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41. [No Caption] Steven Lowenstam Collection
[No Caption] Steven Lowenstam Collection
Description
Pottery neck-handled amphora; the shape suggests that it was probably used for a male burial. Clay: orange-buff clay, white grits, lustrous brown-black paint. Shape: torus lip, tall concave neck, ovoid body, disc foot; strap handles. Decoration: Light ground. Bands inside and outside lip, and at base of neck. Shoulder: two sets of nine compass-drawn concentric circles; band between lines below. Three lines around lower body. Handles: intersecting diagonal lines, rings around lower roots. --The British Museum, Walters, H B; Forsdyke, E J; Smith, C H, Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, I-IV, London, BMP, 1893
42. Symposium
Symposium
Description
Pottery: red-figured column-krater. (a) Symposion. Two bearded men recline to left on two couches, leaning left arm on striped cushions; the one on the right has a broad radiated band (ampyx?) tied in a bow behind the ear, with end hanging down; he raises on his right a phiale, addressing his companion, who turns towards him, holding up in his right by the stem a large kylix; this one is wreathed, and has his left arm wrapped in his mantle; both have the legs draped. In the foreground between the two a flute-player stands, to right, playing on flutes; she wears a long chiton with apoptygma, and her hair is looped up with a radiated fillet. In the background hang a taenia (on left) and a ring-shaped object (wreath ?). In front of each couch is a table, on which is a dish with flowers. (b) Three draped ephebi. The one on left moves away to left, looking back at the other two; his right arm projects over the border of the design. The central one holds a staff. In the field hangs a pair of halteres (jumping-weights). Style late and careless. Yellowish-white is used for wreath and fillet of flute-player and flowers. Round the lip, in black silhouette on red, two pairs of animals, a lion and boar, stepping towards each other. --The British Museum, Walters, H B; Forsdyke, E J; Smith, C H, Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, I-IV, London, BMP, 1893
43. Bearded man, woman with lyre'
Bearded man, woman with lyre'
Description
Terracotta relief plaque ('Melian relief'): a man with a female lyre-player; he grasps the lyre (barbiton) as though demanding her attention. --The British Museum, Burn, Lucilla; Higgins, Reynold; Walters, H B; Bailey, D M, Catalogue of Terracottas in the British Museum, I-IV, London, BMP, 1903
44. Ionic Freeze
Ionic Freeze
Description
Marble relief (Block XLVII) from the North frieze of the Parthenon. The frieze shows the procession of the Panathenaic festival, the commemoration of the birthday of the goddess Athena. Like the southern branch of the procession, the northern branch comprises mounted horsemen, chariots, elders, musicians, pitcher-bearers, tray-bearers and figures leading sacrificial victims. As in the South frieze, so in the North the cavalcade comprised sixty riders. Whereas in the South these are carved over twenty-four blocks, in the North they are compressed into nineteen blocks. The groups of riders are not divided equally, as they are in the South. Dress varies from figure to figure. Some are heavily draped in mantle and tunic, while others are all but naked. Some ride bareheaded, while others wear a distinctive form of cap or a helmet. Metal reins, which are now lost, were inserted in drill-holes. Block XLVII shows a scene of preparation for the cavalcade that lies ahead, echoing the major theme of the West frize. Its return on the West side is carved with a marshal. On the right a boy, wearing drapery over his shoulder, is tying a girdle around the waist of the waiting horseman, dressed in a tunic. The heads of the youth and the boy are both dipped, just as the head of the horse, waiting patiently by. On the left a figure, wearing a cloak, stands by his horse, which he restrains with his right arm, while his left is raised to the head with the index finger extended. His head is turned back to his unprepared companions. A fragment, the horse’s head, is in the Acropolis Museum, Athens. --The British Museum, Pryce, F N; Smith, A H, Catalogue of Greek Sculpture in the British Museum, I-III, London, BMP, 1892; enkins, Ian, The Parthenon Frieze, London, BMP, 1994
45. Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone
Description
Part of grey and pink granodiorite stela bearing priestly decree concerning Ptolemy V in three blocks of text: Hieroglyphic (14 lines), Demotic (32 lines) and Greek (53 lines). Curator's comments Compass text: The Rosetta Stone From Fort St Julien, el-Rashid (Rosetta), Egypt Ptolemaic Period, 196 BC The inscription on the Rosetta Stone is a decree passed by a council of priests, one of a series that affirm the royal cult of the 13-year-old Ptolemy V on the first anniversary of his coronation. In previous years the family of the Ptolemies had lost control of certain parts of the country. It had taken their armies some time to put down opposition in the Delta, and parts of southern Upper Egypt, particularly Thebes, were not yet back under the government's control. Before the Ptolemaic era (that is before about 332 BC), decrees in hieroglyphs such as this were usually set up by the king. It shows how much things had changed from Pharaonic times that the priests, the only people who had kept the knowledge of writing hieroglyphs, were now issuing such decrees. The list of good deeds done by the king for the temples hints at the way in which the support of the priests was ensured. The decree is inscribed on the stone three times, in hieroglyphic (suitable for a priestly decree), demotic (the native script used for daily purposes), and Greek (the language of the administration). The importance of this to Egyptology is immense. Soon after the end of the fourth century AD, when hieroglyphs had gone out of use, the knowledge of how to read and write them disappeared. In the early years of the nineteenth century, some 1400 years later, scholars were able to use the Greek inscription on this stone as the key to decipher them. Thomas Young, an English physicist, was the first to show that some of the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone wrote the sounds of a royal name, that of Ptolemy. The French scholar Jean-François Champollion then realized that hieroglyphs recorded the sound of the Egyptian language and laid the foundations of our knowledge of ancient Egyptian language and culture. Soldiers in Napoleon's army discovered the Rosetta Stone in 1799 while digging the foundations of an addition to a fort near the town of el-Rashid (Rosetta). On Napoleon's defeat, the stone became the property of the English under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria (1801) along with other antiquities that the French had found. The Rosetta Stone has been exhibited in the British Museum since 1802, with only one break. Towards the end of the First World War, in 1917, when the Museum was concerned about heavy bombing in London, they moved it to safety along with other, portable, 'important' objects. The Rosetta Stone spent the next two years in a station on the Postal Tube Railway fifty feet below the ground at Holborn. --The British Museum, Newton, C T; Hicks, E L; Hirschfeld, Gustav; Marshall, F H, The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, I-IV, London, British Museum, 1874; Strudwick, Nigel, Masterpieces of ancient Egypt, London, BMP, 2006
46. Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone
Description
Part of grey and pink granodiorite stela bearing priestly decree concerning Ptolemy V in three blocks of text: Hieroglyphic (14 lines), Demotic (32 lines) and Greek (53 lines). Curator's comments Compass text: The Rosetta Stone From Fort St Julien, el-Rashid (Rosetta), Egypt Ptolemaic Period, 196 BC The inscription on the Rosetta Stone is a decree passed by a council of priests, one of a series that affirm the royal cult of the 13-year-old Ptolemy V on the first anniversary of his coronation. In previous years the family of the Ptolemies had lost control of certain parts of the country. It had taken their armies some time to put down opposition in the Delta, and parts of southern Upper Egypt, particularly Thebes, were not yet back under the government's control. Before the Ptolemaic era (that is before about 332 BC), decrees in hieroglyphs such as this were usually set up by the king. It shows how much things had changed from Pharaonic times that the priests, the only people who had kept the knowledge of writing hieroglyphs, were now issuing such decrees. The list of good deeds done by the king for the temples hints at the way in which the support of the priests was ensured. The decree is inscribed on the stone three times, in hieroglyphic (suitable for a priestly decree), demotic (the native script used for daily purposes), and Greek (the language of the administration). The importance of this to Egyptology is immense. Soon after the end of the fourth century AD, when hieroglyphs had gone out of use, the knowledge of how to read and write them disappeared. In the early years of the nineteenth century, some 1400 years later, scholars were able to use the Greek inscription on this stone as the key to decipher them. Thomas Young, an English physicist, was the first to show that some of the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone wrote the sounds of a royal name, that of Ptolemy. The French scholar Jean-François Champollion then realized that hieroglyphs recorded the sound of the Egyptian language and laid the foundations of our knowledge of ancient Egyptian language and culture. Soldiers in Napoleon's army discovered the Rosetta Stone in 1799 while digging the foundations of an addition to a fort near the town of el-Rashid (Rosetta). On Napoleon's defeat, the stone became the property of the English under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria (1801) along with other antiquities that the French had found. The Rosetta Stone has been exhibited in the British Museum since 1802, with only one break. Towards the end of the First World War, in 1917, when the Museum was concerned about heavy bombing in London, they moved it to safety along with other, portable, 'important' objects. The Rosetta Stone spent the next two years in a station on the Postal Tube Railway fifty feet below the ground at Holborn. --The British Museum, Newton, C T; Hicks, E L; Hirschfeld, Gustav; Marshall, F H, The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, I-IV, London, British Museum, 1874; Strudwick, Nigel, Masterpieces of ancient Egypt, London, BMP, 2006
47. Mirror with Aias, Telis (Thetis?) and Alomena
Mirror with Aias, Telis (Thetis?) and Alomena
Description
Bronze mirror engraved with Aiax (Aivas) arming, helped by Telis (Thetis). Alcumena plays a lyre. The three names are inscribed. --The British Museum, Walters, H B, Catalogue of the Bronzes in the British Museum. Greek, Roman & Etruscan., I-II, London, BMP, 1899
48. Linear B Script
Linear B Script
Description
Clay tablet inscribed with Linear B script, recording offerings of oil to a number of religious personnel and deities. --The British Museum, Ventris, M; Chadwick, J, Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1956; Chadwick, J; Godart, L; Killen, J T; Olivier, J-P; Sacconi, A; Sakellarakis, I A, Corpus of Mycenaean Inscriptions from Knossos, I, I, Cambridge/Rome, Cambridge University Press/Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 1986
49. [No Caption] Steven Lowenstam Collection
[No Caption] Steven Lowenstam Collection
Description
Alabastron; pottery; decorated in the Six technique on white ground: youths and horses under a tree. --The British Museum
50. The Judgment of Paris
The Judgment of Paris
Description
Pottery: black-figured amphora. Designs black on red panels, with lotus and honeysuckle borders along the top; accessories of white and purple. (a) Judgment of Paris: On the right is Paris seated to left on a rock, bearded, with long hair looped up by a fillet, long chiton and himation, both embroidered with white rosettes, in left hand a lyre. Hermes, who is leading the three goddesses to him, is bearded, with long tresses, petasos, short white chiton, embroidered chlamys, and endromides, caduceus in right hand, left hand extended towards Paris. Behind him advance the three goddesses, each raising left hand. First, Hera, wearing long chiton and embroidered himation; next Athene, with high-crested helmet with cheek-pieces, long embroidered chiton with diploidion, and aegis, of which only the borders of snakes are visible, in right hand a spear; Aphrodite comes last, in long chiton and embroidered himation; all three have long hair, fillets, and necklaces. (b) Departure of a warrior: In the centre is the warrior to left, bearded, with visored helmet with fillet, chlamys, greaves, shield with device of a pellet, and two spears; facing him is a nude youth, wearing a fillet, who is receiving a garment (?) from the warrior. On the left an old man advances to right; he has a white beard and long white tresses with fillet, long purple chiton and striped himation, embroidered with white rosettes; his right hand leans on a knotted staff, and his left is extended to the warrior. On the right is a female figure to left, in a long chiton and striped embroidered himation drawn over her head; behind her is a youth to left, with fillet, long chiton, and striped himation embroidered with white rosettes. --The British Museum, A Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, London, William Nicol, 1851; Walters, H B; Forsdyke, E J; Smith, C H, Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, I-IV, London, BMP, 1893; Walters, H B, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain 4, British Museum 3, London, BMP, 1927
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