Antiquities Exhibits

Attic sarcophagus fragment depicting Kairos the god of opportunity at the Museum of Antiquities in Turin, Italy. In Greek mythology, Kairos (Caerus) was the personification of opportunity, luck and favorable moments. His Roman equivalent was Occasio or Tempus. He was shown with a forelock of hair but the back of his head was bald. It was said Kairos could easily be seized by the hair hanging over his face ("creeping down over  the eyebrows") when he is arriving but once he has passed by, no one can grasp him. Kairos was the youngest child of Zeus. It was assumed he would overthrow his father but instead, he became a lover of Fortuna. According to Pausanias, there was an altar of Kairos close to the entrance to the stadium at Olympia. A bronze statue of Kairos made by the famous Greek sculptor Lysippos also stood in the Agora of Hellenistic Sikyon. Image: Fragment of an Attic sarcophagus depicting the god Kairos dating from 160-180 CE, a Roman work after the origi...

Gladiator (Retiarius) by Pius Weloński in National Museum in Kraków, Poland.  Roman art and literature make no mention of retiarii until the early Imperial period.  This type of gladiator is absent from the copious gladiator-themed reliefs dating to the 1st century found at Chieti and Pompeii.  Nevertheless, graffiti and artifacts from Pompeii attest to the class's existence by this time.  Fights between retiarii and secutores probably became popular as early as the middle of the 1st century CE. By the 2nd or 3rd century CE, the net-fighter had become one of the standard gladiator categories and remained a staple attraction until the end of the gladiatorial games.   In addition to the man-versus-nature symbolism inherent in such bouts, with the retiarius representing a fisherman fighting a stylized fish represented by the secutor with his scaled armor, the lightly armored retiarius was also viewed as the effeminate counterpoint to his more manly, heavily...

Imperial Italic G Roman helmet found near Hebron at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. This distinctive Imperial Italic G-style helmet was a 2nd century development derived from the earlier Coolus-style helmets with a domed bowl fashioned after La Tène III helmet types. The original Coolus-style helmets were named after the city of Coolus in northeastern France where a helmet of the Coolus type was dredged from the River Marne. Ro man helmets were typically constructed of a copper alloy or bronze. Some were spun on a lathe rather than hammered into shape with a turned, cast-soldered or riveted crest knob. The brow-guard was designed to protect the front of the face from downward-slashing sword blows, just as the neck-guard was intended to deflect blows aimed at the nape of the neck and shoulders. The Hebron helmet is also constructed with post-Dacian Wars crossbars on the crown, thought to have been part of the original construction, as evidenced by the brass lunate decorations applie...

The Falling Gladiator by American artist William Rimmer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Although not ancient, this sculpture of a falling gladiator exquisitely reflects the anguish experienced by ancient warriors whose lives depended on not only their martial skills but their ability to impress the often-jaded Roman crowds in amphitheaters across the empire. It's sculptor, William Rimmer, was an American artist or iginally born in Liverpool, England before his father, a French refugee, immigrated to Nova Scotia. His father was a shoemaker and Rimmer learned his father's trade. At fifteen he also became a draughtsman and sign-painter. Rimmer eventually moved to Randolph, Massachusetts where he studied medicine and supplemented his income by carving busts from blocks of granite. He originally crafted his Falling Gladiator, like many of his other works, in clay without models or preliminary sketches, in 1861. Because of the medium he used, few of his works ...

Bronze camillus (acolyte), Roman, 14-54 CE, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. As soon as he took power, the emperor Augustus set in motion a program aimed at restoring the time-honored values of virtue, honor, and piety. Religious cults were revived, temples were built, public ceremonies and sacrifices filled the calendar. Men of every rank chose to be portrayed in the act of pious sacrifice. The popular type  of sculpture seen here showed young boys who served as acolytes at religious ceremonies. The identification of this figure as a camillus, an attendant at sacrifices who was chosen from the noblest families, is based on comparisons with other stages and reliefs, most notably those of the famous monument, the Ara Pacis of Augustus. According to Roman tradition, a camillus had to be below the age of puberty, and both parents must be alive. This statue may have been dedicated at a sanctuary by the boy’s parents, in recognition of his service to the gods. Alt...

Copper engraving of an ancient Roman lamp depicting the Capitoline triad as Juno and Minerva with Zeus represented as an eagle in one of the earliest publications to record findings at Herculaneum published in 1757. Printed in eight volumes, the Antichità di Ercolano shows objects from all the excavations the Bourbons undertook around the Gulf of Naples. These include Pompeii, Stabiae, and two sites in Herculaneum: Resina and Portici. The first four volumes depict paintings. The fifth volume, published in 1767, was devoted to bronze busts. Another volume on bronze statues was issued in 1771. Another volume on paintings came out in 1779 and the last volume, published in 1792, depicted lamps and candelabras. However, none of the volumes include depictions of marbles recovered from the site. Image: Elaborate eagle lamp from Herculaneum as sketched and printed in volume 8 of Le Antichità di Ercolano, 1757-1792 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Note: I thou...

Engraved horse pectoral from Roman Carnuntum, 1st century CE, at the Carnuntum Roman Museum in Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria. Carnuntum was a Roman legionary fortress (castrum legionarium) and headquarters of the Pannonian fleet from 50 CE. After the 1st century, it was capital of Pannonia Superior and grew to a city of 50,000 inhabitants. Its impressive remains are situated on the Danube in Lower Austria halfway between Vienna and Bratislava in the Carnuntum Archaeological Park. Carnuntum first appears in Roman history when Tiberius made it his base of operations in his campaigns against Maroboduus, a Romanized king of the Germanic Suebi in 6 CE. In 14 CE the town was selected as the garrison of Legio XV Apollinaris. From the 1st century BCE onward, most cavalry members came from provinces outside Italy and allied states and were classified as auxilia. Most Roman military awards were reserved for Roman citizens but auxilia cavalrymen received horse trappings for battlefi...

Roman pectoral with relief representations of the Capitoline Triad at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. The three deities who are most commonly referred to as the "Capitoline Triad" are Jupiter, the king of the gods; Juno (in her aspect as Iuno Regina, "Queen Juno"), his wife and sister; and Jupiter's daughter Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. This grouping of a male god and two goddesses was highly unusual in anci ent Indo-European religions, and is almost certainly derived from the Etruscan trio of Tinia, the supreme deity, Uni, his wife, and Menrva, their daughter and the goddess of wisdom. Jupiter, Juno and Minerva were honored in temples known as Capitolia, which were built on hills and other prominent areas in many cities in Italy and the provinces, particularly during the Augustan and Julio-Claudian periods. The earliest known example of a Capitolium outside of Italy was at Emporion (now Empúries, Spain). Although the word Capitolium could...

A Roman key with two opposing humanoid faces topped with the head of a boar at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. Portunus was the ancient Roman god of keys, doors, livestock and ports. He may have originally protected the warehouses where grain was stored, but later became associated with ports, perhaps because of folk associations between porta "gate, door" and portus "harbor", the "gateway" to the sea. Portunus' fes tival, celebrated on August 17, the sixteenth day before the Kalends of September, was the Portunalia, a minor occasion in the Roman year. On this day, keys were thrown into a fire for good luck in a very solemn and lugubrious manner. A temple of Portunus still stands in the Forum Boarium in Rome. Portunus appears to be closely related to the god Janus, with whom he shares many characters, functions and the symbol of the key. He too was represented as a two headed being, with each head facing opposite directions, on coin...

Tritoness Relief Applique, Bronze with copper inlays, Greek, late 2nd century B.C.E. at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. Greek pottery depicting a half-human, half-fish being became popular in the 6th century BCE. The original sea god, Triton, was the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite according to Hesiod's Theogony. Triton is usually represented as a merman, with the upper body of a human and the tailed lower bod y of a fish. At some time during the Greek and Roman era, Triton(s) became a generic term for a merman (mermen) in art and literature. A female version (tritoness) was eventually introduced as well. After observing the body of a creature touted as a headless Triton in Rome, Pausanias described it in detail in the 2nd century CE. "The Tritons have the following appearance. On their heads they grow hair like that of marsh frogs not only in color, but also in the impossibility of separating one hair from another. The rest of their body is rough with ...

Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara, January 30 - May 10, 2020 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. From the first millennium, the western Sahel—a vast region in Africa just south of the Sahara Desert that spans what is today Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger—was the birthplace of a succession of influential polities. Fueled by a network of global trade routes extending across the region, the emp ires of Ghana (300–1200), Mali (1230–1600), Songhay (1464–1591), and Segu (1640–1861) cultivated an enormously rich material culture. Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara will be the first exhibition of its kind to trace the legacy of those mighty states and what they produced in the visual arts. The presentation will bring into focus transformative developments—such as the rise and fall of political dynasties, and the arrival of Islam—through some two hundred objects, including sculptures in wood, stone, fired clay, and bronze; objects in gol...

Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt explores both the mysteries and the vibrant everyday life of a society that intrigues both expert and armchair archaeologists. The anthropological approach to ancient Egyptian culture sets this hall apart from the exhibitions of Egyptian antiquities usually found in art museums. Six themes guided the  design of the hall—World View, Cultural Evolution and History, Nautical Tradition, Social Organization, Daily Life, and Funerary Religion. More than 600 artifacts, most of which belonged to "middle-class" Egyptians, are used to illustrate each theme. Objects include ceramic and stone vessels, jewelry, stelae and relief fragments, tools, and more. Image courtesy of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Egyptian bronze razor and knife at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. Although shaving dates back to prehistory, the use of metal blades for shaving has been evidenced as far back as about 3,000 B.C.E. with the discovery of copper razors. In ancient Egypt, depilation was commonly practiced with the use of a sticky sugar compound, pumice stones, tweezers and razors. In ancient Greece, the removal of body  and pubic hair may have been practiced among both men and women as some red figure pottery depicts both men and women without body or pubic hair. The Roman emperor Augustus was said, by Suetonius, to have applied "hot nutshells" on his legs as a form of depilation. Image: Bronze razor, Egypt, Late Period, 525-343 BCE, 27th-30th dynasties, at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California courtesy of the museum.

Animorphic terracotta vessels probably used to feed infants at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in Houston, Texas.  Although not currently on view, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston has several excellent examples of animorphic terracotta vessels that were probably used to feed infants in the fourth to third centuries BCE in Apulia, a Greek colony in southern Italy. According to Greek mythology,  Cronus, Zeus’ father, used to swallow all of his children immediately after birth so Rhea, Zeus’ mother, deceived Cronus by giving him a stone wrapped to look like a baby.  Then she sent Zeus to a goat-shaped nymph called Amalthea to be nursed.  Perhaps this myth was the reason ancient spouted vessels used to feed infants, like those in the museum's collection, were often shaped like animals.  Recent studies conducted on the residue found in Bronze and Iron Age spouted animorphic vessels unearthed from infant burial grounds in southeast Germany also revealed the impo...

Bronze Hellenistic portrait of Antigonos Doson, one of Alexander the Great's diadochi (successors) at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas. Larger-than-life-size Greek bronze statues were focal points of temples and important public places. Unfortunately, few ancient statues have survived in complete form. Distinguishing attributes and characteristics are often missing, so coins of the period are an important source for iden tifying gods, royalty, and important persons. The identity of this Hellenistic bronze portrait head, dated between 227-221 BCE, was unclear until an exceptionally fine tetradrachm--an ancient Greek silver coin worth four drachma--minted during the reign of Macedonian king Antigonos Doson (227–221 BCE), was obtained by the museum. Coins featuring Antigonos Doson portray him as Poseidon, god of the sea--a reference to his reestablishment of Macedonia's supremacy over the sea. The bronze head and silver coin both have fine facial bone structure, deep-set...

“From Homer’s World: Tenos and the Cyclades in the Mycenaean Age” now open at the new Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece. A total of 151 artifacts including finds from the Mycenaean tholos tomb at Agia Thekla excavated by Georgios Despinis in 1979. The burial place of an aristocratic clan, the tomb of Aghia Thekla (13th-12th century BCE) was used for multiple burials. Other finds on display include prehistoric sites from the islands of Naxos, Delos, Paros, Milos, Sifnos and Kea. Among these, is the “Kyra of Fylakopi” (approximately mid-14th century BCE), one of the masterpieces of Mycenaean figurine sculpture found at the sanctuary of Fylakopi on the island of Milos. Image: Mycenaean warrior wearing the distinctive boar's tusk helmet, Ivory. Image courtesy of Eurokinissi. https://www.thenationalherald.com/273856/archaeological-exhibition-on-the-myceanean-era-cyclades-islands-to-ppen-in-athens/

Egyptian Art at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Penn Museum houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian and Nubian material in the United States, numbering in excess of 42,000 items. Assembled through nearly a century of archaeological research, this collection is unusual in that the vast majority of the objects were obtained through archaeological inv estigations in Egypt and entered the Museum through a division of finds with Egypt's Antiquities Service. Because the Museum has worked at a wide range of sites (provincial and royal cemeteries, palaces, temples, towns, sanctuaries and settlements), the collection spans ancient Egypt's entire history, from the Predynastic Period (circa 4000 BCE) through the Greco-Roman Period and into the Coptic Period (ending in the 7th century CE). It also includes a large number of material categories, such as architecture, statuary, minor arts, domestic artifacts,...

Treasures of the Spanish World through January 19, 2020 at the Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. Explore the cultures of the Spanish world across four millennia through some of the finest artworks from the Iberian Peninsula and Spanish America. Over 200 works of art and historical documents come to us from the premier collection of Hispanic arts and culture in the United States, the Hispanic Society of America in New Y ork City. Treasures of the Spanish World features artifacts from Roman Spain, decorative arts and manuscripts from Islamic Spain, paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and works on paper from Medieval, Golden Age, and eighteenth-century Spain, and from Central and South America under Spanish rule, and nineteenth and early twentieth-century Spanish paintings. From Copper Age ceramics, medieval metalwork, Renaissance sculpture and portraits by Velázquez and Goya, to Mexican featherwork mosaics, Colombian lacquerware, rare early maps of the Americas and the...

Italic disc with mythological relief that possibly served as a shield boss at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri. Today's artifact is another interesting piece from the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum. A bronze disc with a relief depicting mythological creatures and stylized human figures thought to be a shield boss from the 7th to early 6th century BCE Italic people of Tuscany near the settlement of V etulonia, formerly the Etruscan city of Vatluna. The city was part of the Etruscan League of twelve cities that opposed Rome in the 7th century B.C.E. According to Silius Italicus, the Romans adopted their magisterial insignia, the Lictors' rods and fasces and the curule seat, from Vetulonium (its Roman name). In 1898, a tomb in the necropolis was discovered with a bundle of iron rods with a double-headed axe in the centre, and soon afterwards, a grave stela inscribed for Avele Feluske was discovered, on which the fasces were pictured. The city...

Archaic period Greek helmet with ram's head, 525-500 BCE at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri. This bronze Archaic Period helmet with a ram's head was excavated in Metaponto (ancient Metapontum) in the southern region of Italy known as Magna Graecia. The size of its decorative element indicates it was probably worn for ceremonial purposes rather than in actual combat. It was made by hammering a single sheet  of bronze, which makes it extremely light and unsuitable as actual armor. Additional decoration was added using a series of common metalworking techniques such as repoussée, punching, tracing, and engraving. The ram’s head on top, whose horns, ears, and eyes have been restored, is mirrored by the attached ram’s head cheek pieces. The selection of the ram to adorn a military-style helmet is fitting since the animals have a double-layered skull which helps protect them from injury. Image courtesy of the museum.