Academic literature on the topic 'Male terracotta figurines'

AbstractA terracotta figurine depicting Athena Parthenos, which is in the collections of the University of Liverpool and previously dated to the Roman period, is argued to have been made in the 19th century. The premise is based on the object’s close stylistic similarities to 19th-century terracotta figurines in collections in Manchester and Geneva, leading to the conclusion that all three were made from the same mould, and accordingly are of the same date. The note also considers possible reasons for the manufacture of this series of terracotta figurines depicting Athena Parthenos.

Abstract This paper concerns a collection of rough-hewn flat stelae excavated from the precinct of Zeus Meilichios in Selinus, Sicily between 1915 and 1926, a majority with two heads or busts, one male and one female, carved at their tops. These crudely fashioned idols are unique in their iconography. They combine the flat inscribed Punic stela with the Greek figural tradition, with some indigenous features. Their meaning is totally obscure – especially since they lack any literary reference. No comparable monuments have been found in ancient Mediterranean cult. The twin stelae were often set up above a collection of burnt rodent and bird bones, ashes, lamps, broken and burnt pottery and terracotta figurines, as a memorial of a sacrifice. The stelae were the objects of a gentilicial cult, similar to that posited for the inscribed “Meilichios stones” with which they shared the Field of Stelae of Zeus Meilichios. The theory advanced here interprets these diminutive stelae (average height 30 cm) as the objects of domestic cult. It was customary in many parts of the ancient Mediterranean, from the Bronze Age down to the Roman period, to venerate household or family gods who protected the health and the wealth of the family. They were thought to embody the spirits of the ancestors and could at times be identified with the gods of the state religion. This divine couple whose effigies were dedicated in the Field of Stelae over a period of four centuries, into the third century, cannot be claimed as Greek or Punic deities. What these nameless protectors of the family were called we cannot say: Meilichios and Meilichia, Father and Mother, or Lord and Lady of the household? As the objects of such a personal domestic cult, their names might have differed with each family.

A terracotta Minoan figurine of a horned beetle from the Peak Sanctuary on Mt Prinias is discussed. It is shown to be a rhyton, and presumably made for cult purposes. The reasons for offerings of such beetles is investigated, and the connection with Egyptian scarabs is raised.

Opening ParagraphAssongu are small terracotta figurines, sculpted to represent a spirit force which originated on, and is said to emanate from, an island in the Aby Lagoon of southeastern Ivory Coast. The sculptures are called ‘fetish’ figures by the people who make and use them. They are material representations of the powerful spirit force called Assongu (which I write with an upper-case A for clarity), which is propitiated by offerings presented to the sculptures. The tradition exists among the Eotilé, the Anyi of Sanwi, the Abure and the Nzema, all of whom live around the Aby Lagoon (see map).

Two museums in the city of Liverpool have material from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, Sparta: the Garstang Museum of Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and World Museum, part of National Museums Liverpool.The artefacts from the Artemis Orthia sanctuary which are now in the collections in Liverpool represent all periods of the use of the sanctuary, between the eighth century bc and the third century ad. They comprise lead figurines and miniature vessels, both characteristic of Laconian sites, as well as other types of pottery and terracotta figurines. Large and more extravagant offerings, such as items made from ivory or bronze, are not represented. However, the range of artefacts, particularly lead figurines, is impressive, and complements the material from the sanctuary which has already been published, primarily in the volume edited by Dawkins and published in 1929. In addition, the collections include a few objects of exceptional interest, mentioned in the article with further details in the Appendix. A full listing of votive offerings from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Liverpool collections complements the article.

The excavations and surface surveys carried out in Eastern Thrace as well as the Southern Marmara region over the past few years have made much headway in filling the substantial gaps still existing in the cultural sequence of the region. Although the field data are far from complete, the results of this research help us to reconstruct the prehistory of the region and to gain a better understanding of the relations between the Balkan and Anatolian prehistoric sequences.The network of cultural exchange between Anatolia and Southeast Europe during the fifth and fourth millennia B.C. may be demonstrated by examining some major artifact types, such as pottery forms, terracotta figurines, bone spoons, etc. (cf. Thissen 1993a, 302–3, Özdoğan 1993, 179–81). In pottery the similarities between Anatolia and Southeast Europe are especially apparent in types of decoration, also to some extent in the repertoire of shapes (not all shapes are similar) and method of manufacture.During our investigations in the province of Edirne, Eastern Thrace, were recovered mat white-painted sherds of Anatolian and Aegean type which help to fill the gaps in our knowledge between Anatolian and Balkan prehistoric sequences.

The marketisation of heritage has been a major topic of interest among heritage specialists studying how the online marketplace shapes sales. Missing from that debate is a large-scale analysis seeking to understand market trends on popular selling platforms such as eBay. Sites such as eBay can inform what heritage items are of interest to the wider public, and thus what is potentially of greater cultural value, while also demonstrating monetary value trends. To better understand the sale of heritage on eBay’s international site, this work applies named entity recognition using conditional random fields, a method within natural language processing, and word dictionaries that inform on market trends. The methods demonstrate how Western markets, particularly the US and UK, have dominated sales for different cultures. Roman, Egyptian, Viking (Norse/Dane) and Near East objects are sold the most. Surprisingly, Cyprus and Egypt, two countries with relatively strict prohibition against the sale of heritage items, make the top 10 selling countries on eBay. Objects such as jewellery, statues and figurines, and religious items sell in relatively greater numbers, while masks and vessels (e.g. vases) sell at generally higher prices. Metal, stone and terracotta are commonly sold materials. More rare materials, such as those made of ivory, papyrus or wood, have relatively higher prices. Few sellers dominate the market, where in some months 40% of sales are controlled by the top 10 sellers. The tool used for the study is freely provided, demonstrating benefits in an automated approach to understanding sale trends.

In the present “Reply …” we discuss a correction of the thermoluminescence (TL) age limits of an apparently Roman terracotta head found in Mexico (Hristov and Genovés 1999), as well two recent objections to the reliability of the find: (1) that the artifact may have been imported to the New World after A.D. 1492; and (2) that the head was “planted” at the archaeological site during the excavation. The corrected TL age limits oscillate from 2870 B.P. to 730 B.P. (cal. 875 B.C.–A.D. 1265), which excludes the possibility of Colonial manufacture of the artifact and makes the hypothesis of its Roman origin and importation into Mesoamerica applicable. However, an examination of the political and economic relationships between the Aztecs and the Matlatzincas, as well as the circumstances of the discovery, make highly unlikely the suggestion of post-Columbian importation of the artifact into Mesoamerica (and especially into the Central Mexican Highlands), and of the “planting” of the figurine at the archaeological site. Finally, we summarize some recent finds of Berber, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Roman objects and inscriptions in the Canary archipelago that strongly support the possibility of a few sporadic, perhaps accidental, transatlantic voyages from the Mediterranean to Mesoamerica in antiquity.

AbstractHistorical generalizations are invariably shaped by modern cultural values. One of the dominant values of modern Western culture is individualism, the origins of which tend to be claimed by historians for their own domains of research, with examples extending from sixth-century B.C. Greece through modern Europe. The generalization about a Hellenistic period of history, first made in the nineteenth-century, clearly reflects this value of individualism which became, consequently, part of the scholarly convention about the culture of this period. With reference to the thought, religious practice, and material culture of the period, this article argues to the contrary that neither Hellenistic idea nor ideal can be held to value in any way an individualistic view of the self. Alexander the Great and the Athenian general Alcibiades were typical examples of individualism taken to task by philosophers. Hellenistic ethics seem, rather, to have been dominated by a social principle of "Socratic care". Similarly, Hellenistic religions, including the early Christian associations, defined their raison d'être on the basis of distinctive social claims. One Christian tradition even explicitly employed the Hellenistic ethical principle of "Socratic care" as its distinctive criterion. Finally, the well-known Hellenistic terracotta figurines, often adduced as examples of Hellenistic individualism, were, in fact, mass-produced and were employed in ritual, i.e., collective, contexts. Whereas the socio-political transformations that characterize Hellenistic culture did challenge traditional collective bases for identity, the intellectual, religious and artistic expressions of this culture all confirm an anti-individualistic character for the alternative social strategies of identity produced during this period.

AbstractThe sanctuary known as Beregovoï-4 is situated on the Taman Peninsula (Kerch Strait between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea), 5 km north-west of the ancientpolisof Patraios.The large amount of terracotta figurines and other sacral objects, in conjunction with the absence of any groups of buildings, testifies clearly to the fact that this archaeological site was a sanctuary. The contexts of the finds are extremely significant – there are simple altars –escharae– made from stones and mud bricks, burnt places, sometimes covered with sea grass and containing numerous pits filled with charcoal and ash, situated in the north-west corner of the site.All the lamps originated from the upper level, which can be dated to a period from the 4thto the first quarter of the 1stcentury BC. There is a complete absence of lamps in the earliest levels of this sanctuary (late-6thto the first half of the 5thcentury BC).Most lamps have several tiers (ranging from 2 to 6/7) and several nozzles. They were never used for lighting (the nozzles very often do not even have holes connecting them to the oil reservoir). Small pieces predominate among the several hundred fragments of these lamps found at the sanctuary. Their state of preservation makes it clear that they must have been broken deliberately during rituals (most probably at the end of the latter). Almost complete lamps (broken into large pieces) were found in the upper level, in the turf.Highly significant for our purposes is the fact that multi-nozzle lamps of a similar shape have been recorded at the sanctuary on Mount Maïskaya situated not far from Phanagoria – the largestpolisof the Asiatic Bosporus. A remarkable parallel for our lamps originated from the sanctuary of Demeter at Selinunt in Sicily, where many types of multi-nozzle lamps were found. Dozens of other parallels originated from the territory of Sicily, Italy and Greece, where broken multi-nozzle lamps, often without any traces of burning, have been found at sanctuaries of Demeter and Persephone.

Pourquoi les figurines masculines ? Parce que les archéologues spécialistes des terres cuites ont ciblé d’une façon générale les figurines zoomorphes et, parmi les figurines anthropomorphes, les représentations de femmes. On ne trouve jusqu’à maintenant aucun catalogue exhaustif et détaillé des figurines masculines en terre cuite. Dans ce vaste champ d’investigation, j’ai sélectionné deux périodes. La préhistoire, pour remonter aux origines et réfléchir sur la création des figurines masculines en terre cuite. Et les âges du Bronze, période faste s’il en est pour ce type de production. Cette thèse porte donc sur l'étude des figurines masculines en terre cuite(figurinesmodelées, moulées, et moule). L’objectif de cette étude est de faire un corpus de figurines masculines en terre cuite, car il n’en existe pas de corpus satisfaisant, de les classifier, de les analyser techniquement, artistiquement, et de les interpréter, et enfin de publier les figurines inédites conservées au musée du Louvre. Les problématiques sont les suivantes : les figurines étaient-elles utilisées comme jouets, comme éléments décoratifs ou comme amulettes ? Doivent-elles être mises en rapport avec des coutumes ou des rites religieux ? Comment peut-on interpréter la découverte defigurines masculines dans des temples, dans des tombes et dans les maisons ? Quelle que soit la technique qui leur a permis de se répandre, la question générale est toujours la même : à quelle fin l’artisan ou l’usager les destinait-il ?Les réponses pourront varier en fonction de la chronologie, puisque le sujet couvre une très longue période ; en fonction des lieux et des contextes archéologiques, et aussi bien sûr en fonction de la typologie, car les figures masculines peuvent présenter différentes attitudes (assises/debout), différents gestes, différents types de vêtements, d’attributs (en particulier des armes). Les chercheurs ont proposé une grande variété d’hypothèses, parfois sur la base de comparaisons ethnographiques, ou d’un rapprochement avec les traditions littéraires ou artistiques. Sans aucun doute, quel que soit le rôle de ces figurines, elles ont été considérées comme des objets importants dans la vie quotidienne au cours de l'époque néolithique, comme la poterie, les outils de pierre et d'autres objets « utilitaires », et des objets importants, notamment dans les activités religieuses et magiques, au cours de l’âge du Bronze.Le plan est le suivant : typologie et répartition régionale, matériau et techniques de fabrication (modelage et moulage), spécificités des figurines masculines, contexte archéologique et fonctions plausibles, avec l’apport de l’iconographie
Why male figurines? Because archaeologists specializing in terracotta have generally targeted zoomorphic figurines and, among anthropomorphic figurines, representations of women. Until now, there is no exhaustive and detailed catalog of terracotta male models. In this vast field of investigation, I have selected two periods : Prehistory, to go back to the origins and think about the creation of terracotta male figurines, and the Bronze Age, the apogee time for this type of production. This thesis deals so with the study of terracotta male figurines (modeled figurines, molded figures and molds). The objective of this study is to make a corpus of terracotta male figurines, because there is no satisfactory body of work, to classify them, to analyze them technically, artistically, and to interpret them, and finally publishing the unpublished figures preserved in the Louvre Museum.The research problems are the following : the figurines were used as toys, as decorative elements in homes, or as amulets? Should they be related to religious customs or rites? How can one interpret the discovery of male figurines in temples? in tombs and houses, whatever thetechnique that has allowed them to spread, the general question is always the same : for what purpose did the craftsman or the user make them? The answers vary according to the chronology, since the subject covers a very long period. According to the places and archaeological contexts and of course depending on the typology, because male figures may have different positions (sitting/standing), different gestures, different types of clothing, attributes (especially weapons). Researchers have proposed a wide variety of choices, sometimes on a hypothetical basis, ethnographic comparisons, and reconciliation with literary, artistic or funerary traditions. Undoubtedly, whatever the role of these figurines, they were considered important objects in everyday life during the Neolithic period, such as pottery, stone tools and other "utilitarian" objects, and important objects, especially in religious and magical activities, during the Bronze Age

This chapter explores the figurine traditions of the Bronze Age inhabitants of Crete (Minoan) and mainland Greece (Myceanean), covering c.3000–1100 bc. As in many cultures, Aegean figurines are predominantly made from terracotta or fired clay, but stone, ivory and bone, metal, and faience are also utilized. Early Minoan ‘vessel figurines’ and the votive figurines deposited on Middle Minoan Cretan peak sanctuaries in large numbers are presented as case studies for the Minoan terracotta tradition. The faience ‘Snake Goddesses’ and bronze figurines illustrate elite traditions and Minoan technical virtuosity. Restricted largely to the Late Bronze Age, Mycenaean terracottas can be characterized as figurines and figures. The former are small, handmade, and found across a range of contexts, while the latter have wheel-made bodies and are mostly restricted to sanctuaries. Discussion is framed around form, function, performance, and context, while keeping in mind issues of gender and identification.

Figurines of the Indus Civilization (c.2600–1900 BC) provide unique insights into technological, social, and ideological aspects of this early urban society. The Indus script has not yet been deciphered, so figurines provide one of the most direct means to understand social diversity through ornament and dress styles, gender depictions, and various ritual traditions. This chapter focuses on figurines from the site of Harappa, Pakistan, with comparative examples from other sites excavated in both India and Pakistan. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic terracotta figurines, and special forms with moveable components or representing composite or fantastic creatures, are found at most sites of the Indus Civilization, with rare examples of figurines made of bronze, stone, faience, or shell. The raw materials and technologies used to make figurines are discussed, along with the archaeological contexts in which they have been discovered. These figurines provide an important line of evidence regarding Indus society and religion.