Minoan Fayence in Mesopotamia

1928 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-74
Author(s):  
H. R. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Full Publication ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Of Greece

In my forthcoming publication of the Rhind Lectures, 1923, on The Civilization of Greece in the Bronze Age I have briefly referred (pp. 225–6) to the remarkable discovery by Dr. Walter Andrae for the Deutsche Orient Gesellschaft, at Ḳala'at Sharḳat, the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Ashur, on the Tigris, of a series of objects in fayence not only of precisely the same type as the remarkable fayence vases and other objects found by the British Museum excavators at Enkomi and Maroni in Cyprus, but some of them, one would think, made by the same hand. These Assyrian objects were among those brought back to England from Mesopotamia after the war, and finally assigned to the British Museum, when eventually a division-was made of the whole between London and Berlin. Before this division was effected I had recognized these particular fayence objects as the counterparts of those already in the British Museum from Enkomi, and Dr. Andrae and I, after I had pointed out the fact to him on a visit made by him to London, agreed that we should publish them separately, he as their discoverer in their context in his full publication of his finds, I in order to emphasize their identity with the Enkomi finds and their Minoan character.

A gold diadem from Aegina

1987 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 182-182
Author(s):  
Reynold Higgins
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Middle Helladic ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Grave Goods

A recent discovery on the island of Aegina by Professor H. Walter (University of Salzburg) throws a new light on the origins of the so-called Aegina Treasure in the British Museum.In 1982 the Austrians were excavating the Bronze Age settlement on Cape Kolonna, to the north-west of Aegina town. Immediately to the east of the ruined Temple of Apollo, and close to the South Gate of the prehistoric Lower Town, they found an unrobbed shaft grave containing the burial of a warrior. The gravegoods (now exhibited in the splendid new Museum on the Kolonna site) included a bronze sword with a gold and ivory hilt, three bronze daggers, one with gold fittings, a bronze spear-head, arrowheads of obsidian, boar's tusks from a helmet, and fragments of a gold diadem (plate Va). The grave also contained Middle Minoan, Middle Cycladic, and Middle Helladic (Mattpainted) pottery. The pottery and the location of the grave in association with the ‘Ninth City’ combine to give a date for the burial of about 1700 BC; and the richness of the grave-goods would suggest that the dead man was a king.

An Early British Interest in Knossos

1987 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 85-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinclair Hood
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Early History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Eyewitness Account ◽  
Sanctuary Of Demeter ◽  
The Bronze Age

Four letters written in 1879, 1880, and 1884, by Thomas B. Sandwith, the British Consul in Crete, to the British Museum throw light on the early history of the site of the Bronze Age palace at Knossos. The first of these letters (1879) contains a brief eyewitness account of the excavations of Minos Kalokairinos there in the winter of 1878–9 and urges the British Museum to continue his work. The two later letters (1884) deal with his gift of a pithos from the palace excavations to the Museum. The letters also refer to clandestine excavations in the Sanctuary of Demeter at Knossos.

Greek Prehistory Through the Bronze Age

Classics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan Burke
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
History Of ◽  
Epic Poems ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Of Greece

The history of archaeology of Greece as we know it today begins with prehistoric investigations that took place in the 19th century. Early excavations by Heinrich Schliemann, Arthur Evans, and Wilhelm Dörpfeld, along with Greek colleagues like Christos Tsountas, Panagiotis Stamatakis, Valerios Stais, and Antonios Keramopoulos laid the foundation for systematic, stratigraphic excavations. Research was heavily directed by ancient Greek texts, primarily the epic poems of Homer. Efforts to find archaeological truth to the legendary tales of the ancient heroes continue to be problematic, but, to a degree, early excavations revealed a rich and fascinating period of Greece’s development. Although the archaeological discoveries of Greek prehistory date to an age centuries older than Homer, the discoveries shed light on a vast, rich archaeological history, one upon which the Homeric tales were, at least partially, based. Early discoveries of prehistoric texts, especially on Crete with scripts in Hieroglyphic Minoan, Linear A (non-Greek), and Linear B (Greek), along with the enigmatic Phaistos disc, have expanded our understanding of the history of the Greek language and Greek people.

A NEWLY DISCOVERED MINOAN FAIENCE PLAQUE FROM THE KNOSSOS TOWN MOSAIC IN THE BRISTOL CITY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY: A TECHNOLOGICAL INSIGHT

2014 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Momigliano ◽  
Laura Phillips ◽  
Michela Spataro ◽  
Nigel Meeks ◽  
Andrew Meek
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Art Gallery ◽  
History Of Collecting ◽  
History Of ◽  
Technological Study ◽  
Museum Study ◽  
The Town ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article presents the curatorial context of a newly discovered fragment of Minoan faience, now in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery (BCMAG), and the technological study conducted on this piece at the British Museum. It also discusses the British Museum study of comparable fragments, now in the Ashmolean Museum, belonging to the Town Mosaic from Knossos, an important and unique find brought to light during Sir Arthur Evans's excavations of the ‘Palace of Minos’ at the beginning of the twentieth century. Both the stylistic study and the analytical results suggest that the Bristol fragment is genuine, and most likely belonged to the Town Mosaic. The Bristol piece does not possess features that can advance our understanding of Crete in the Bronze Age, but its curious biography adds something to the history of collecting and the history of archaeology.

I.—Specimens from the Layton Collection, in Brentford Public Library

Archaeologia ◽  
1920 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reginald A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Public Library ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Advanced Age ◽  
Considerable Success ◽  
The Bronze Age

Mr. Thomas Layton died on 4th September 1911 at the advanced age of ninety-two years, having been a Fellow of this Society since 1868. He had contributed to the Bronze Age Exhibition at Somerset House in 1872, and in 1883 gave a remarkable Roman sword and sheath (fig. 25) to the British Museum; but otherwise his energies were devoted to collecting, unhappily with little method or discretion, and the task of carrying out the terms of his will was anything but a formality. Most of his antiquities came to light during dredging operations in the Thames at Kew, where he resided, and these were left to the Brentford Public Library as the nucleus of a Layton museum. The Librarian, Mr. F. A. Turner, has cleaned, sorted, and exhibited the specimens with infinite pains and considerable success; and it is to him and the Brentford Library Committee that we are indebted for the present exhibition and for permission to examine and describe the principal items of the collection.

scholarly journals Radiocarbon Results for the British Beakers

Radiocarbon ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 916-927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Ambers ◽  
Sheridan Bowman ◽  
Alex Gibson ◽  
Ian Kinnes
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
A Priori ◽  
British Museum ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Calendar Date ◽  
Relative Dating ◽  
The Social ◽  
Direct Association ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
The Bronze Age

The beginning of the Bronze Age in the British Isles has traditionally been marked by the appearance, in the archaeological record, of Beaker assemblages, mainly characterized by the Beaker pottery form itself. Ceramic typologies based on this style, which is undoubtedly continental in origin, have been used both for relative dating and as evidence of the social and economic developments of the period. Systematic radiocarbon dating has been attempted for the continental European Beaker material (Lanting, Mook & van der Waals 1973), but no such program has been carried out on British material. An examination of the existing radiocarbon results for the British Beakers showed many to be flawed in some way, particularly in the use of materials, such as mature wood, where there is no a priori reason for assuming a direct relationship between sample death and context. An attempt has been made at the British Museum to test the validity of archaeologically derived chronologies for the Beaker pottery of the British Isles. This involved analysis of a group of carefully selected human bone samples from Beaker burials, where there is a known direct association between ceramic usage and the cessation of carbon exchange. Twenty such samples have been identified and measured. The results presented here, combined with other previously produced determinations, show no obvious relationship between pottery style and calendar date of deposition.

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