Naiskos

The relief fragment in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Inv. 12059 of unknown provenance comes from the left corner slab of the tympanon of a small pediment and carries a relief depicting a leftwards reclining Papposilenus, who can be identified by the close-fitting woolen garment. The relief together with the projecting ledge on which the Silenus lies is carved from one block. The relief fragment Inv. 4760 in the Acropolis Museum, which shows  the figure of a Papposilenus reclining to the right wearing an identical woolen garment, can  be attributed to the right corner of the same pediment on the grounds of measurements, technical features and style. Papposilenus supports himself with his right arm on a wineskin, whose neck he squeezes in such a way that the wine can pour into the drinking horn. Both relief fragments come from the pediment of a small building, very probably a temple-shaped choregic monument. The naiskos, which can be dated to the 2nd half of the 4th century BC on account  of the relief style, stood (very probably) on the Street of the Tripods east of the entrance to the sanctuary of Dionysos.

Das Relieffragment im Athener Archäologischen Nationalmuseum Inv. 12059 unbekannter Herkunft stammt von der linken Eckplatte des Tympanons eines kleinen Giebels und trägt die Reliefdarstellung eines nach links gelagerten Papposilens, der durch das eng anliegen- de  wollene  Trikot  identifiziert  werden  kann.  Das  Relief  ist  zusammen  mit  der  vortretenden  Standleiste, auf dem der Silen liegt, aus demselben Block gearbeitet. Das Relieffragment Inv. 4760 im Akropolis-Museum, das die Figur eines nach rechts gelagerten Papposilens mit  einem identischen Wolltrikot zeigt, ist auf der Grundlage der Maße, der technischen Merkmale und des Stils der gegenüberliegenden rechten Ecke desselben Giebels zuzuweisen. Mit dem rechten Arm stützt der Papposilen sich auf einen Weinschlauch, dessen Hals er auf eine Weise zusammendrückt, dass sich der Wein in das Trinkhorn ergießen kann. Die beiden Relieffragmente stammen vom Giebel eines kleinen Gebäudes, sehr wahrscheinlich eines tempelförmigen choregischen Monuments. Der Naiskos, der aufgrund des Reliefstils in die 2. Hälfte des 4. Jhs. v. Chr. datiert werden kann, stand (sehr wahrscheinlich) an der Tripodenstraße östlich vom Eingang zum Dionysosheiligtum.

The three small Buildings D, E, and F, usually identified as naiskoi, are located on both sides of the theater building at Aigeira. Together with the adjacent buildings they form a substantial complex erected in the Hellenistic period that remained in use until Roman times. The prominent location of multiple examples of the relatively small “naiskos” building type is striking. However, during the excavations in the 1970s and 1980s, neither the chronology nor the function of these buildings could be identified.
The new study aims to reveal the architectural layout, the chronology, and the function of these small buildings. The first results of this research are presented in this paper. The clarifying of the relative chronology between Buildings D and E is crucial for understanding the development of the building arrangement. Differences in building technique, measuring units and construction dates of the individual “naiskoi” lead to considerations about different groups of people responsible for designing as well as building them. Moreover, several modifications that took place over the course of time on the three buildings hint to the history of their use, while interior design suggests multi-functionality.

The starting point of this study lies in an offering scene replicated, with only some variations, on eleven Egyptian bronze mirrors dated to the 7 th and 6 th cent. This scene, located in the frame of a temple façade whose shape is typical of the Egyptian naïskoi, shows a female character presenting a mirror to the goddess Mut. The whole of the décor and the theme of the mirror offering itself are closely related to the hathoric cult and to its flourishing from the New Kingdom onward. This paper proposes to explore the perspectives opened up by this iconography. They lead us to reflect on the incidences of the hathoric cults in the Mediterranean and to understand how the pattern of the naïskos reached different artistic traditions far beyond the Nile valley.

Le point de départ de cette étude réside dans une scène d’offrande reproduite, avec seulement quelques variantes, sur onze miroirs en bronze égyptiens datés des vii e et vi e s. av. J.-C. Cette scène, placée dans l’encadrement de la façade d’un temple dont la forme est caractéristique des naïskoi égyptiens, donne à voir un personnage féminin qui présente à la déesse Mout un miroir. L’ensemble du décor, ainsi que le thème de l’offrande du miroir en lui-même, sont très fortement liés au culte hathorique et aux développements que celui-ci connaît depuis le Nouvel Empire. L’article propose d’explorer les pistes ouvertes par cette iconographie : elles amènent à se pencher sur les résonances des cultes hathoriques en Méditerranée et à comprendre comment le motif du naïskos a gagné différentes traditions artistiques, bien au-delà de la vallée du Nil.

Le présent article expose les résultats des analyses pétrographiques et physico-chimiques menées sur les petits édicules archaïques en calcaire - pour certains peints - découverts principalement au XIXe s. à Marseille, grâce à une collaboration interdisciplinaire mise en place dans le cadre d'une étude archéologique /
The present paper presents the results of petrographic
and physico-chemical analyses carried out on small Archaic
limestone aedicula – some of which were painted – discovered mostly in Marseille in the 19th century. This interdisciplinary, collaborative
project was set up within the framework of an archaeological study.