RICHARD JAMES HORATIO GOTTHEIL 363 The only and what The real (b) The second figurine, made of a more bluish bronze, seems to lead us in quite a different direction. It is still attached to the lower mould on which it was made. The peculiar high head-covering makes me at once suspect Egyptian influence; for it resembles in a remarkable manner the so-called 'white crown' worn by Egyptian kings. covering on the body is a girdle around the waist appears to be a short tunic depending from it. position of the hands it is impossible to determine. one is raised; the right has been broken away; stump seems to show at least that it was extended. the back of the head-covering and the neck there is a rill which is probably nothing more than a foundry-mark. The left but the Down The figurine is remarkably similar to one formerly in the collection of the Musée Napoléon and now in the Louvre. This last was found by M. Peretié at Tortosa on the Syrian coast between Tripoli and Ladikiyah. It has been reproduced by Longperier and by Perrot and Chipiez. Because of its rude workmanship, and because it was not detached from the support upon which it was cast, Perrot believes it to be very ancient to go back, as he expresses it, "aux débuts mêmes de l'Industrie métallurgique." But, though the general character of the figure is similar to the copy in the Louvre, there are some differences. The head-gear is not as straight as it is in the Louvre figurine. It seems to bend in a little and to bulge out again towards the top into a sort of bulb or knot. The orbits of the eyes are not hollow; the tunic is in one straight piece and not in three folds; and it is the left arm that is raised, not the right. Halfway down the legs of the figurine there seems to have been a break or a fault in the casting. The question of the provenance of these two figurines has, however, been singularly complicated by the discovery in ancient Mykenian remains of statuettes in bronze that bear the closest resemblance to them. The first was found by Schliemann in 1876 at Tiryns, and is described by him as that of an "upright, beardless warrior in the act of fighting." See, e.g., Erman, Aegypten, pp. 95, 364, 367, 383. Histoire de l'Art, 3. 405. * Schliemann, Tiryns, N. Y. 1885, p. 116; Mycenæ, p. 14, figure 12. The head is covered with a helmet having a very high coneshaped top. The rest of the body is naked. The lance held in the uplifted right hand, as well as the shield fastened to the left is missing. Beneath the feet are two vertical supports, which give us exactly the depth of the double funnel through which the molten metal was run into the mould. According to Schliemann the artificers did not yet know the use of the file, and this, he says, "points to a high antiquity." Other statuettes, alike in kind, have come to light at Mykene itself; and a glance at their reproduction is enough to assure us of their similarity to the one in my possession, despite minor differences such as in the pattern of the apron or breech cloth. (c and d). The first two of the figurines, it will be seen, bring us into connection with early classical civilization; the last two, however, seem to be the product of local artists, and might with more propriety be called Syro-Hittite. I have been unable to find out where they came from, as they were acquired at a public sale. But c reminds me very forcibly of a similar figurine found at Killiz, between Aleppo and Aintab, a few years ago, and published by Garstang in the Annals of Archæology and Anthropology issued by the Institute of Archæology at Liverpool (Vol. 1), and republished in his "Monuments of the Hittites." 10 During his travels in Cappadocia, Chantre was able to acquire a number of such figurines, reproductions of which can be found in his work, Mission en Cappadoce."1 (d) The fourth statuette reminds me at once of number 2; but its make is still more primitive. It has, however, the same distinctive head-dress and the large ears which are characteristic of most of these representations. That the head-dress is also characteristic may be seen by compar Cf. Chrestos Tsountas, The Mycenaean Age, Boston, 1897, p. 161; von Lichtenberg, Einfluss der ägäischen Kultur auf Ägypten und Palästina, in Mittheilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, Leipzig, 1911, p. 39. • Plate xiv. 10 P. 106. Cf. J. Menant, Quelques Figurines Hétéennes en Bronze, in Revue Archéologique, 26. 31 (1895). I have not been able to consult Peiser and Bezzenberger's article, Die bronze Figur von Schernen, in the Sitzungsberichte der Alterthumsgesellschaft Prussia, Heft 22, referred to by Garstang. In the same category the little bronze group must be placed which was found in 1892 at Nerab near Aleppo; see Clermont-Ganneau, Études d'archéologie Orientale, 2. 186. 11 1898, p. 145. RICHARD JAMES HORATIO GOTTHEIL 365 ing it with the head-dress of some of the warriors and gods to be found in known Hittite remains. In at least three of the figurines we seem to have representation of an art about which as yet we know very little. This art is, it is true, extremely primitive. The conception is raw and the execution most inferior. The artist is evidently struggling both with his material and with his art, and he must have lived entirely out of touch with the three superior civilizations around him or at a time prior to the introduction of their influence into these parts of Asia. |