Lydian Art

Simpson, E., ed. The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella's interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.

This book is the first major study of Lydian material culture at Gordion and also the first published monograph on Lydian painted pottery from any site excavation. Richly illustrated, it provides
a comprehensive definition and analysis of Lydian ceramics based on stylistic, archaeological, and textual evidence, while thoroughly documenting the material’s stratigraphic contexts. The book situates the ceramic corpus within its broader Anatolian cultural context and offers insights into the impact of Lydian cultural interfaces at Gordion.
The Lydian pottery found at Gordion was largely produced at centers other than Sardis, the Lydian royal capital, although Sardian imports are also well attested and began to influence Gordion’s material culture as early as the 7th century BCE, if not before. Following the demise of the Lydian kingdom, a more limited repertoire of Lydian ceramics demonstrably continued in use at Gordion into the Achaemenid Persian period in the late 6th and 5th centuries BCE.
The material was excavated by Professor Rodney Young’s team between 1950 and 1973 and is fully presented here for the first time. Ongoing research in the decades following Young’s excavations has led to a more refined understanding of Gordion’s archaeological contexts and chronology, and, consequently, we are now able to view the Lydian ceramic corpus within a more secure stratigraphic framework than would have been the case if the material had been published shortly after the excavations.

This dissertation analyzes the internal organization and the foreign policy of the Lydian Kingdom under Alyattes’ and Croesus’ reigns. It is under those two sovereigns’ authority that the Lydian Kingdom will reach its peak. At that time, the Kingdom was divided into several regions ruled by a governor who was to provide military contingents to Sardis when the king expressed the need. Croesus was sent by his father to rule the district of Adramytteion, a strategic sector, because he was probably not intended to be his father’ successor. This is only after the death of his half brother Pantaleon that Croesus managed to be appointed as the legitimate successor. The two last Mermnads have mainly made agreements with the Eastern Greeks. Alyattes had bounded hospitality links with the different coastal cities. On its side, Croesus imposed them a payment of a tribute, and a shipment of military forces to Sardis. Only Miletos managed to save face extending the links of ξενία concluded with ...

This paper focuses on one of the most intriguing pieces of Lydian stone sculpture: the votive naiskos with the depiction of a goddess and several relief panels on the wall, the so called “Cybele Shrine”. It was excavated in Sardis, and is currently housed in the Archaeological Museum in Manisa. The author analyzes the three-dimensional configuration of the monument, and offers a range of analogies, comparanda and possible prototypes. Most scholars concentrate on monumental sources, seeing the naiskos as an architectural model, or even a replica of an existing building. This article also considers monumental parallels, and inserts the Sardis piece into a wider context of contemporary 6th century BC architecture and sculpture, with their tendency towards rich decoration and creative approaches. However, the author also considers other sources, shifting the focus on less “monumental”, transportable artefacts of Near Eastern and Aegean origins, objects, that were a mandatory aspect of elite material culture and were disseminated and imitated throughout the ancient Mediterranean. As a result, we see the naiskos from Sardis as a complex phenomenon, combining elements of various sources and art forms, from orthostates to object of metals and ivory.
В статье рассматривается один из наиболее оригинальных памятников лидийской каменной скульптуры – вотивный наиск с рельефными панелями и изображением богини, так называемый алтарь Кибелы, найденный в Сардах и хранящийся в Археологическом музее Манисы. Анализируя его объемно-пространственную композицию, автор стремится максимально расширить круг аналогий и предполагаемых прототипов. Большинство исследователей склонны указывать на монументальные параллели, видя в алтаре архитектурную модель или даже уменьшенное воспроизведение реальной постройки. Автор статьи не отказывается от сопоставлений с монументальными памятниками, но, напротив, вписывает сардский наиск в контекст архитектурно-пластических декоративных идей своего времени, для которого характерны оригинальные творческие приемы. Вместе с тем в статье подчеркивается необходимость смещения акцентов на менее масштабные, мобильные произведения как ближневосточного, так и эгейского круга, которые были обязательным аспектом элитной материальной культуры и активно распространялись и имитировались по всему Средиземноморью. В результате наиск из Сардов предстает как сложное произведение, комбинирующее элементы, происходящих из разных сфер и видов искусства, от архитектурных ортостатов до изделий торевтики и произведений прикладного искусства.