Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/32

 ' A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.v.a. large ball. Speculation has been rife in respect to this device, which has been too hastily thought to be identical with the helmets of Sardinian bronzes furnished with similar appendages (Fig. 5). Arguing from this apparent similarity of names and dress, the conclusion, it was confidently asserted, was irresistible that objects of Egyptian form and workmanship found in Sardinian tombs, had all been brought there by the Shardana on their return home after their long and bloody struggles in Lower Egypt. 1 Hence the enamelled pottery, amulets, and small Egyptian idols which had caused much astonishment at being met with so far removed from the banks of the Nile, were triumphantly held up as part of f>$J JÈ the spoil which the vanquished invaders had brought from their expedition. This theory could not stand the test of criti- cism ; and in the present day archaeologists perfectly agree in ascribing a Phoenician origin to the bulk of small monuments bearing Egyp- tian characteristics, brought to light in the né- cropoles of Sardinia ; whilst in the estimation of Egyptologists, those of superior make and un- doubted Egyptian creation, are not earlier than the twenty-sixth dynasty. Consequently the importation of these objects to the west, in- cluding Sardinia, cannot have been the result of the strife that occurred under the Theban princes five or six hundred years before. When monuments of like nature were unearthed in Palestine, at Tarquinia in Etruria, and Caere in Latium, it was urged that traders from Tyre or Carthage had imported these curios and scattered them wherever they went, along with their own products. If this explanation is allowed for Italy, why should it be inade- quate when applied to Sardinia ? In our opinion, the reasons put forth to identify the Shardana and the Sardi as one and the same people deserve no better consideration. The helmets seen on Sardinian figures have been placed on the same lines as those of the Shardana ; but closer inspection will show that divergence 1 Chabas, Recherches, pp. 300 and following. Lieblein, Notes on Egyptian Monuments found in Sardinia. Christiana, 1879. Spano adopted the same view some years before he died (Pais, Le Popolazioni Egizie, p. 7). Fig. 5. — Statuette re- covered at Patria, Cagliari Museum. Height, 15 c. From Wallet.