Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 25 - A-AUS.pdf/622

 572

ARCHEOLOGY

external conditions of ancient life, Pompeii is still by far the most useful site. The recent book on Pompeii by Mau, translated by Kelsey, is by a writer who has an unequalled knowledge of the site ; and the more ambitious work of C. Weichardt (Pompei vor der Zerstoerung) brings before the reader’s eyes, by means of skilled restorations, the actual state of Pompeii before its sudden destruction. We propose next to treat briefly of the advances made by recent discovery in our knowledge of Greek and Roman monuments and art, dividing our account into the same periods which Mr Murray has adopted in his article, Classical Archeology, in the ninth edition of this Encyclopaedia.1 The periods accepted are the following :—I. 900-700 b.c. II. 700-480 b.c. III. 480-400 b.c. IY. 400320 b.c. Y. After 320 b.c. Period I. 900-700 b.c. In Mr. A. S. Murray’s earlier article the art of the later prehistoric age of Greece, now usually called the Mycenaean age, is included with that of historic Greece, to which indeed it naturally serves as an introduction. But for our present purposes the art of Mycenae is reserved for separate treatment (see Mycenean Civilization). We have therefore to deal only with the art which succeeded that called Mycenaean, beginning about the year 900 B.c. The fact is now generally allowed that the Mycenaean civilization was for the most part destroyed by an invasion from the north. This invasion appears to be that invasion ca^e(i in Greek tradition the Dorian immigration. Archaeological evidence abundantly proves that it was the conquest of a more by a less rich and civilized race. In the graves of the period 900-700 B.c. we find none of the wealthy spoil which has made celebrated the tombs of Mycenae and Baphion (Vaphio). The character of the pottery and the bronze-work which is found in these later graves reminds us of the art of the necropolis of Hallstadt in Austria, and other sites belonging to what is called the bronze age of North Europe. Its predominant characteristic is the use of geometrical forms, the lozenge, the triangle, the maeander, the circle with tangents, in place of the elaborate spirals and plant-forms which mark Mycenaean ware. For this reason the period from the 9th to the 7th century in Greece passes by the name of “the Geometric Age.” It would seem that in the remains of the Geometric Age we may trace the influence of the Dorians, who, coming in as a hardy but uncultivated race, probably of purer Aryan blood than the previous inhabitants of Greece, not only brought to an end the wealth and the luxury which marked the Mycenaean age, but also replaced an art which was in character essentially Oriental by one which belonged rather to the North and the West. The great difficulty inherent in this view, a difficulty which has yet to be met, lies in the fact that some of the most abundant and characteristic remains of the geometric age which we possess come, not from Peloponnesus, but from Athens and Boeotia, which were never conquered by the Dorians. The geometric ware is for the most part adorned with painted patterns only. We engrave (Fig. l)a characteristic example, a small two-handled vase from Rhodes < vare.etr‘C 111 Ashmolean Museum, the adornment of which consists in zigzags, circles with tangents, and lines of water-birds, perhaps swans. Other geometric vases will be found in Ency. Brit. vol. xix. p. 607, Fig. 16. Sometimes, however, especially in the case of large vases 1 It is not to be supposed that the present writer agrees with all the views set forth by Mr Murray in that article ; on many of the subjects of which he treats scholars will always differ among themselves.

(CLASSICAL) from the cemetery at Athens which adjoins the Dipylon gate, scenes from Greek life are depicted, from daily life, not from legend or divine myth. Especially scenes from the lying in state and the burial of the dead are prevalent. We engrave an excerpt from a Dipylon vase (Fig. 2); in which is seen a dead man on his couch surrounded by

Fig. 1.—Geometric vase from Rhodes. Ashmolean Museum. mourners, male and female. Both sexes are apparently represented naked, and are distinguished very simply; some of them hold branches to sprinkle the corpse or to keep away flies. It will be seen how primitive and conventional is the drawing of this age, presenting a wonderful contrast to the free drawing and realistic modelling of the Mycenaean age. In the same graves with the pottery are

sometimes found plaques of gold or bronze, and towards the end of the geometric age these sometimes bear scenes from mythology, treated with the greatest simplicity. For example, in the museum of Berlin are the contents of a tomb found at Corinth, consisting mainly of gold work of geometric character. But in the same tomb were also found gold plates or plaques of repousse work bearing sub-

jects from Greek legend. Two of these (Fig. 3) we engrave. On one plate Theseus is slaying the Minotaur, while Ariadne stands by and encourages the hero. The tale could not have been told in a simpler or more straightforward way. On another plate we have an armed warrior with his charioteer in a chariot drawn by two horses. The