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A Roman Portrait Bust from Knossos
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
Extract
A fine Roman portrait bust was found by chance at Knossos in July 1971, when a trench was being dug by a mechanical excavator in the field to the north of the Villa Ariadne, an area which probably formed part of the better residential quarter of Roman Knossos. It was discovered beneath a thick Roman concrete floor, which was visible in the side of the trench about 1 metre below the present-day ground level. It is now in the museum at Herakleion.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1973
References
Acknowledgements. I am grateful to Miss A. Lembessis of Herakleion Museum for permission to publish this bust. In the preparation of this article I have profited much from discussions with Professor J. M. C. Toynbee and Professor D. E. Strong. Any errors which remain are my own responsibility. Mr. L. H. Sackett kindly took the photographs, with the exception of PLATE 56a.
1 The precise finding-place of the bust is square D 6 on the map in Hood's Archaeological Survey of the Knossos Area (1958), about 25 metres to the east of the Minoan well, no. 80. Traces of Roman structures and several mosaic floors have been found in the vicinity. Cf. Hood, op. cit. nos. 79, 82, and 83.
2 Cf. Inan, and Rosenbaum, , Roman and Early Byzantine Portrait Sculpture in Asia Minor (1966) 65 no. 21.Google Scholar
3 Toynbee, J. M. C., The Art of the Romans (1965) 35Google Scholar; cf. HekJer, Greek and Roman Portraits pls. 233 ff.
4 For bust forms and their relative dating see Hekler, , OJh xxi/xxii (1922–1924) 185–93.Google Scholar
5 For later copies or versions of earlier portraits see Schweitzer, , Die Bildniskunst der römischen Republik (1948) 34–51.Google Scholar
6 There is a superficial similarity to the supposed portrait of Tiberius in Copenhagen, V. Poulsen, Les Portraits Romains (1962) no. 44, but this is probably fortuitous.
7 Cf. Juvenal vi. 162–3: ‘vetustos/porticibus disponat avos’. For Trajan's patronage cf. Pliny, Panegyricus 69. I owe these references to Professor J. M. C. Toynbee.
8 For Roman portrait herms and their particular usages see Harrison, , The Athenian Agora i: Portrait Sculpture (1953) 5.Google Scholar