Antiquities Exhibits

The sarcophagus of Etruscan priest Laris Partunus found in the Tarquinian necropolis was produced in the late Classical Period.  This exquisite sarcophagus crafted of Parian marble is painted with scenes of the Amazonomachy.  The Greeks are shown in hoplite armor while the Amazons are wearing chitons. Surprisingly, the Amazons are depicted winning most of the paired battles instead of an equal number of victories as depicted on the Amazon sarcophagus also from Tarquinia. The Partunus sarcophagus also depicts blue-skinned demons, but unlike the fearsome blue demons seen in the Tomb of the Blue Demons, also in Tarquinia, these figures appear to be gently guiding an aristocratic lady to her family like Greek psychopomps,  creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife.  The painting on the long side of the sarcophagus depicts the execution of Trojan prisoners. They too are accom...

One of just a handful of “rattling cups” that survive from the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, this elegant black-glazed wine cup from the second half of the 4th century BCE is dedicated to Kastor and Polydeukes (Castor and Pollux), the twin sons of Zeus known as the Dioscouri, who protected sailors, horseman, and chariot racers. Since each brother split his time between Mt. Olympus and Hades, they were often represented by stars, depicted here beneath the cup’s rim.  The cup's ritual purpose is further indicated by a wreath, garlands, and bucrania  bucrania (skulls of sacrificial bulls) decorating the cup’s body. But, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the vessel is that lifting and swirling the cup as if drinking or making a libation (liquid offering) during a ceremony produces a rattling noise.  It was assumed the sound was made by loose pellets moving inside the rim but curators at the J. Paul Getty Museum were puzzled by the fact that sometimes they could hear two...

(condensed from the Master's thesis of Troy Joseph Nowak, Texas A&M University, 2006, "Archaeological Evidence for Ship Eyes: An Analysis of Their Form and Function  ( https://nautarch.tamu.edu/pdf-files/Nowak-MA2006.pdf#:~:text=bows%20of%20ancient%20Greek%20ships%20between%20the%205th,guided%20the%20ship%20and%20helped%20to%20avoid%20hazards .) Between the Bronze Age and the 3rd century BCE, all types of watercraft used in the Mediterranean from small boats to large galleys were commonly adorned with eyes on their bows.  In Greece, the earliest clear depiction of a ship with eyes is a Late Helladic clay ship model decorated with circular eyes discovered at Phylakopi, Melos. However, ship representations with eyes do not reappear in the archaeological record again until the Geometric Period.  Excavations in the Dipylon cemetery at Athens have yielded an impressive collection of Late Geometric I [c. 760 to 735 BCE] ceramics decorated with ships. Eyes adorn the bows of ...

Just as the eyes painted on ancient ships are thought to have possessed the ability to guide them, help them avoid hazards, and even serve an apotropaic purpose to counter human frailties such as envy, eyes adorning drinking cups (kylikes) in the second half of the sixth century BCE, especially in Athens and Chalkis, were also thought to have served an apotropaic function. Some eyes were “female”, i.e. almond-shaped and without tear-ducts, as well as male, and a stylized nose was often placed centrally between the eyes. Many of the vessels also frequently bear Dionysiac imagery. Eye-cups were painted by various painters, mostly in the black-figure style, but later also in the red-figure style. Some vessels were  bilingually painted with black-figure interior scenes and red-figure exterior scenes. Scholars have attributed this bilingual type and its specific decoration into Attic vase painting to Exekias who was active in Athens between 545 and 530 BCE.  Exekias is regarded by ...

Baby rattles go back at least 2500 years. Ancient rattles were made of various materials, including clay, wood, bronze, dried heads of poppy flowers, and pebbles. One of the oldest infant rattles in central Europe was found in Poland  in a grave of a baby who was a member of the early Iron Age Lusatian culture (1300 BCE – 500 BCE).  That hollow clay rattle was shaped like a pillow and was filled with little balls. It was found next to a tiny urn containing the cremated remains of the baby.   Children in ancient Greece and Rome would have been amused by mold-made rattles like those pictured here. In his Politics, Aristotle observed  that young children should be given a rattle (particularly one designed by Archytas) to keep them quiet.  Greek mold-produced terracottas began to appear in the archaeological record around the 7th-century BCE. These figures were formed by pressing wet clay into a two‑part mold to form a small sculpture in the round that can be s...