1. Anthemion Stelae from Sardis
- Author
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Christopher Ratte
- Subjects
Archeology ,Sculpture ,biology ,Acropolis ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Context (language use) ,Cist ,Phallus ,Art ,Ancient history ,biology.organism_classification ,Prehistory ,Tumulus ,Inscribed figure ,media_common - Abstract
Anthemion stelae of the Archaic and Early Classical periods-tall gravestones crowred by volute-palmette designs-are found at many sites in Greece and western Asia Minor. This article presents five previously unpublished fragments from Sardis in Lydia and two gravestones discovered in 1912 but never thoroughly described, bringing to at least 10 the total number of such stelae found at Sardis. Most of these are only fragments, and none bears any trace of figural decoration. The anthemion stelae from Sardis nevertheless include some objects of superlative craftsmanship, and they help to illuminate relations between Lydia and neighboring regions in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.* In 1912, the first American expedition to Sardis, directed by H.C. Butler of Princeton University, discovered two limestone anthemion stelae still standing in front of a rock-cut tomb (Tomb 813) in the Great Necropolis on the west bank of the Pactolus stream.' To date, these stelae are the only two such gravestones ever found in situ at Sardis. Since 1912, however, stray or reused fragments of the finials of at least eight more anthemion stelae have come to light, making Sardis an unusually rich source of these monuments.2 In addition to the limestone stelae from Tomb 813, the first Sardis Expedition also found a single fragment of another anthemion stele, made of marble. The provenience of this fragment is uncertain; it was published in the volume devoted to the Sanctuary of Artemis just across the Pactolus stream from the Great Necropolis.3 Between 1958 and 1975, the second and ongoing Sardis Expedition, sponsored by Harvard and Cornell Universities, recovered fragments of another four sixthor fifthcentury anthemion stelae, all of marble.4 One of these was found reused in a Roman wall in the Bath/Gymnasium complex on the edge of the Hermus River plain. The other three were stray finds from the valley of the Pactolus, two discovered near well-known clusters of Lydian rock-cut tombs, and a third found during the construction of the excavation house next to the Sanctuary of Artemis. Since 1975, fragments of three or four more marble anthemion stelae have been recovered, one, whose identification is uncertain, from a field east of the Bath/Gymnasium complex, two from the excavation of a group of Late Roman houses south of the same complex (across the Izmir-Ankara highway), and a fourth from new excavations in the compound of the Sardis Expedition's excavation house. The function-as gravestones-of the stelae discovered in the various cemeteries of Sardis is clear.5 It is conceivable that the fragments of anthemion finials found near the Sanctuary of Artemis (for example, at the site of the current excavation house) crowned votive stelae, but as this sanctuary lies just across the Pactolus stream from the Great Necropolis, and lesser cemeteries are located on the same (west) side of the stream both to the north and to the south, it is likely that these too are fragments of * This article is based on research conducted under the auspices of the Sardis Expedition, and I am grateful to the Expedition's field director, C.H. Greenewalt, jr., both for permission to work on this subject, and for his advice and encouragement. My thanks are also due to Catherine S. Alexander, who made the reconstruction drawings of the stelae published here, and to R.R.R. Smith and the anonymous AJA reviewers, all of whom made many helpful criticisms and suggestions. The following abbreviations are used in this article: SardisRep 2 G.M.A. Hanfmann and N.H. Ramage, Sculpture from Sardis (SardisRep 2, Cambridge, Mass. 1978). Samos XI B. Freyer-Schauenberg, Sanmos XI: Bildwerke der archaischen Zeit und des strengen Stils (Bonn 1974). Published anew as 3a and 3b below; see bibliographical references listed in catalogue entry. The Great Necropolis is a cemetery containing over 1,000 tombs. 2 I exclude from consideration three anthemion stelae of late fifthor fourth-century date, published in SardisRep 2 as nos. 240-42. For the intriguing but unsubstantiated suggestion that the Borgia stele, reportedly discovered in situ in front of a tomb, was found at Sardis, see SardisRep 2, 23, n. 86. H.C. Butler, Sardis II: Architecture, Pt. 1: The Temple of Artemis (Leiden 1925) 80, ill. 93. The fragment was published in this volume because of its resemblance to pieces of architectural ornament found in the Sanctuary of Artemis; its provenience is not specified, however, and it is quite possible it was found somewhere else. Published anew as SardisRep 2, no. 48. 4 SardisRep 2, 23-28, 73-76, nos. 45-46, 49. The fourth, unpublished until now, is our fragment 4. 5 On the cemeteries of Lydian Sardis in general, see B.K. McLauchlin, Lydian Graves and Burial Customs (Diss. Univ. of California, Berkeley 1985) 11-78. 593 American Journal of Archaeology 98 (1994) 593-607 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.149 on Wed, 28 Sep 2016 04:44:23 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 594 CHRISTOPHER RATTE [AJA 98 Fig. 1. Anthemion stele fragments: a) no. 4 (left); b) no. 1, side A (upper right); and c) no. 3a, fragment of finial (lower right) gravestones, reused in one way or another in the sanctuary.6 Of the fragments found in the vicinity of the Roman Bath/Gymnasium complex, one bears a Lydian inscription that identifies it as a gravestone.7 The location of the cemetery where this gravestone originally stood is uncertain. There is evidence or at least reason for arguing for the presence of cemeteries on almost every side of the Bath/Gymnasium complex, and a small fragment such as this one could in any case have traveled a considerable distance.8 While the other fragments from this area are probably fragments of gravestones as well, an Archaic and Classical sanctuary of Cybele may have been located nearby, and the possibility that these are fragments of v tiv stelae cannot be entirely exclud d, although none of he identifiably votive stel e found at Sardis is of the anthemion type.9 Although the stel e from Tomb 813 are the only Lydian anthemion stelae ever found in context, it is likely that most or all of the other known fragments were also associat d with rock-cut tombs, as opposed to umuli.10 Most of these other fragments come from the Pactolus valley, an area where few tumuli are known, but which is in Butler's phrase "honeycombed" with rock-cut tombs; and the few grave markers that have been found in direct association with tumuli are of a different form, knob-like "phalloi" instead of stelae." 6 In western Asia Minor and East Greece, anthemion stelae are definitely attested, by provenience or by inscriptions, as gravestones both at Sardis (the stelae from Tomb 813 and the inscribed example discussed below) and elsewhere, e.g., Samos (Samos XI, nos. 89-90, with inscriptions; nos. 89-95, 99, from the "west necropolis"). SardisRep 2, no. 49; here fig. 14c. s To the south lies the acropolis of Sardis, whose west face contains many small cemeteries; to the east and west lies the modern Izmir-Ankara highway, which apparently follows the route of the ancient road through Sardis. Nearby is a monumental structure that appears to be the Archaic gate of the city, and a cemetery just outside it would not be surprising. At the time of writing, however, it is still uncertain whether the Archaic city lay on the east or west side of the gate. See C.H. Greenewalt, jr., et al., "The Sardis Campaigns of 1988 and 1989," AASOR 51 (1994) 14-26, for the most recent report on the excavation of this monument. 9 See G.M.A. Hanfmann, Sardis from Prehistoric to Roman Times (Cambridge, Mass. 1983) 74. 10 It is also possible that some of these st lae were associated with ore modest types of tombs, uch as cist graves or sarc phagus burials; on Lydian tomb types, see McLauchlin (supra n. 5) 11-13. 1 Se generally McLauchlin (supra n. 5) 126-39. Most famous is the huge marker still extant on the summit of the tomb of Alyattes; see C.H. Greenewalt, jr., et al., "The Sardis Campaign of 1983," BASOR Suppl. 24 (1986) 2022. In 1993, a "phallus marker" was disc vered (by Rose Lou and Ugur Bengisu, unpublished) on top of a tumulus tomb, probably of the Persian p riod, in the Cayster River valley. The context of the "stele and memorial of Tos" mentioned by Hipponax is unknown; see E. Degani ed., Hipponactis testimonia et fragmenta (Leipzig 1983) 30-32, fr. 7; J. Pedley, Ancient Literary Sources on Sardis (SardisMon 2, Cambridge, Mass. 1972) 77, no. 280; McLauchlin (supra n. 5) 45-48. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.149 on Wed, 28 Sep 2016 04:44:23 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 1994] ANTHEMION STELAE FROM SARDIS 595
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- 1994
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