii. 166. For the inscription, C. I. G. IV. 8901.

page 17 note b The classical book on Byzantine illuminated MSS. is Professor Kondakoff's Histoire de l'art byzantin considéré principalement dans les miniatures (Paris, 1886)Google Scholar; but the most succinct account is to be found in the chapters on Byzantine art by M. Gabriel Millet in the new Histoire générale de l'art, edited by M. André Michel (see especially vol. i. pp. 207 ff.). Here due stress is laid upon the enduring influence exerted by the early illuminated MSS. in the form of rolls, which must have been in existence as early as the fourth century.

page 18 note a A. Goldschmidt, as above, 20; F. X. Kraus, Realencyklopädie der altchristlichen Kunst s. v. David. For the sarcophagi see Grarrucci, Storia dell' arte Cristiana, v. pl. 307, figs. 3 and 4, and pl. 341, figs. 1 and 4. For the Brescia casket see H. Graeven's series of photographs, Italian series, No. 14, Venturi, Storia dell' arte Italiana, i. 290, and Garrucci, as above, vi. pl. 442.

page 18 note b See above, p. 10.

page 18 note c Agnellus, , Liber Pontificalis, in Migne, Patrologiæ Cursus, cvi. 517–8Google Scholar; see also F. Wickhoff in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, 1894.

page 18 note d Published, as M. Millet has kindly reminded me, by Jean Clédat, Le Monastère et le nécropole de Baouît, Mémoires… de l'Institut Français d'archéologie orientate du Caire. 1904, xii. pl. xii. ff. Here the Anointing, the Introduction to Saul, and the Fight with Goliath are in common with the treasure; while David and his brothers before Samuel, and David playing before Saul, are in common with the series on the doors.

page 18 note e See above, p. 5. This casket has a series of thirteen scenes, only three of which correspond to those of the Kyrenia treasure.

page 18 note f It has sometimes been assumed that because no existing illuminated Greek Psalter is earlier than the ninth century, the period with which the surviving series begins, therefore the illustration of the Psalms in MSS. appeared at that time as something new. Such a view surely rests too exclusively upon negative evidence. (See the review of Tikkanen's book on the Psalter, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, vii. (1898), 253)Google Scholar. Moreover internal evidence derived from the illustrated Psalters themselves points, like that of the monuments above described, to the existence of an early David cycle. On this subject see Millet, as above, p. 225.

page 19 note a Hartel, W. von and Wickhoff, Franz, Die Wiener Genesis. (Vienna, 1895.)Google Scholar

page 19 note b A. Haseloff, Codex purpureus Rossanensis. (Berlin.)

page 17 note c Strzygowski, J., Orient oder Rom, 32. (Leipzig, 1901.)Google Scholar

page 19 note d Graeven, H., Die Vorlage des Utrechtpsalters, in Repertoriuni für Kunstwissenschaft, xxi. (1898), 31.Google Scholar

page 19 note e Graeven, H., Il rotulo di Giosue in L'Arte, i. (1898), 228Google Scholar. This MS. is shortly to be published in facsimile by the Vatican library.

page 20 note a Kindred MSS. are the Vatican Psalter (Palat. 381) and Barberini, iii. 39. See Tikkanen, J. J., Die Psalterillustration im Mittelalter, i. 113 ffGoogle Scholar; Kondakoff, N., Histoire de l'art byzantin, ii. 31.Google Scholar

page 20 note b Millet, , os above, 228.Google Scholar

page 20 note c Tikkanen, , as above, 8 ffGoogle Scholar, who describes it as the “monastic theological” illustration of the Psalms. Like Kondakoff he notes its polemical aspect, adapted to a popular propaganda, and its close connection with church history. The oldest existing Byzantine Psalter in this style is that known as the Chludoff Psalter, originally brought from Mount Athos, and now at Moscow; it has been published by Kondakoff, who assigns it to the ninth century. Others of almost equal antiquity are the Codex Pantokratoros, still on Mount Athos (Brockhaus, Die Kunst in den Athos Klostern, 1891, pp. 177 ff and pl. xvii.-xx.; Uspensky, First voyage to the Monasteries of Mount Athos, 1846. Part 2); and the Greek MS. No. 20, in the Bibliothèque Rationale.

page 21 note a See the various examples of imitation quoted by Tikkanen, Die Genesis Mosaiken in Venedig, in Ada Societatis Scientiarum Fennicæ, vol. xvii. p. 320.

page 21 note b Vol. lvii. 159.

page 21 note c Odobesco, 154.

page 22 note a The only early silver treasure of which this can be predicated with some certainty is that found at Luxor and now in the Cairo Museum. (Service des antiquités de l'Egypte, Catalogue général des antiquités Egyptiennes: Koptische Kunst, by J. Strzygowski, Nos. 7201 ff. (Vienna, 1904). The Lampsacus treasure in the British Museum (Catalogue, Nos. 376–396) may also in part at least have had a religious origin.

page 23 note a M. Smirnoff has treated of this subject in a paper in the Materials for Russian Archæology (publication of the Imperial Archæological Commission of St. Petersburg, No. 22, 1899). Unfortunately for English readers the article is written in the Russian language.

page 23 note b Materials for Russian Archæology, No. 8, 1892, where this shield is figured and fully discussed. On the wealth of silver plate which was preserved at Constantinople see Jahrbuch der Kunshistorisehen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses (Vienna, 1899)Google Scholar: article by H. Graeven, Ein Reliquien-Kästchen aus Pirano.

page 24 note a British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, Nos. 495 ff.; Cairo Museum Catalogue, as above, section Bronze.