This tomb, recorded by Jean-Raimond Pacho in 1825 and partially excavated in 1848 by Vattier de Bourville, contained four decorated marble sarcophagi, three of them placed in large recesses, the fourth on the floor of the central hall. It was next mentioned in 1949 by Morgan, the Antiquities Officer, and recorded by Cassels in 1954. In 1958 Goodchild and Ward-Perkins partially cleared it, but left no known account of their findings. In 2000 James Thorn found that the interior walls were originally clad with marble veneer and the floor was mosaic, evidently a tomb of imperial grandeur.
In the summer of 1827 Colonel Hanmer Warrington, British Consul General in Tripoli, sent his son H. G. Warrington to Cyrene to search for antiquities which the Bashaw of Tripoli had offered to Britain. The article contains copies of the original letters on this subject and gives a description of the antiquities which were discovered during his excavations in the Apollo Sanctuary. Also given is the subsequent history of their journey from Cyrene to London, and then to Edinburgh, where they are now exhibited.
A small limestone half-figure from Alan Rowe's 1957 excavations in Cyrene was recently found to have the word ΘEA lightly inscribed on the polos. The authors describe the sarcophagi with which this figure may have been associated, together with the burial artifacts found within them. It is rare to find ΘEA used in this way, although two examples from Eleusis provide useful parallels. One is a votive plaque, the other a large relief, and each portrays the Eleusinian deities whose iconography is discussed here and compared with that of the Cyrene ΘEA example and also other uninscribed Cyrene half-figures.
Alan Rowe excavated on four campaigns in the Cyrene necropoleis from 1952–1957, but his final publications were incomplete and misleading, and the original records were apparently lost prior to his death in 1968. This is an account of the attempt to re-assess what he found, and of the project to present his discoveries in a more useful form.The importance of Rowe's work is that he was the first person to make an extensive archaeological study of the monuments and tombs of the four necropoleis of Cyrene. His predecessors in the 19th century limited their activities to a few individual tombs mainly around Wadi Haleg Shaloof and Wadi Bel Gadir. The first archaeological excavation this century, undertaken by Richard Norton in 1911 on the western slope of Wadi Haleg Shaloof (Norton 1911, 160), its extent unmatched until Rowe's campaigns forty years later, received only preliminary publication and the material found is mainly lost. The only other archaeological work undertaken in the necropoleis was by Oliverio in 1925 on Tomb N.1, whose artifacts are also now lost, and by Burton Brown who excavated two sarcophagi and a Roman burial in 1947 on the slopes of the Northern Necropolis; the artifacts discovered then have not been seen since publication (Burton Brown 1948, 148–152 figs. I–II). After Rowe's campaigns, Professor Beschi excavated two tombs in 1963 (Beschi 1972, 150–168, 186–196). There has been some survey since, but no formal excavation.
In the course of research on Alan Rowe's Cyrenaican expeditions, when he was Special Lecturer at Manchester University, Rowe's career as an Egyptologist came unexpectedly to light from his personal papers, national archives and the records of various museums. What emerged was a picture of a man who had an active life, not only in Egypt and Cyrenaica, but also in Australia, Palestine and Syria.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.