How to Observe in Archaeology Part 8

1. Introductory.

Travellers are more likely to make new discoveries elsewhere than on the actual sites of ancient towns and villages. In many cases the site is found to be entirely bare of all remains except sometimes small fragments of pottery. In general, inscribed and other stones have been carried away to serve as building material for mosques, houses, fountains, bridges, &c., or as headstones for graves in cemeteries or for other utilitarian purposes. It is, therefore, in and near modern villages and towns that inscriptions are chiefly to be found, as well as smaller antiquities, such as clay tablets, pots or fragments of them, terra-cotta figures, coins, and so forth. The smaller articles may sometimes be found in the bazaars, but they are usually in the hands of individuals.

It should not be a.s.sumed that inscriptions which are exposed to public view have all been copied; moreover, new stones are constantly being turned up, especially where building is going on and where there are old sites or cemeteries close at hand. Great numbers of inscribed stones are hidden away in private dwellings, where they are difficult of discovery and of access. Travellers should take advantage of opportunities that may offer of examining antiquities in private houses, and of visiting sites or monuments about which information may be received, particularly if they are a little off the beaten track. Reward will often come in the shape of valuable discoveries, of which many remain to be made. Cilicia in particular has been imperfectly explored, and interesting monuments and inscriptions, particularly Hitt.i.te, may be found there.

2. Pottery Fabrics.

It is not yet possible to describe fully or accurately the succession of styles, or even to a.s.sign all known fabrics to their proper periods. For this reason, even the most fragmentary specimens are of interest, provided only that: (1) the outer surface is fairly well preserved, (2) the place of discovery is known.

All fragments showing a rim or spout, handles or part of a base, should be preserved until they can be compared with a more perfect specimen.

The following fabrics, however, are widely distributed, and usually seem to have flourished in the order in which they are here described:

A.

Hand-made wares, rough within, but smooth or burnished surface, self- coloured (drab or brown), or intentionally coloured black (by charred matter in the clay, or by a smoky fire), or red (by a clear fire, sometimes aided by a wash or 'slip' of more ferruginous clay).

Sometimes a black ware is 'overfired' to an ashy grey.

In such wares ornament is rare, and consists mainly of (a) incised dots, dashes, or lines, in simple rectilinear patterns (chevrons, zigzags, lozenges), often enhanced by a white chalky filling (V, Figs 5- 8); (b) ridges or bosses modelled in the clay surface, or adhering to it. The forms are plump and globular, often round-bottomed or standing on short feet. Rims are absent or ill-developed; necks actually prolonged into trough-spouts or long beaks; handles are very simple and short. Vases are sometimes modelled like animals, or have human faces or b.r.e.a.s.t.s (V, Figs. 1-4).

These wares begin in the Stone Age, and seem to predominate in the early and middle Bronze Age. Locally they may have lasted even later, but the use of the potter's wheel spread rapidly in the early Bronze Age.

B.

Hand-made wares of light-coloured clay, with painted decoration, usually in black or reddish-brown. The paint is generally without glaze, but sometimes is decayed and easily washes off.

The forms and ornaments resemble those of cla.s.s A, but are less rude and more varied. Distinct rims and standing-bases appear, and spouts give place to a pinched lip.

C.

Hand-made wares of black or other dark clay, with painted decoration in white or ochre. These fabrics are rather rare, and the paint is easily washed off. The forms follow those of cla.s.s B.

Cla.s.ses B and C seem to begin early in the Bronze Age, and are gradually replaced by the corresponding wheel-made fabrics of cla.s.s D.

D.

Wheel-made pottery begins in the Bronze Age, and is distinguished by its symmetrical forms, and by the texture of the inner surface, especially about the rim and base, where the potter's fingers have grazed the whirling clay. Self-coloured wares still occur, and are sometimes elegant ('bucchero' ware); but the improved furnaces now permit general use of light-coloured clays, suited to painted decoration. Glazed paint is still rare, and may be taken as probable token of date not earlier than the end of the Bronze Age. The glaze- painted wares of the Greek island-world occasionally wandered to the mainland a little earlier than this, but not far from the coast. On wheel-made pottery the ornament is either (a) applied while the pot is on the wheel, and consequently limited to lines and bands following the plane of rotation, or (b) added afterwards, free-hand, usually between such bands, and especially on the neck and shoulder.

Simple rectilinear schemes are commonest (panels, lozenges, and triangles, enriched with lattice and chequers) (V, Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12); with these in the Early Iron Age appear little targets of concentric circles drawn mechanically with compa.s.ses (V, Figs. 13-15); also, by degrees, birds (V, Fig. 16), animals, and simple plant designs (rosettes, lotus, palmette), and occasionally human figures. But as a rule, the mainland pottery is very simply decorated, and insular imports are rare, except within the area within Greek colonization.

In the Later Iron Age or Historic Period, from the seventh century onward, the pot-fabrics of Asia Minor rapidly a.s.similate two main cla.s.ses of foreign fashions, Greek and Oriental.

E.

The Oriental types (mainly from Syria) are all plump and heavy looking, usually in coa.r.s.e buff or cream-coloured ware, almost without paint. The Greek forms are more graceful, varied, and specialized; light-coloured clays predominate, with simple bands of black ill-glazed paint, absorbed by the inferior clays.

After Alexander's time the Greek and the Oriental forms became confused; the general level of style and execution falls, painted decoration almost disappears, and the outer surface is often ribbed by uneven pressure of the fingers on the whirling clay. This fashion is a sign of late h.e.l.lenistic or Graeco-Roman date.

F.

Meanwhile, the black-glazed Greek (mainly Athenian) wares spread widely for table use, and were imitated locally from the fourth century onwards. The clay is pale or reddish (genuine Greek fabrics are usually quite red within) and the glaze thick, black, and of a brilliant gla.s.sy smoothness. Imitations are of all degrees of inferiority.

G.

Other late fabrics have smooth ill-glazed surfaces, of various red, brown, or chocolate tints, over hard-baked dull-fractured paste not unlike modern earthenware, but usually dark-coloured. These wares begin in the h.e.l.lenistic period, and go on into the Roman and early Byzantine Ages. They have sometimes a little ornament in a hard white or cream 'slip' which stands up above the surface of the vase. These fabrics are all for table use, or for tomb-furniture, and are usually of small size.

H.

Pottery with vitreous glaze like modern earthenware only appears on Byzantine and Turkish sites. There a few late Greek and Roman fabrics of glazed ware, mostly of dark brown and olive-green tints; but they are rare, and usually found in tombs. The earlier glazes are applied directly to the clay; later a white or coloured slip is applied first, and a clear siliceous glaze over this.

3. Inscriptions and Monuments.

A. Hitt.i.te Civilization. (See figures, Ill.u.s.tration VI: Hitt.i.te Inscriptions, etc.)

(1) From 2000 B.C. onwards baked clay tablets with cuneiform (or wedge-shaped) writing (Ill.u.s.tration VI, Fig. 1) to be found anywhere in Eastern Asia Minor, within the Halys bend and south of it, in Southern Cappadocia, in Cilicia, and in North Syria up to the Euphrates.

(2) 1000-700 B.C. probably: inscriptions generally cut on stone, dark and hard (black basalt), or on the living rock, in hieroglyphic writing. The hieroglyphs are either cut in relief (VI, Fig. 4) or incised (VI, Fig. 2). Found in the same region and sporadically west of the Halys.

(3) From 1400 B.C. and 900 B.C. onwards monuments and sculpture.

Human figures are short and thick, generally wearing boots with toes turned up (VI, Fig. 3.) Found in the same regions as the inscriptions and also west of the Halys to the sea.

B. Lydian inscriptions.

From about 500 B.C. Letters mostly like Greek capitals (sometimes reversed); (Ill.u.s.tration IV, at bottom).

C. Lycian inscriptions and monuments.

From about 500 B.C. inscriptions, sometimes with a Greek translation.

(IV, at bottom.)

Monuments, mostly with inscriptions, are generally tombs in stone, built to imitate wood, with the ends of beams projecting or showing.

D. Greek antiquities.

(1) Early period to 323 B.C. the great Greek colonies on the seaboard and in the coast valleys really formed an outlying part of Greece, and for them the section on Greece should be consulted.

(2) Periods of Seleucid and Pergamene rule, 323-130 B.C.

Inscriptions of these periods to be found mostly in the coastal region, rarely on the plateau. Chiefly royal ordinances, thank offerings, munic.i.p.al honorary inscriptions, decrees, covenants, and the like.

(3) Graeco-Roman period, 130 B.C.-A.D. 400.

Language of inscriptions remains normally Greek, though the lettering gradually a.s.sumes a different character from century to century, steadily deteriorating. The Phrygian language, written in Greek letters, survives for several centuries in epitaphs, part of the inscription often being in Greek.

Latin inscriptions are not common except in Roman colonies during the earlier centuries of their existence. Elsewhere they are chiefly official doc.u.ments of various kinds (e.g. imperial ordinances, milestones usually of columnar shape with the Emperor's t.i.tles, boundary stones, &c.), or expressions of homage to Emperors, honorary inscriptions to governors and other officials, dedications, epitaphs, &c. Sometimes a Greek version is added.

Latin inscriptions of the Republican period (recording decrees of the Senate) are extremely rare.

[ILl.u.s.tRATION VI: HITt.i.tE INSCRIPTIONS, ETC.]

CHAPTER IV

CYPRUS