1920 July-December

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCUSSIONS1

SUMMARIES OF ORIGINAL ARTICLES CHIEFLY IN CURRENT PUBLICATIONS

SIDNEY N. DEANE, Editor

Smith College, Northampton, Mass.

GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS

A Handbook of Archaeology for Travellers.-The British Museum has published a small handbook entitled How to Observe in Archaeology: Suggestions for Travellers in the Near and Middle East (London, 1920; 103 pp.; cuts). An introductory chapter by G. F. HILL is followed by a chapter on archaeological method by W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, describing the necessary material outfit for archaeological work, and dealing with methods of recording discoveries, drawing and copying, photography, etc. The other chapters give summary accounts of the kinds of antiquities which may be found in Greece (J. P. DROOP), Asia Minor (J. G. C. ANDERSON and J. L. MYRES), Cyprus (J. L. MYRES), Central and North Syria (D. G. HOGARTH), Palestine (R. A. S. MACALISTER), Egypt (W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE), and Mesopotamia (H. R. HALL). The illustrations are line drawings of types of pottery and other small antiquities, and tables of alphabets and hieroglyphs. An appendix gives the laws of the several countries of the Near East relating to the excavation and exportation of antiquities.

Classical Antiquities in the University of Pennsylvania Museum.—A recent number of Mus. J. (XI, 1920, pp. 3–50, 4 pls.) is devoted to a general description of the Mediterranean collections of the Museum, prepared by ELEANOR F. RAMBO. It includes descriptions of the Cretan and Cypriote antiquities, Greek and Italic vases, Etruscan pottery, bronzes, etc., ancient glass, classical sculptures, and reproductions of ancient art.

Antique Glass.-A brief discussion of the various kinds of antique glass and its uses is written by R. PARIBENI in Rass. d'Arte, VII, 1920, pp. 154-157 (8 figs.).

Bronze Harness-Ornaments.-In B. Soc. Ant. Fr. 1919, pp. 206-208, is a communication from GEORGES CUMONT regarding a series of puzzling objects of bronze published by A. Héron de Villefosse: sockets of bronze flanked by 1 The departments of Archaeological News and Discussions and of Bibliography of Archaeological Books are conducted by Professor DEANE, Editor-in-charge, assisted by Professor SAMUEL E. BASSETT, Professor C. N. BROWN, Miss MARY H. BUCKINGHAM, Dr. T. A. Buenger, Professor HAROLD R. HASTINGS, Professor ELMER T. MERRILL, Professor LEWIS B. PATON, Professor A. S. PEASE, Professor S. B. PLATNER, Professor JOHN C. ROLFE, Dr. JOHN SHAPLEY, Professor A. L. WHEELER and the Editors, especially Professor BATES.

No attempt is made to include in this number of the JOURNAL material published after December 31, 1920.

For an explanation of the abbreviations, see pp. 108-109.

two bronze rings. Franz Cumont and other scholars have thought that the two flanking rings were designed for the passage of reins. Georges Cumont objects that the rings show no sign of wear within; that they sometimes have lateral openings which would make them impracticable for the use suggested; and that they are often irregular in shape. He thinks the objects in question were simply ornaments of the harness, and compares with them a harnessornament which appears in old prints representing Neapolitan scenes of the early nineteenth century.

The Magic of Solomon.-In B. Com. Rom. XLVI, 1918, pp. 85-100, G. CALZA discusses the magic art of Solomon in the Graeco-Roman literary and artistic tradition.

Manuscripts Collected by Minoides Mynas.—In C. R. Acad. Insc. 1919, pp. 308-311, H. OMONT adds some notes to a former account of the discovery of Greek manuscripts at Mount Athos and in the Orient by Minoides Mynas, 1840-1855 (see Mém. Acad. Insc. XL, pp. 337-421). Through a recent gift the following manuscripts from Mynas' collection have been added to the Bibliothèque Nationale: (1) a fragment of the tenth century containing the maritime law of Rhodes; (2) a fifteenth century copy of the Epanagoge Aucta, a manual of Graeco-Roman or Byzantine law; (3) a diary of Mynas' visits to Mount Athos, with description of and transcripts from the manuscripts which he had examined.

The Origin of the Semitic Alphabet. In J.R.A.S. 1920, pp. 297–303, A. H. SAYCE discusses certain non-Egyptian graffiti discovered by Petrie at the traditional Sinai. The characters are Egyptian, but are not used with Egyptian values. They are usually written in vertical columns, and are read from right to left. Most of the phonetic values have been determined. They are the initial letters of the Semitic words that correspond to the Egyptian hieroglyphs. The use of the Egyptian hieroglyphs as alphabetic letters suggested to some Semitic genius the employment of them to represent the initial sounds of the Semitic words with which they corresponded. Naturally more than one hieroglyph could be employed for this purpose in the case of each letter, and accordingly we find at Sinai two different pictographs representing the letter l, while the South Arabian alphabet when compared with the Phoenician not only shows additional characters needed to express sounds that had been lost further north, but also variant forms of the same letter. These Sinaitic inscriptions probably belong to the period of the eighteenth dynasty. Silver in Prehistoric and Proto-Historic Times.-In Archaeologia, LXIX, 1920, pp. 121-160 (14 figs.) W. GOWLAND discusses the mining, smelting and general use of silver in early times. It is not found in Europe until the Bronze Age, and objects of silver are rare north of the Alps as late as the epoch of La Tène. In Babylonia it was in use as a monetary standard as early as Manishtusu of Kish (ca. 4500 B.C.). A silver vase dedicated by Entemena, king of Lagash, dates from the same period. In Egypt silver was still rare in the twelfth dynasty, though known in late prehistoric times. It was found in the First City at Troy, and in great abundance in the Second City, which is supposed to date from about 2500 to 2000 B.C. In Crete very little silver has been discovered, the earliest objects dating from Middle Minoan times. Many silver vessels were found in the shaft graves at Mycenae; one in Grave I was 2 ft. 6 in. high and 1 ft. 8 in. in diameter. The silver used at Mycenae, like

the early Hellenistic period; (6) a Roman child's head, in marble, the coiffure of which indicates the dedication of the child to Isis (Fig. 3).

Wooden Barrels of the Roman Period.-In R. Et. Anc. XXII, 1920, pp. 207-209 J. BREUER describes fragments of barrels found on the site of the colony of Olpia Noviomagus (Nymegen), in Holland, and gives a list of sites in Scotland, Germany, and Holland where other evidence of the Roman manufacture of barrels has been found.

Ritual Significance of Gestures.-In R. Hist. Rel. LXXX, 1919, pp. 30-85, W. DEONNA, maintaining that many attitudes of divine figures in late classical art which have usually been interpreted as genre motives are really of religious

panied by cosmic symbols, and is found in representations of those deities of whom Apollo and Aphrodite are the counterparts among the Greeks. Attitudes in which only one hand is raised are also found to have religious meaning and are common to Apollo and Aphrodite as luminary deities.

The Problem of Totemism.-In R. Hist. Rel. LXXX, 1919, pp. 86-153, 193-270, A. VAN GENNEP continues his studies on the nature and origin of totemism. In sections XXI-XXV he discusses totemism in Northern Africa in ancient and modern times, and its relation to totemism in other parts of Africa. In XXVI-XXX he deals with the general problem of totemism, with much reference to the beliefs of North American Indians, and gives a table of the several theories on this problem, followed by a brief exposition of his own view, which he describes as classificatoire, parentale, et territorialiste (sociale).

What Is Soma?-In J.R.A.S. 1920, pp. 349-351, E. B. HAVELL throws new light on the plant from which the soma, or sacred drink of the Vedas was manufactured. The Vedas state that the plant resembled cows' udders, that it was like the fingers of a man's hand, that it was tawny in color, and that it grew on the mountains. The Brahmanas state that dub and kusha grass might be substituted for it. In view of these facts it is probable that the soma plant was Eleusine coracana, or ragi, the common millet still used in the eastern Himalayas for making the intoxicating drink known as marua.

EGYPT

Egyptian Antiquities in the Museo Nazionale, Rome.—In Ausonia, IX, 1919, pp. 1-10 (pl.; 5 figs.) G. FARINA describes some Egyptian objects in the Museo Nazionale, including (1) the upper part of a statue in dark granite, representing a king of the Middle Empire; (2) a fragment of a granite relief, representing gods and religious ceremonies, Ptolemaic; (3) an anthropoid mummy-case, Ptolemaic; (4) a limestone capital, quadruple campaniform, Ptolemaic; (5) a fragment of a statuette of a seated lady, green granite, Ptolemaic; (6) a fragment of a statue of a kneeling figure, in serpentine, Roman date; (7) a statuette of a woman seated on a throne, basalt, Roman date; (8) a statuette of Bes, black basalt, Roman date; (9) a statue of a Pharaoh in black basalt, Roman date.

Egyptian Coinage of the Ptolemaic and Earlier Period.-In R. Ital. Num. XXXIII, 1920, pp. 5-70, A. SEGRE gives an account, dependent in large measure on the study of papyrus-documents, of the circulation and evaluation in Egypt and neighboring lands of Ptolemaic and pre-Ptolemaic coins. It is prefaced by a summary of the beginnings of coinage in the ancient world, and by a survey of actual Ptolemaic coins, the latter depending mainly on the well-known Greek work of Svoronos.

The Festival of Adonis.-In R. Êt. Gr. XXXIII, 1920, pp. 169-222, G. GLOTZ bases upon a fragmentary papyrus (Flinders Petrie Papyri, III, No. 142) and on Theocritus XV a detailed reconstruction of the program of the three days' festival of Adonis celebrated in Egypt under Ptolemy II. The cult of Adonis, organized in Alexandria by Arsinoe, was so successfully propagated by Philadelphus as a part of Egyptian religion that Adonis Osiris came to be regarded in late times as an Egyptian god imported into Phoenicia. The first day of the festival, the seventh of an unnamed month, was a day of joy, the one described by Theocritus; the second a day of mourning and abstinence; and the third a day of mysteries, in which the sacred pantomime of the resurrection of Adonis was performed at the deikterion.

A German Prophetess in Egypt.—An ostrakon from Elephantine, originally published by Dr. Schubart in Ber. Kunsts. XXXVIII, p. 328, is the subject of comment by T. REINACH in R. Ét. Anc. XXII, 1920, pp. 104-106. It contains the names of several officers and other functionaries attached to the staff of the prefect of Egypt. The most interesting of these is Baλoußoupy, described 28 Σήνονι σιβύλλα(ι). The reading should probably be Σέμνονι. The prophetess Walburg apparently belonged to the same nation in the region of the Elbe as Ganna, the German prophetess mentioned by Dio Cassius (LVII, 5, 3). Her name recalls the Walpurgisnacht.

The Gnomon of the Idios Logos.-In Ber. Kunsts. XLI, 1920, pp. 72-90 (fig.) W. SCHUBART describes an important papyrus, of which he has already published a scientific text (Der Gnomon des Idios Logos, I, Der Text, Berlin, 1919). This document gives in detail the regulations by which the Idios Logos, as a branch of the financial administration of Egypt under the Romans, was governed. A complete translation, together with a commentary on the historical significance of this papyrus, is given.