1,800-year-old headless Greek Statue found at Turkey’s Metropolis site

In the ancient Greek classical city of Metropolis, located in western Turkey, archaeologists have unearthed an 1,800-year-old marble robed statue of a headless woman. 

Despite missing its head and both arms, the rest of the statue is well-preserved and depicts a woman wearing flowing draped clothing.

The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Department of Excavation and Celal Bayar University have been jointly studying the ancient city for years.

Known as the “Mother Goddess City,” Metropolis was located 28 miles from the ancient port city of Ephesus and 25 miles from the modern Turkish city of Izmir.

To date, archaeologists working at the site have unearthed artifacts and structures from the classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods. Finds include a Roman palaestra (wrestling hall), mosaics, ceramics, a council building and a columned gallery.

Metropolis was built in the third century BC, when the region was under the control of the Seleucid Empire. It reached its golden age during the Hellenistic period and served as a center of religious power during the Byzantine Period.

Excavations at Metropolis have been ongoing since 1990, according to the Sabanci Foundation, a philanthropic group that has supported the work.

One of the most prominent features of the ancient city is a Hellenistic theater dated to the third century BC. Roman-era structures discovered during digs include a sports complex, homes, shops, baths, a public toilet, streets and roads.

Earlier this year, archaeologists working at the Metropolis site also announced the discovery of huge cisterns dated to the late Roman or early Byzantine period (around 284 to 750 AD).

Capable of holding a total of around 600 tons of water, the cisterns probably supplied water to a bathhouse in the city and met Metropolis’ overall need for water when it was subjected to sieges that made other sources unavailable.

Many of these finds are now on display at the Izmir Art and History Museum, Izmir Archaeology Museum and Selcuk Efes Museum.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine.

Pottery Shard May Show Missing Link to First Written Alphabet

By Patricia Claus

Early writing found on a 3,500-year-old pottery shard in Israel may represent the “missing link” in the development of the first alphabet, according to researchers who published their findings recently in Smithsonian magazine.

The inscription, which has been under study since it was first unearthed in 2018, makes researchers think that it means that a standardized script — essential in any true alphabet — arrived in Canaan earlier than previously thought.

The letters used resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs – but they are not true hieroglyphs.

The letters are now believed to be the very oldest writing ever recorded in the ancient land of Israel, forming the basis of writing systems that developed later in time.

Pottery shard showing early alphabetic language, found at Tel Lachish, Israel. Credit: Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

A report from the Jerusalem Post states that archaeologists unearthed the fragment as part of excavations that were undertaken at Tel Lachish in south-central Israel in 2018. The Tel Lachish archaeological site was once home to a large Canaanite city.

They were able to date the pottery shard using radiocarbon dating of grains of barley found alongside it, pinpointing its origin back to 1450 B.C., when the area was a center of Canaanite society. The archaeologists published their findings in the journal Antiquity.

Only six letters on two lines, the writing was inscribed millennia ago on the soft surface of a clay pot. Haggai Misgav, an epigraphist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was a co-author of the study, told interviewers from Haaretz, she believes that the first three letters spell out the word “ebed,” meaning “slave” or “servant.”

Oddly, the inscription was most likely part of a person’s name. According to archaeologists, a popular naming convention in ancient times combined “servant” with the name of a local god to show  the person’s devotion to that deity.

The second line on the shard is believed to be the word “nophet,” meaning “nectar” or “honey.”

Tel Lachish front gate in Israel. Tel Lachish may be the area where the first written alphabet may have developed. Credit: Wilson44691 / CC BY-SA 3.0

Missing link may connect Egyptian alphabetic inscriptions to later Canaanite writing

Because the text is short and incomplete, researchers have not yet definitively determined what the inscription says for certain. At this time it is also unknown whether the writing was meant to be read from left to right or right to left.

The researchers believe that the script represents a “missing link” connecting alphabetic inscriptions already discovered in Egypt and the Sinai peninsula with later writing originating from Canaan.

The writing uses an early version of the alphabet in which letters resemble the Egyptian hieroglyphs from which they evolved.

The new discovery appears to disprove a previous hypothesis which held that the alphabet only came to Canaan after Egypt came to rule the area.

Tel Lachish, Israel. Credit: Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Lead author Felix Höflmayer, an archaeologist from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, told interviewers from the Jerusalem Post “In the Late Bronze Age, between 1550 and 1200 B.C., the region was under the Egyptian empire.

“The Egyptians imposed their administrative system and their own writing and many experts thought that the early alphabet might have been introduced in this context; but now we can see that it was already in use at least by the 15th century B.C., when there was not such a large-scale Egyptian domination.”

Because of its abundant water sources and fertile earth, early Canaanites flocked to the Tel Lachish area and a large city flourished there for much of ancient history, according to information from the Jewish Virtual Library.

The Canaanites established a fortified citadel there in approximately 2000 B.C. After a fire destroyed the city sometime around the end of the 12th century B.C., the area was rebuilt as an Israelite fortress-city which was part of the Kingdom of Judah.

Unfortunately, Tel Lachish was destroyed once again in an Assyrian attack in the year 701 B.C. Well-known to have been an important site since time immemorial, archaeologists have been digging there since the 1930s.

Benjamin Sass, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University who was not involved in the excavation and subsequent study of the shard, told interviewers that dating the barley discovered alongside the pottery fragment may not have pointed to an accurate date for the inscription itself, since the grain might have been harvested after the vessel was created.

“The data published so far makes (the team’s timeline) a possibility, but by no means a certainty,” he notes in an article in Live Science. 

Researchers already know for certain that the writing used by Canaanites eventually split into the alphabet that ancient Israelites employed to write the Hebrew Bible and another version of an alphabet used by Phoenicians.

After the collapse of the Bronze Age, around 1200 BC, alphabetic writing advanced and developed further, since the major powers around the Mediterranean collapsed, spurring small city-states to use their own, local languages more and more.

According to Lydia Wilson, who had written on the development of early languages in an earlier article in Smithsonian, variations of the alphabet that was used in Canaan therefore spread from what is now Turkey all the way to Spain — eventually going birth to the Latin alphabet used in western languages today.

Höflmayer told the Jerusalem Post “All alphabets have somewhat evolved from hieroglyphs, the Phoenician one, the Hebrew one, the Greek one, the Latin one and so on.

“Now we know that the alphabet was not brought to the Levant by Egyptian rule. Although we cannot really explain yet how it happened, we can say that it was much earlier and under different social circumstances.”

English Dictionary of Ancient Greek ‘spares no blushes’ with fresh look at crudity

Victorian attempts to veil the meanings of crude ancient Greek words are set to be brushed away by a new dictionary 23 years in the making. It is the first to take a fresh look at the language in almost 200 years and promises to “spare no blushes” for today’s classics students.

The late scholar John Chadwick first came up with the idea to update HG Liddell and Robert Scott’s 1889 dictionary, the Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, in 1997. An abridged version of a lexicon published in 1843, the Liddell and Scott had never been revised, and is packed with antiquated terms and modestly Victorian translations of the more colourful ancient Greek words. Despite this, it remains the most commonly used reference work for students in English schools and universities.

It was initially thought that Chadwick’s project would take five years, but Cambridge professor James Diggle, who was then chair of the advisory committee, said it soon became clear that the Intermediate Lexicon was “too antiquated in concept, design and content”, and the team would need to start afresh.

Diggle and his fellow editors then set out on the “Herculean task” of rereading most examples of ancient Greek literature, from Homer to the early second century AD. They then worked through the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet to create a modern guide for today’s students to the meanings of ancient Greek words and their development through the years. The lexicon is the first to be based on an entirely new reading of the Greek texts since 1843.

“At the outset of the project I undertook to read everything which the editors wrote. I soon realised that if we were ever to finish I had better start to write entries myself,” said Diggle.

“The moment of greatest relief and joy was when I was able to sign off the final proofs and say to the publisher, ‘It’s finished. You can print it.’ You can’t imagine what it was like, to realise that we had finally got there. I literally wept with joy.”

The completed Cambridge Greek Lexicon, which is being published by Cambridge University Press, runs to two volumes and features around 37,000 Greek words, drawn from 90 authors and set out across 1,500 pages.

The new dictionary’s editors “spare no blushes”, Diggle said, when it comes to the words that “brought a blush to Victorian cheeks”. The verb χέζω (chezo), translated by Liddell and Scott as “ease oneself, do one’s need”, is defined in the new dictionary as “to defecate” and translated as “to shit”; βινέω (bineo) is no longer “inire, coire, of illicit intercourse”, but “fuck”; λαικάζω (laikazo), in the 19th-century dictionary translated as “to wench”, is now defined as “perform fellatio” and translated as “suck cocks”.

Antiquated and offensive language also gets a makeover. While Liddell and Scott defined βλαύτη (blaute) as “a kind of slipper worn by fops”, in the Cambridge Greek Lexicon it is described as “a kind of simple footwear, slipper”; κροκωτός (krokotos) is no longer defined as “a saffron-coloured robe worn by gay women”, but as a “saffron gown (worn by women)”.

“Liddell and Scott could have claimed, in the words of Edward Gibbon, ‘My English is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language,’” Diggle said. “We use contemporary English.”

The Cambridge Greek Lexicon also begins each entry with the rootmeaning of a word, a fundamentally different approach to the 19th-century lexicon, which started entries with a word’s earliest appearance in literature. “Take a word like πόλις, which will be familiar to many in its English form ‘polis’,” said Diggle. “Our article shows the variety of senses which the word can have: in its earliest usage ‘citadel, acropolis’; then, more generally, ‘city, town’ and also ‘territory, land’; and, more specifically, in the classical period, ‘city as a political entity, city-state’; also, with reference to the occupants of a city, ‘community, citizen body’.”

Professor Robin Osborne, chair of Cambridge’s classics faculty, said the department invested in the new lexicon in order to “make a contribution to the teaching of Greek over the next century”.

“This puts into the hands of students a resource that will enable them access to ancient Greek more securely and easily,” said Osborne. “It is hugely important that we continue to engage with the literature of ancient Greece, not as texts frozen in a past world, but which engage with the world in which we live.”

The Lexicon’s publisher at Cambridge University Press, Michael Sharp, said it was “one of the most important classics books we have ever published”, and “a milestone in the history of classics”.

Diggle, however, said he had no plans for further lexicographical ventures. “No, no, no, no, no,” he said. “I finished it with an enormous sense of relief and joy – for the last 15 years of it I did nothing else, it really dominated my life.”

Source: The Guardian

Greece’s First Underwater Museum Opens in Alonissos Island!

Greece’s first underwater archeological museum opens in August at the site of an ancient shipwreck off the uninhabited islet of Peristera, near Alonissos island.

Only a few weeks separate us from the moment when thousands of divers from Greece and all over the world will be able to dive in the first underwater museum in Greece, in Alonissos.

From June 1, amateur scuba divers and free divers will be able to visit, accompanied by diving centers, the famous shipwreck of amphorae of the 5th c. BC at the bottom of the islet of Peristera in Alonissos.

A fisherman was the first to see the ancient shipwreck in 1985 near the west rocky shore of Peristera, at a depth of 28 meters: a large merchant ship, probably Athenian, sank there around 425 BC. It was loaded with thousands of wine amphorae from Mendi (ancient city of Halkidiki) and Peparithos (today's Skopelos island), areas known in antiquity for their wine. The pile of amphorae, which extends to the bottom to a length of 25 meters, gives the feeling of the contour and the large dimensions of the ship. The shipwreck is one of the most important of classical antiquity. The excavation was carried out by the archaeologists and the staff of the Ephorate of Marine Antiquities of the Ministry of Culture, who today take care of the opening of the wreck to the public.

The impressive number of amphorae, the excellent condition of the wreck at -21 to -28 meters and the beauty of the exotic waters and the rich seabed of the area, located within the protected area of ​​the National Marine Park of Alonissos-Northern Sporades, make the ancient shipwreck of Peristera a destination that interests every experienced diver.

The first Underwater Museum in Alonissos in a few days will be a fact and awaits us all to share its secrets either on the enchanting seabed or above the water, with the help of virtual reality! Have a good dive!

Athens: Maintenance Works are in Progress in the Temple of Olympian Zeus

In December 2023, one of the columns of the temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens will be completed, specifically the one that faces very serious problems, such that if no immediate intervention was made, the risk of significant damage was visible.

The column has been in a construction armature for days, as the other nine, who face fewer problems but also need immediate intervention. The restoration of these, along with the capitals and their entablatures of course should have proceeded by the same date, which marks the end of this programming period, as the project had been included in the Regional Operational Program since 2018.

However, the disembarkation of the entablatures and the clearer diagnosis of their condition will judge the course of the restoration work in the next programming period, as Greek Minister of Culture said, who carried out an autopsy on the monument.

"This is one of the largest architecture monuments, whose history goes back to the time of Peisistratos in the 6th century BC. to reach the years of Hadrian, the Roman emperor of the 2nd century AD. It is one of the largest monuments in the Mediterranean area, which presents serious problems", says Mrs. Mendoni. It should also be noted that these are important large-scale maintenance projects, carried out for the first time at the monument, which has been diagnosed with chronic problems of structural stability and deterioration of the wear of its material.

The project includes structural restoration work, maintenance work, limited excavation cleansings and earthworks, geotechnical study, seismic behavior study, monitoring study, recording of scattered architectural members, as well as control of mechanical strengths and analyzation of building materials. As part of the same program, archaeological research is being carried out in the area in front of the western precinct of the ancient sanctuary.

The financing cost of the project from the Operational Program "Attiki" 2014-2020 reaches the amount of 3.5 million euros. and as the governor of Attica George Patoulis, who was present at the autopsy, said, the Regional Administration will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Culture in the future.

Temple of Olympian Zeus is of Corinthian style, made of Pentelic marble and was one of the largest temples in the ancient world. It had two rows of 20 columns on the long sides and three rows of 8 columns on the narrow ones, 17 m high. It was constructed in the middle of a large rectangular enclosure with a propylon to the north. The nave housed two oversized ivory statues of Zeus and the emperor Hadrian that were worshiped there sharing the altar, while a number of statues and votive offerings adorned the courtyard.

Graphic Reconstruction of the Temple dedicated to Olympian Zeus.

 

British Museum Returns Looted Ancient Greek Statue to Libya

After a long legal battle, London’s British Museum returned last week a looted ancient Greek statue of the goddess Persephone to Libya which is estimated to be worth £1.5m ($2.1m).

British Museum finally returns looted ancient statue. Credit: Facebook/British Museum

According to a statement by the Libyan Foreign Ministry the recovery of Persephone statue took place at the headquarters of the Libyan Embassy in London, with a handover minute signed by the Libyan Acting Charge D’affairs and the spokesperson of the British Museum Peter Higgs.

The ancient Greek statue was taken from a world heritage site in Shahhat in 2012. The British Museum helped to identify and return the statue, as part of its efforts to combat illicit trade coming into the UK for potential sale, a spokesperson told Greek Reporter.

The piece was illegally excavated from a grave in the ruins of Cyrene, an important Hellenic city located in the north of what is now Libya, and then subsequently smuggled into the United Kingdom.

The four-foot marble relic is of a hooded woman believed to be a representation of the queen of the underworld, Persephone.

The statue dates from the third or fourth century BC, and Dr Peter Higgs, a curator of Greek sculpture at the British Museum, described it as “one of the best examples of its type and … extremely rare”.

A 2015 ruling ruled that the statue, which was in the possession of Jordanian national Riad al-Qassas, had been “misdeclared” on arrival to the UK as border officials believed it was worth £72,000 and originally Turkish.

The artefact was discovered in a west London warehouse by customs officials, before being handed to the British Museum as the court ruled on its ownership.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Cyrene was an important ancient Greek city

Cyrene, the ancient Greek and later Roman city near present-day Shahhat, Libya, was the oldest and most important of all five Greek cities in the region.

It gave eastern Libya the classical name of Cyrenaica that it has retained into modern times. Located nearby is the ancient Necropolis of Cyrene.

More than two thousand years ago, a group of Greeks from the island of Thira (also known as Santorini) headed south, searching for a new place to live. Their journey ended in the northern part of Africa, in modern-day Libya.

These Greek settlers established a new city, calling it Cyrene, which became prosperous and had trade ties with every Greek city in what is now the modern Greek mainland and islands.

It was one of the principal cities in the ancient Greek world, with its temples, tombs, agora, gymnasium and Cyrene Amphitheatre all thought to be inspired by the historic structures at Delphi.

The city became a Republic in 460 BC, following the political tradition that Athens had established.

Cyrene contributed to the intellectual life of the ancient Greek world through its renowned philosophers and mathematicians.

Cyrene’s ruins remain there as a reminder of the region’s rich past, which was shaped by Greeks and Romans alike.

Included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982, Cyrene today ranks among the List’s most neglected and endangered sites in the Mediterranean Basin, due to improper restoration and extensive looting of its Greek artifacts.

By Tasos Kokkinidis, Greek Reporter

Villa Kérylos: A Greek Classically Inspired House in French Riviera

Villa Kerylos in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, is a house in Ancient Greek Revival style built in the early 1900s by French archaeologist Theodore Reinach. It has been listed since 1966 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. A Greek word, kerylos means halcyon or kingfisher, which in Greek mythology was considered a bird of good omen.

The French archaeologist and statesman Théodore Reinach spent his family’s banking inheritance to live in exotic magnificence. In the early 1900s, he commissioned a house on a French Riviera peninsula with rooms frescoed in sea creatures and mosaicked with deities — all based on ancient buildings that he had documented on Delos island in Greece.

Mr. Reinach in 1913. He died in 1928.(Agence Meurisse/Bibliothèque nationale de France)

He commissioned Emmanuel Pontremoli, a French Architect and Archaeologist to foresee the building works. The project started in 1906 and took six years to complete. It then became their family home until 1967.

Quietly poised in the Southern Mediterranean town of Beaulieu Sur Mer lies his Greek style Villa Kérylos. The white and brick red shuttered villa is nestled in one of the prettiest areas in the south of France; directly on the tip of the Baie des Fourmis overlooking the Mediterranean sea. 

The entrance to the villa is right at the tip of the ocean. Reinach chose this coastal spot as it echoed the style of Greek temple locations. He also welcomes us eternally with the entrance floor inscription in ancient Greek ‘ΧΑΊΡΕ’ (chaíre, “hello; goodbye”, literally: "rejoice, be glad").

Surrounded by a pretty, formal garden and the water’s edge the property stands on three floors. From the basement of the building when it was a family home, there was access to a mooring and swimming directly in the sea.  Some areas are closed off and restricted due to the villa being listed, becoming a Museum in 1966 and a historical monument by the French Ministry of Culture. There is the opportunity to buy gifts and information in the entrance to the villa, and it probably takes an hour to walk around. 

The ground floor area of the house styled around an open peristyle courtyard which brought to life films I have watched that are now popular representing the Roman Empire and the dramas that belong to that period. It would make a fantastic film location. However,  it is now only open to the public with no opportunities for private parties or filming. 

The Greeks loved bathing, and this has defiantly not been overlooked, with sauna-like bathrooms and walk-in showers. It has the feel of a modern day spa, but even better. The first room is, in fact, a spa with a huge sunken bath adorned with grey and white marble languishing a golden-lit dressing area suggesting warmth and comfort. The features are unique; in another bathroom area, brass taps are opening to the mouths of lions with matching soap saucers and a plunging marble bath supported by the lion’s feet.

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Candles would have lit many of the rooms and together with their effects and the art adorning the walls it would have accelerated an atmosphere of sheer indulgence and luxury. The walls and floors mirror their beliefs with classical Greek motifs representing stories of the gods and mythical animals. This all adds to the fantasy world of the Classical period and creates an illusion of more space. 

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The attention to detail is just stunning. Nothing is overlooked; from the pretty tiled floors running throughout the villa to the star decorated ceiling. The ancient Greeks were fascinated by astrology,  reflected in their use of patterns and colour. The walls are delicately embellished with gardens of ancient olive trees and birds. The name Kerylos means Halcyon or kingfisher which in Greek mythology refers to a bird of good omen. 

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The main room overlooking the sea is large with high ceilings, perfect for the summer climate; elegant and formal leads off from the inner courtyard, the heart of the villa. 

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Some of the tapestries are still decorating the bedroom walls, and the embroidered original curtains remain intact. The Greeks were also inspired most of all by nature, and this too is echoed in the wall hangings and contrasted by the symmetrical design. 

The views throughout the villa are spectacular, and even on a cold, miserable day, there would be the inspiration. The first floor of the house is light and breezy with all the bedrooms adorned with frescoes representing heroic and imaginative stories.

It may have been cold in winter with no double glazing and all the marble but underfloor heating was incorporated, and with the Mediterranean climate this house would have been a palace and paradise home.  

by Kay Hare

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Egypt: The Colonnade Entrance Of Djoser Complex that Looks Like a Greek Dorian Temple!

There are many theories as to the origins of the Doric order in temples. One belief is that the Doric was inspired by the architecture of Egypt. With the Greeks being present in Ancient Egypt as soon the 7th-century BC, it is possible that Greek traders were inspired by the structures they saw in what they would consider foreign land.

Left: The Colonnade Entrance Of Djoser Complex in Saqqara, Egypt Right: Temple Of Apollo In Ancient Corinth, Greece

The funerary complex of Djoser (Zoser) is believed to have been built around the beginning of the 3rd Dynasty. It is a walled compound that is constructed from stone rather than the mud brick that was used before this time. The stones that are used are different from the huge stones used in the pyramids at Giza, in that they are small in size. Imhotep was the architect of this revolutionary wonder. He was later worshipped as a god for the remarkable craftsmanship in the complex. Imhotep translated into stone the early Egyptian architecture of mud-brick, wood and reeds. This is seen in many of the monuments that are in the complex.
The entire complex was once surrounded by an enclosure wall, that when complete, was about 600 yards (549m) long and 300 yards (274m) wide and rose to over 30 feet (9.1m). The wall is made of brick-size stones and is very impressive in its own right. Just the size alone would have made the wall an incredible project, but that is not the only thing impressive about this enclosure wall.

Funerary Complex of Djoser

The single entrance to the enclosure is the southernmost doorway on the eastern side of the wall (the only one of the 15 doorways which is not a false door) and leads to the entrance colonnade. 20 pairs of engaged columns, resembling bundles of reeds or palm ribs line the corridor. Between the columns are 24 small chambers, thought perhaps to represent the nomes of Upper and Lower Egypt, which may once have contained statues of the King or deities.

The exit point from the Hypostyle Hall and Enclosed Portico. View looking East from the Great Court.

The roof of the entrance colonnade was constructed to represent whole tree trunks. This is one of the places where the challenging experiment of copying natural materials in stone is most evident. The columns were not yet trusted to support the roof without being attached to the side walls and the small size of the stone blocks used in the construction reflects the fact that previous structures were built from mudbricks.

At the end of the entrance hall two false stone doorleaves rest against the side walls of a transverse vestibule which has been reconstructed. Several statue fragments were found in the entrance colonnade but the most important was a statue base (now in Cairo Museum) inscribed with the Horus name and titles of Netjerikhet and also with the name of a High Priest of Heliopolis and royal architect, Imhotep.

The columns themselves are engaged columns, but unlike later examples where the column is next to a wall (known as pilasters), here the side wall projects out creating bays between each set of columns (often referred to as niches) and are on both the South and North sides of the center asile in both the East and West Hypostyle Halls. Above these bays in the East and West halls, near the roof are horizontally oriented clerestory openings. The columns are 'proud' of these projecting side walls allowing their circular shape to return and engage the geometry of the wall. The circular columns are carved to resemble papyrus bundles and were painted green to resemble the plant. The side walls themselves also taper to ensure that they do not overlap the decorative papyrus relief, but are placed in a common staggered stacking pattern as is the back wall of the bay. The side wall joints are very small and precise and the surface is relatively smooth.

The Greek Doric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns. Originating in the western Doric region of Greece, it is the earliest and, in its essence, the simplest of the orders, though still with complex details in the entablature above.

Three Greek Doric columns

The Greek Doric column was fluted or smooth-surfaced, and had no base, dropping straight into the stylobate or platform on which the temple or other building stood. The capital was a simple circular form, with some mouldings, under a square cushion that is very wide in early versions, but later more restrained.

When the three orders are superposed, it is usual for the Doric to be at the bottom, with the Ionic and then the Corinthian above, and the Doric, as "strongest", is often used on the ground floor below another order in the storey above.

Two early Archaic Doric order Greek temples at Paestum (Italy) with much wider capitals than later

Origins of the Doric Order

There are many theories as to the origins of the Doric order in temples. The term Doric is believed to have originated from the Greek-speaking Dorian tribes. One belief is that the Doric order is the result of early wood prototypes of previous temples. With no hard proof and the sudden appearance of stone temples from one period after the other, this becomes mostly speculation. Another belief is that the Doric was inspired by the architecture of Egypt. With the Greeks being present in Ancient Egypt as soon the 7th-century BC, it is possible that Greek traders were inspired by the structures they saw in what they would consider foreign land.

Finally, another theory states that the inspiration for the Doric came from Mycenae. At the ruins of this civilization lies architecture very similar to the Doric order. It is also in Greece, which would make it very accessible.

A faithful reconstruction of the Djoser’s Complex Colonnade Entrance as it was during the Hellenistic Period. Screenshots from the Assassin's Creed game by Ubisoft, called Origins. By Nikolay Bonev.

Sculpture Eye-crafting Techniques: The Piercing Gazes that brought life to sculptures

Ιnlaid eyes are found in sculpture in many periods, from ancient times till Middle Ages. The history behind these wonderful innovations is great and dates back centuries.

Historically, several cultures have come up with some very ingenious solutions for how to bring more life to the eyes of their sculptures. Ancient Greeks would assemble eyes from copper, glass and/or shell, and anchor them from the inside of a hollow bronze head. Ancient Greek bronzesmiths had a variety of techniques at their disposal to enhance the appearance of their creations. Due to their often fragmentary state of preservation, the modern observer tends to think of early Greek bronzes as monochromatic, but it is clear that the practice of inlaying other materials into bronze started early in ancient Greece.

Inlays appear in a broad variety of bronze object types from weapons and armor to vessels and jewelry to relief-decorated objects and figural sculpture. Many of the finest early Greek bronzes were embellished with inlays that enlivened the sculptural forms and may have added symbolic or even magical qualities. Eyes were often given particular prominence with inlays. Of special interest is a new technical analysis of a Late Geometric statuette of a man and a centaur (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 17.190.2072) in which the eyes of the man were inlaid with silver to contrast with the eyes of the centaur, which appear to have an iron-rich inlay. Although the evidence is frequently incomplete, it is clear that a wide variety of colorful inlays such as gold, silver, iron, bone, ivory, and amber were utilized, and other materials, such as stone and shell, were certainly used as well.

Another great sculpture with eyes tha magnetize everyone who looks at them is Iniochos (Charioteer of Delphi). It has its own room in the museum of Delphi, and a quick glance is not enough to see it. You have to look at it closely from all sides and admire the multitude of details on its body and its bronze tunic. The eyes of Iniochos look alive, and perhaps no other statue gives this unique feeling. White enamel was used for the eyeballs to make them look exactly like a natural human eye. For the iris, brown semi-precious stone was used, while the pupils of the eyes are black. The eyelashes were made of small copper wires, while its lips were made of thin reddish copper plates.

Detail of the Iniochos statue's head, showing the inlaid eyes.

The Egyptians combined materials of alabaster, rock crystal & copper, and inserted them from the outside of the face to bring vitality to their sculptures and busts. There are early examples of Egyptian statues in which the inlaid eyes are either blue or grey in colour. Some epictions of deities such as Horus showed them with eyes that had a blue pupil. A range of materials are known to have been used depending on the desired effect and perhaps the situation, location and purpose for which the eye, and its artifact, were created to represent. Those eyes, for example, include the use of materials such as limestone, quartz, rock crystal, obsidian, bone and ivory, copper alloys, resin, plaster, animal glue and pigments. What is surprising is the recognition of what exquisite craft skill and technology are implied by the use of such crystal for the eyes of these statues.

Ancient Egyptian inlaid eye: (top) view of the eye from below; (bottom) x-radiograph of the eye from the same position, showing some of the technical features.

The sculpture of the Seated Scribe or Squatting Scribe is one of these famous works of ancient Egyptian art. It represents a figure of a seated scribe at work. The sculpture was discovered at Saqqara and dated to the period of the Old Kingdom, from either the 5th Dynasty, c. 2450–2325 BCE or the 4th Dynasty, 2620–2500 BCE. It is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. It is a painted limestone statue, the eyes inlaid with rock crystal, magnesite (magnesium carbonate), copper-arsenic alloy, and nipples made of wood.

Detail of inlaid eye belonging to the "Seated Scribe”.

The Chinese would position small obsidian beads in the center of the eyes, (a technique which was sometimes also seen in Japan during the Asuka and Nara periods (combined 538-974). In the late Heian period (974-1185), however, a new process for infusing a startlingly realistic quality into the eyes of sculpture elevated Japanese Buddhist statuary to new heights.

In the early periods of Japanese art history, eyes were simply carved into the wood (and then painted). This way of depicting a sculpted eye is called chougan (彫眼), and examples of this can be seen in many temples throughout Japan. However, when visiting a temple with carvings that have crystal eyes, it is impossible to ignore the intimacy of the statuary’s pensive gaze or piercing glare. This style of eye-crafting is called gyokugan (玉眼).

Left: Twenty-Eight Attendants (Basu Sennin) Sanjusangendo. Right: photo by David Bilbrey, Sculptor and Art History hound.

In 1151, an Amida Triad in the Chougakuji was the first in Japan to employ gyokugan. The technology behind this craft can simply and casually be described as an eyeball sandwich. The būshi of the Chougakuji’s Amida group carved rock crystal into a lens, painted the inside with a pupil & iris, backed it with paper, and then inserted it into an uchiguri (hollowed-out) head. The result was revolutionary. Made more famous by the Kei school about 30 years later, this technique became the sculpting standard which further set Japanese butsuzo apart from what was happening with the rest of the world.

An Exact Replica of 'The Charioteer of Delphi' now decorates the Doha Airport in Qatar

The exact replica of the Delphic Envoy, one of the most famous statues of classical sculpture, now decorates the Hiaqatar Metro Central Station at Doha International Airport in Qatar.

The Charioteer of Delphi, also known as Heniokhos (Greek: Ηνίοχος, the rein-holder), is one of the best-known statues surviving from Ancient Greece, and is considered one of the finest examples of ancient bronze sculptures. The life-size (1.8m) statue of a chariot driver was found in 1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi. It is now in the Delphi Archaeological Museum. Polyzelos, the Tyrant of Gela, dedicated this statue to commemorate his victory at the chariot race during the Pythian Games of 470s BCE.

The official opening ceremony of the exhibition of the copy of ‘Iniohos’ (greek: Ηνίοχος), which is a gift of the Greek Government in Qatar, took place yesterday morning. The unveiling of the statue was made by the Greek Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni, during her official visit to Qatar, and by the Director General of the Qatar Museums Authority, Ahmad Al-Namla.

Lina Mendoni referred to the story of Iniohos, to his discovery in 1896 - the year of the organization of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens - to his special features, to the emotions that are reflected on his face, to the fact that he is one of the rare statues, which preserves it’s eyes, made of semi-precious stone and glass, elements that make the Iniochos the most famous of the tributes to Apollo of Delphi.

The Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni was given a tour of the new National Museum of Qatar, which presents the history of the country from prehistoric times to the present day. The Museum, work of the French architect Jean Nouvel, is inspired by the crystals of the desert and exposes the history of the country, both with works of art and monuments, as well as with the use of multimedia.

She also visited the Museum of Islamic Art, work of the famous architect I.M. Pei, which hosts an exhibition unique in number and importance. It is noted that Greek conservators work also in this museum. Special mention was made of the existing collaboration between the Museum of Islamic Art and the Islamic Collection of the Benaki Museum in Greece, as well as of the prospect of co-organizing exhibitions of common interest in the future.

Front of the statue as it appears in the famous game of Ubisoft, Assasin’s Creed Odyssey.

The statue as it appears in the famous game of Ubisoft, Assasin’s Creed Odyssey.

Rain Uncovered an Archaic Bronze Bull Idol at Ancient Olympia, Greece.

Rain has helped uncover a small bull idol at ancient Olympia in what the Greek culture ministry said on Friday was a “chance discovery”. It said the bronze idol, found intact, was spotted by an archaeologist at the sprawling ancient site that inspired the modern Olympic Games during a scheduled visit by ministry officials. Amazingly, archaeologist Zaharoula Leventouri spotted a tiny horn jutting out from the moist soil near the temple of Zeus during the inspection, and stopped to carefully remove the soil from the area.

It was found near the temple of Zeus and the Altis, the sacred enclosure and core of the sanctuary, the ministry said. “One of its horns was poking out of the ground following recent heavy rainfall.”

The bronze bull was sent for further examination by experts at the Greek Ministry of Culture, who later determined that it had most likely been a gift dedicated to Zeus at his temple at the ancient site of Olympia. Bulls and horses were fundamental to life in ancient Greece during the period, which makes it no surprise that archaeologists have found other small bronze figurines depicting the animals near other temples and in burial sites around Greece.

Specialists also analyzed a soil sample taken from the spot where the bull was found, and discovered that the figure was likely part of a sacrifice, as there was strong evidence of burnt sediment and other charred material in the sample. In a preliminary evaluation, the idol has been dated to the Geometric period, about 1050-700BC. Burn marks suggest it was one of thousands of votive offerings to Zeus, the leading ancient Greek deity, the ministry said.

Located in the Peloponnese, Olympia was a major center of not only religious life in ancient Greece but also of sport, as it was of course the home of the original Olympic Games. The ancient Olympics were held in Olympia every four years from 776 BC to at least 393 AD, with Greek city-states setting aside their conflicts to take part. The temple to Zeus was constructed atop the ruins of a much older religious site at Olympia that dates from the ninth or tenth centuries BC.