Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/133

 CONDITIONS AND MATERIALS. 1 1 1 mines, in the neighbourhood of Tam- assos ; but figures cast in this metal are exposed to so many risks that but few notable specimens have come down to us. There is reason to believe, however, that finds of this kind have yet to be made in Cyprus, and the time is now past when treasures before which the archaeologist would drop on his knees, were destroyed through fear or ignorance. During the summer heats of 1836, near the ancient Tamassos, between the two villages of Episcopion and Pera, some men were sinking a pit in the dry bed of a torrent, in hopes of reaching the water which might still be running beneath the stones, when at a depth of a few feet their tools encountered metal. The neighbours collected, and at the end of a few hours a perfectly well-preserved bronze statue was disinterred. It was either life-size or a little above it. A German traveller, Ludwig Ross, who visited the island in 1845, tried to find out as much about it as he could, and from answers to his questions it would seem that the figure was that of a nude man, in a pose much like that of several ancient Apollos, the Apollo of Teneus for instance and that of Thera. The left leg was advanced, the arms hung beside the body. Whether it was a product of Phoenician or of archaic Greek art it is impossible to decide from Ross's scanty evi- dence ; but in any case a bronze of such a size coming down from a time which has left us nothing else of the kind, would have been of inestimable value FIG. 74. Limestone statue. Height 5 feet 10 inches. Metropolitan Museum of New York.