Notes on the Collection of Ancient Marbles in the possession of Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart

1886 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 240-250
Author(s):  
Charles Waldstein
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
The South ◽  
Roman Art ◽  
Characteristic Points ◽  
Greek Art ◽  
Ancient Monuments

I have been asked to add a few notes on the collection of ancient monuments of which specimens are published on Plates LXXI. and C. These marbles were formerly in the possession of Mr. George McLeay, who, while residing in India, deposited them in the South Kensington Museum, where Professor Michaelis saw them. Most of them have already been described by Michaelis in his Ancient Marbles in Great Britain pp. 481 seq. Mr. McLeay had a house at Smyrna, and it was in Asia Minor, chiefly at Smyrna and in its neighbourhood, that he collected his antiquities. They have since been presented by him to Sir Charles Nicholson, who has placed them in his house, The Grange, Totteridge, Hertfordshire.Most of these monuments belong to the Roman period of Greek art in Asia Minor. There can be no doubt that the interest attaching to such works will grow with the development and systematisation of the study of archaeology. For we may reasonably hope that, as our power to fix in time and to distinguish with accuracy the broader characteristic points of distinction between Greek and Graeco-Roman art grows, we shall not halt at this stage, but shall advance still further in successful endeavours to establish more detailed distinctions of time and even locality within these broader divisions.

Pedestals as ‘altars’ in Roman Asia Minor

2005 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 127-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.J. Coulton
Keyword(s):  
Roman Period ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Normal Type ◽  
Symbolic Value

AbstractThe Greek word bomos usually means ‘altar’, but in inscriptions of the Roman period it sometimes refers to statue bases and other forms of support, where the meaning ‘altar’ is not appropriate. Many scholars believe that in addition to its normal meaning of cult or votive altar and (by extension) funerary altar, bomos could also mean a pedestal, socle or platform in general. This paper examines the use of the term bomos in Roman Asia Minor for statue bases, for pedestals for sarcophagi, ash chests and columns, and for other structures which are not altars, concentrating particularly on their shapes. It concludes that in all these cases the element called bomos had the shape of a normal type of altar, and that in many cases (but not all) it also carried some of the symbolic value of an altar.

XLI. Observations upon some Celtic Remains, lately discovered by the Public Road leading from London to Cambridge, near to the Village of Sawston, distant seven miles from the University, by Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Cambridge. Communicated by the Rev. Thomas Kerrich, M.A. F.S.A.

Archaeologia ◽  
1817 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 340-343
Author(s):  
Edward Daniel Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
The Public ◽  
The North ◽  
Public Road ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The University ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Temple

It is not attaching too high a degree of importance to the study of Celtic antiquities, to maintain, that, owing to the attention now paid to it in this country, a light begins to break in upon that part of ancient history, which, beyond every other, seemed to present a forlorn investigation. All that relates to the aboriginal inhabitants of the north of Europe, would be involved in darkness but for the enquiries now instituted respecting Celtic sepulchres. From the information already received, concerning these sepulchres, it may be assumed, as a fact almost capable of actual demonstration, that the mounds, or barrows, common to all Great Britain, and to the neighbouring continent, together with all the tumuli fabled by Grecian and by Roman historians as the tombs of Giants, are so many several vestiges of that mighty family of Titan-Celts who gradually possessed all the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and who extended their colonies over all the countries where Cyclopéan structures may be recognized; whether in the walls of Crotona, or the temple at Stonehénge; in the Cromlechs of Wales, or the trilithal monuments of Cimbrica Chersonesus; in Greece, or in Asia-Minor; in Syria, or in Egypt. It is with respect to Egypt alone, that an exception might perhaps be required; but history, while it deduces the origin of the worship of Minerva, at Sais, from the Phrygians, also relates of this people, that they were the oldest of mankind. The Cyclopéan architecture of Egypt may therefore be referred originally to the same source; but, as in making the following Observations brevity must be a principal object, it will be necessary to divest them of every thing that may seem like a Dissertation; and confine the statement, here offered, to the simple narrative of those facts, which have led to its introduction.

scholarly journals XV.—On some new Species of Fossil Scorpions from the Carboniferous Rocks of Scotland and the English Borders, with a Review of the Genera Eoscorpius and Mazonia of Messrs Meek and Worthen

1881 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 397-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. N. Peach
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Geological Survey ◽  
Director General ◽  
The South ◽  
Coal Measures

In the progress of the Geological Survey of the South of Scotland, specimens referable to the genus Eoscorpius have been gradually accumulating. In 1876 J. Bennie, Fossil Collector to the Survey, obtained an example from the Coal-measures of Fife. Since then fragments have been disinterred by him and by A. Macconochie, also Fossil Collector to the Survey, from the Calciferous Sandstone series in the counties of Edinburgh, Berwick, Roxburgh, Dumfries, and Northumberland and Cumberland. It was not till the spring of last year (1880) that they began to be found in such a state as to necessitate a description of the fossils. In the summer of that year A. Macconochie obtained an almost entire example from the neighbourhood of Langholm, in Dumfriesshire. This year (1881) J. Bennie has secured several good though fragmentary specimens from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, while A. Macconochie has sent in several from the counties of Berwick and Northumberland. In my capacity of Acting Palæontologist, I have had an opportunity of studying these remains, and by the permission of A. C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S., Director General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and Professor A. Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of Scotland, I have been allowed to describe them.

On the Chloride Waters of Great Britain

1945 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 267-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
The South ◽  
Very Old ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Exact Position ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Village ◽  
Made In

Formerly there were several surface brine springs in the North-East Coalfield; to-day there are none. From the many accounts of their occurrence nothing has been learned of their exact position, and very little of the composition of their waters. The earliest record, made in 1684, described the Butterby spring (Todd, 1684), and then at various times during the next two centuries brine springs at Framwellgate, Lumley, Birtley, Walker, Wallsend, Hebburn, and Jarrow were noted. In particular the Birtley salt spring is often mentioned, and on the 6-in. Ordnance map, Durham No. 13, 1862 edition, it is sited to the south-east of the village. Although no record has been found there must have been either a brine spring or well at Gateshead, for the name of the present-day suburb, Saltwell, is very old, and brine springs are still active in the coal workings of that area.

Metal Jewellery in the Context of a Sanctuary: Interpretation Potential

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-307
Author(s):  
Aleksandr V. Lysenko ◽  
Valentina I. Mordvintseva
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
South Coast ◽  
The South ◽  
Crimean Mountains ◽  
Narrative Tradition ◽  
The Crimea ◽  
Archaeological Cultures ◽  
Central Crimea ◽  
Burial Rite

Abstract Metal jewellery used as votive offerings is discovered at the “barbarian” mountain sanctuary of Eklizi-Burun (the Crimea) and dating from the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD. Most of these items were probably part of female costume known from funerary contexts in the Central Crimea, which differ both regarding their location (in the Crimean Foothills and on the South-Coast), as well as the specific features of the burial rite (“cremation” vs. “inhumation”). A small part of the jewellery is characteristic only for the cemeteries in the South-Coast area containing burials with remains of cremation. An analysis of the cultural environment, in which the jewellery items deposited in the Eklizi-Burun sanctuary of the Roman period were produced and used, suggests that its worshippers came from communities living on the southern macro-slope of the main ridge of the Crimean Mountains and practised cremation of the dead. Apparently, these people appeared in the Graeco-Roman narrative tradition and local epigraphic documents of the Roman period as “Tauri”, “Scythian-Tauri”, and “Tauro-Scythians” inhabiting “Taurica”. They are presumed to have appeared in the Crimean Mountains in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC (migrating from areas with archaeological cultures influenced by the La Tène culture?) and to have maintained their cultural identity until the beginning of the 5th century AD.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 126-128
Author(s):  
Ersin Hussein
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Near East ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Roman Provinces ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Cultural Networks ◽  
Written Sources

The Conclusion revisits the questions that lie at the heart of studies of the Roman provinces and that have driven this study. What is the best way to tell the story of a landscape, and its peoples, that have been the subject of successive conquests throughout history and when the few written sources have been composed by outsiders? What approach should be taken to draw out information from a landscape’s material culture to bring the voices and experiences of those who inhabited its space to the fore? Is it ever possible to ensure that certain evidence types and perspectives are not privileged over others to draw balanced conclusions? The main findings of this work are that the Cypriots were not passive participants in the Roman Empire. They were in fact active and dynamic in negotiating their individual and collective identities. The legacies of deep-rooted connections between mainland Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Near East were maintained into the Roman period and acknowledged by both locals and outsiders. More importantly, the identity of the island was fluid and situational, its people able to distinguish themselves but also demonstrate that the island was part of multiple cultural networks. Cyprus was not a mere imitator of the influences that passed through it, but distinct. The existence of plural and flexible identities is reflective of its status as an island poised between multiple landscapes

Sardis

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Gediz River ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Western Half

A city with a strong and vibrant Jewish community during the Roman period, as well as a center for the worship of Artemis and home to a significant Christian community, Sardis is an intriguing place to visit for anyone interested in biblical studies or ancient religious history. The partially restored 3rd-century-C.E. synagogue in the city is the largest known synagogue outside Palestine from ancient times. Ancient shops, a bath-gymnasium complex, and the Temple of Artemis provide glimpses of the life of this ancient city. Once the capital of the ancient Lydian Kingdom, Sardis (Sart) lies approximately 60 miles east of Izmir along the modern highway (E96/300) connecting Izmir to Ankara in the Hermus River valley (today called the Gediz River). Portions of the ruins of Sardis are situated adjacent to the highway and are easily accessible. The ancient city was built along the Pactolus River, a tributary of the Hermus, and at the foothills of the Tmolus Mountains. The city’s acropolis was strategically located atop a spur of the Tmolus Mountains. The Tmolus Mountains (or Mt. Tmolus) were, according to some ancient traditions, the birthplace of the gods Dionysus and Zeus. Sardis first came to prominence during the 1st millennium B.C.E. when it served as the center of the powerful Lydian kingdom, which encompassed most of the western half of Asia Minor. The Lydians supposedly were the first to develop a technique to dye wool and also to invent dice games, knucklebones, and other games. (Interestingly, archaeologists found a terra-cotta die in the ruins at Sardis.) Legend says that Midas, the mythical Phrygian king, was able to rid himself of his golden touch by bathing in the Pactolus River. As a result, the sands of the river turned to gold. Though legendary, this account points nonetheless to the enormous wealth enjoyed by the Lydian kingdom. The earliest Lydian rulers belonged to the Heraclid dynasty, which according to Herodotus (5th-century-B.C.E. Greek historian) lasted 505 years. They were succeeded by the Mermnad dynasty, of which the first king was Gyges (r. ca. 680–ca. 652 B.C.E.).

scholarly journals The Metrological Relief at Oxford

1883 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 335-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ad. Michaelis
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Early Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Greek Art ◽  
Artistic Interest ◽  
As If

Of peculiar interest among the Arundel marbles of the Pomfret donation at Oxford, is a slab in the shape of a pediment, ‘in which there is in basso relievo the figure of a man as big as the life with his arms extended as if he was crucified, but no lower than about his paps is seen, the cornice cutting him off as it were; and this extension of his arms is called a grecian measure, and over his arm is a grecian foot.’ The marble thus described by George Vertue, the engraver, was first published in Chandler's Marmora Oxoniensia, Pt. I., Pl. lix., No. 166, but its importance was completely overlooked until the late Prof. Matz, in one of his last papers, published a better drawing and pointed out the artistic interest of the relief as a sculpture belonging to a rather early period of Greek art. On the other hand, the merit of the monument as an authentic document of Greek metrology was set forth, at my request, by my friend Dr. Fr. Hultsch, the author of Griechische Metrologie, whose views are repeated in my Ancient Marbles in Great Britain. The chief result of his exposition was that our relief unites in a most interesting way the indication of the length of a fathom (ὀρλυιά) of 2·06 or 20·07 m. with that of a foot of 0·295 m., which is not, as one might expect, the sixth, but exactly the seventh part of the fathom. As such a division of the fathom does not agree with the well-known facts of Greek metrology, Hultsch imagined that the foot on our marble might rather be a modulus used by sculptors and architects, and he observed that the recent excavations of Olympia seem to show the dimensions of some of the temples, particularly of the very old temple of Heré, to be based on a double measure, on a foot but little longer (of 0·298 m.), as well as on a fathom of 2·084 m. which, again, corresponds to seven of those feet.

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