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BAR S2221
From Pella to Gandhara: Hybridisation and Identity in the Art and Architecture of the Hellenistic East
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... iii
Preface................................................................................................................................ viii
Anna Kouremenos
Foreword ................................................................................................................................ x
Sir John Boardman
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1
Roberto Rossi
Alcibiades, a classical archetype for Alexander ............................................................... 11
Michael Vickers
Hybridisation of Palatial Architecture: Hellenistic Royal Palaces
and Governors Seats ...................................................................................................... 17
Maria Kopsacheili
Hellenising the Cypriot Goddess: Reading the Amathousian Terracotta
Figurines ......................................................................................................................... 35
Giorgos Papantoniou
The Ruins on Mount Karasis in Cilicia ................................................................................ 49
Timm Radt
A Hybridized Aphrodite: the Anadyomene Motif at Tel Kedesh......................................... 65
Lisa Ayla akmak
Hybrid Art, Hellenism and the Study of Acculturation in the Hellenistic East:
The Case of Umm el-Amed in Phoenicia ...................................................................... 85
Jessica Nitschke
Cultural interaction and the emergence of hybrids in the material culture
of Hellenistic Mesopotamia: An interpretation of terracotta figurines,
ceramic ware and seal impressions ............................................................................... 103
Sidsel Maria Westh-Hansen
Temple Architecture in the Iranian World in the Hellenistic Period .................................. 117
Michael Shenkar
Cultural convergence in Bactria: the votives from the Temple
of the Oxos at Takht-i Sangin ....................................................................................... 141
Rachel Wood
ii
The ideas and research reflected in this paper stem from my 2007
doctoral thesis, Perceptions of Culture: Interpreting Greco-Near
Eastern Hybridity in the Phoenician Homeland (UC Berkeley),
currently being revised in preparation for publication as a monograph.
The research included in this paper would not have been possible
without a grant from the graduate group in Ancient History and
Mediterranean Archaeology at UC Berkeley to fund the study of this
material in Paris and Lebanon. I am grateful also to Suzy Hakimian at
the National Museum of Beirut and the Director General of Antiquities
in Lebanon for access to material, as well as to the Dunand Archives in
Geneva for allowing me access to what remains of Dunands original
notes and documentation concerning the site of Umm el-Amed.
2
Renan 1864, 398.
3
Markoe 2000, 63.
4
layi 1980, 28.
5
Jidejian 1988, 128; echoed in Jidejian 1968, 1969, 1971a, 1971b, and
1973.
87
Fig. 1: Satrap Sarcophagus, from the Ayaa Necropolis, Sidon, c. 420 BC. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
(Courtesy of Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY)
E.g., Diod. Sic. 33.5, Strabo 16.2.25, Heliod. Aeth. 10.41.3, Arr.
Anab. 2.16, Lucian Syr. D., Pomp. Mela Chor. 1.12, Paus. 7.23.
11
Mostly in the form of brief votive and funerary inscriptions. That a
Phoenician historical tradition did exist is suggested by Josephus who
claims to, have consulted Phoenician records in compiling his account
(Euseb. Praep. evang. 1.9.23-24, 1.10.5, 1.10.36, 1.10.42-43; Joseph.
Ap. 1.106; AJ. 1.107). Philo of Byblos (early 2nd century AD) likewise
makes claim to early Phoenician writers, with many scholars believing
that he drew on a Hellenistic source, although this is controversial. Philo
88
J. NITSCHKE: HYBRID ART, HELLENISM AND THE STUDY OF ACCULTURATION IN THE HELLENISTIC EAST
Fig. 2: Mourning Women Sarcophagus, from the Ayaa Necropolis, Sidon, c. 390-380 BC.
Istanbul Archaeological Museum. (Courtesy of Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY)
14
See Lembke 2001 for a catalog of the anthropoid sarcophagi; see also
Josette layis important discussion (layi 1988b). For a catalog and
discussion of the material from the Temple of Eshmun at Bostan echSheikh near Sidon, see Stucky 1984, 1993, and Stucky et al. 2005.
15
See above note for references.
89
wisdom would have it that in the period of GrecoMacedonian rule, with the widespread influx of Greeks
into new and existing cities in the East, the culture
(including artistic output) of the local population should
only become more Greek.16 However, the evidence of
Umm el-Amed, a small site about seventeen kilometers
south of Tyre, suggests that the situation is more
complicated than that.
UMM EL-AMED
The sanctuary town of Umm el-Amed gives us some of
the best-contextualized evidence in the Hellenistic period
for the art and architecture not only of Phoenicia but the
entire Levantine region, allowing us to glimpse the
original physical setting for some of the forms of Greek
art and architecture adopted by the inhabitants.17 Umm elAmed (mother of the column) is located on the coast of
southern Lebanon, between Tyre and Ptolemais-Akko, on
a promontory overlooking the main North-South coastal
road running from Laodikeia to Ptolemais-Akko. (Fig. 3)
The major features of the site include two substantial
enclosed sanctuary complexes (the Temple of
Milkashtarte and the so-called East Temple) and
numerous olive oil press installations. Inscriptions from
the site (all of which are in Phoenician, made by
individuals with Phoenician names; there is no evidence
to suggest the migration of Greeks into the area) identify
the name of the site in antiquity as Hammon,18 Aside
from a possible reference in the book of Joshua (19:28),
there is no mention of a town with this name in our extant
literary sources, including the fourth-century BC account
of Phoenicia by Pseudo-Scylax.19
16
Hence the dating of material stylistically Egyptianizing as preHellenistic, even if found in a good Hellenistic context. See the catalog
entries for Egyptianizing material from Umm el-Amed in Caubet et al.
2005 and Doumet-Serhal 1998. Kaoukabani 1973 divides the figurines
into pre-Hellenistic Egyptianizing types and post-Hellenistic
Hellenizing types simply by virtue of the belief that non-Greek must
be pre-Alexander, not by any stratigraphic criterion.
17
For the principal cities of the Phoenician homeland, i.e. Arados,
Byblos, Sidon, Tyre, and Beirut, we are woefully ill-informed with
respect to the Hellenistic periods, archaeologically; we have nothing for
Tyre, Arados, or Sidon proper. The material from Byblos is limited and
largely unpublished; see Salles 2003 for a discussion. The recent
salvage excavations in Beirut have been more forthcoming, but this
material has been published only preliminarily. See Aubert 2003 for a
brief preliminary interpretation, and essays in Aram 13-14, 2001-2002.
Regarding Hellenistic levels of Phoenician sites on Cyprus, the site of
Amathus has been extensively investigated; see Papantoniou, this
volume, for references and for a discussion of some of this material.
18
Inscriptions naming Hammon: five from the Temple of
Milkashtarte (Dunands nos. 2 [CIS I, 8], 3 [CIS I, 9], 13, and 14).
Drawings and transliterations of all the inscriptions from Umm elAmed can be found in Dunand and Duru 1962, ch. 8.
19
Joshua makes reference to a Hammon as part of the domain of the
tribe of Asher. This is dismissed by Dunand and Duru as a reference to
an entirely different Bronze Age settlement. But as Maes points out
(Maes 1991, 210), the book of Joshua may have been composed as late
as the Persian period, perhaps an identification should not be ruled out.
Dunand and Duru conducted one small deep sounding in the courtyard
of the Temple of Milkashtarte, finding deep below the temple platform
evidence of earlier building, which they date to the Persian period or
earlier based on the presence of a few fragments of fifth- and fourthcentury Attic pottery; the details provided by the excavators are scanty
(see Dunand and Duru 1962, 20); otherwise the levels below the
Hellenistic period temples have not been explored.
90
J. NITSCHKE: HYBRID ART, HELLENISM AND THE STUDY OF ACCULTURATION IN THE HELLENISTIC EAST
Fig. 4: Plan of the Temple of Milkashtarte (After Dunand and Duru 1962, pl. 90)
23
Dunand and Duru 1962, 21 and 234 ff. This is a conclusion arrived at
on the basis of the diagnostic small finds, namely the following: the
preponderance of Hellenistic coins (earliest issues belong to Ptolemy I
and include Ptolemaic, Seleukid, and Tyrian mints; these drop off
noticeably in quantity in the 1st century BC; coins pick up again in the
late Roman period; no find spot is given for any of these coins), see
Dunand and Duru 1962, ch. 12; ceramics, both local and imported,
dating from the late 4th to the 1st centuries BC (ch. 9); lamps (ch. 10);
and Rhodian stamped handles (ch.11). The only pre-fourth-century
diagnostic material (pottery) was found in a deep sounding made
by Dunand and Duru below the platform of the Temple of
Milkashtarte.
24
91
26
See Dunand and Duru 1962, 27-47 for a detailed description of these
remains.
27
Dunand and Duru (1962, 44-46 and 236-7) prefer to identify rooms
on the southwest end of the courtyard as subsidiary chapels on the basis
of fragments of architectural ornamentation found in the vicinity,
although there is nothing to indicate what god(s) these might have been
for. See further below regarding these fragments and a secondary cult
chamber in the East Temple.
28
Dunand and Duru 1962, 24-27, pls. 9-11.
29
See Dunand and Duru 1962, ch. 5 for a cursory description of the
Byzantine remains.
30
Dunand and Duru 1962, 57-61. The two back rooms had a floor
surface consisting of a lime mortar, similar to that which was used to
dress the local stone throughout the site.
31
Durand and Duru 1962, 25-26 and fig. 10.
32
This would be in keeping with earlier known examples of Phoenician
shrines, such as those at Amrit and Ayn el-Hayat (see Dunand 1985 and
Renan 1864, 69) as well as the naiskoi stelai, models of small roofed
shrines, with either two antae or two columns in facade surmounted by
an entablature, typically a cavetto cornice. See Caubet et al. 2002, 82-84
for examples.
33
Dunand and Duru 1962, 25-26. Also, as no roof tiles have been found
on the site (nor fragments of pediments), the flat roof as proposed by the
excavators is most likely.
34
Dunand and Duru 1962, 27 and 234: le plan des temples ne doit rien
aux usages de la Grce. Leur conomie est strictement conforme aux
pratiques architecturales cultuelles des Smites occidentaux.
35
E.g., The Bronze Age Temple of the Obelisks at Byblos and the
Persian period temple at Amrit (shrine, courtyard, and enclosure wall)
the Persian-Hellenistic Solar Shrine at Lachish (Tufnell 1953, pl. 121);
Hazor Lower City Area F Double Temple from the Middle Bronze Age
II (focus on a central court surrounded by corridors and chambers;
Yadin 1972, figs. 23, 24); the late Bronze Age Baal-Anat temple
complex at Kamid el-Loz in the Beqaa valley (courtyard leading to a
four-columned facade; see Hachmann 1978, 27ff, fig. 1) For off-axiality
of entrance and approach as a feature especially of Palestinian temples,
see Wright 1985, 237-238.
36
Beirut, National Museum, no 2078; Stucky, et al. 2005, nos. C1- C24.
37
Dunand and Duru 1962, 28 and 238. Their suggestion that this
columned hall is an evolution of the Hittite beit-hilani type structure of
Anatolia is not convincing.
92
J. NITSCHKE: HYBRID ART, HELLENISM AND THE STUDY OF ACCULTURATION IN THE HELLENISTIC EAST
38
E.g., the recently uncovered Herodian temple at Omrit (Overman et
al. 2007), the temple of Zeus Baetocaeca in Syria, and the temples at
Qalat-Faqra, Yanouh, and Qasr Naous in Lebanon, among others; see
Nourdiguian 2005 generally, and Ball 2000, 317-342.
39
Rakob 2002, pp 30-33.
40
The date of the dedication of the columned portico is indicated by an
inscription as 222 BC (Louvre AO 1440). According to Dunand and
Duru (1962, 35), excavation revealed that the portico was a later
93
Fig. 5: Reconstruction of the East Temple, with section showing the facade of room 11 and the main
entrance, as seen from inside the courtyard. (After Dunand and Duru 1962, figs. 15 and 17)
94
J. NITSCHKE: HYBRID ART, HELLENISM AND THE STUDY OF ACCULTURATION IN THE HELLENISTIC EAST
48
Dunand and Duru 1962: 143-145 and pls. 28, 1 and 29, 4.
E.g., Nimrud: Herrmann 1986: nos. 723, 725, 727, 740.
50
AO 4899; Stucky 1993a, no. 59, p74.
51
Wesenberg 1971, figs. 123-125, 127-128, 131, 134; this type also
appears in Phoenician ivories, e.g. Moscati 1988, no. 79. See Shiloh
1979 for the aeolic style in architecture generally.
52
E.g., the Yehawmilk stele (Louvre, AO 22368; Caubet et al. 2002, 6466.); a stele from Arados (Louvre AO 4949), stelai from Tyre (Louvre
49
95
VOTIVE SCULPTURE
Examples of votive sculpture recovered from both the
Temple of Milkashtarte and the East Temple were found
either in situ or discarded below the surface among the
ruins.53 No ritual deposits (favissae) were found by either
Renan or Dunand; as such, the amount of votive sculpture
is limited as compared to other first millennium
sanctuaries in the Phoenician homeland, such as Amrit or
Bostan ech-Sheikh. Nonetheless, what survives is
revealing, and suggests that the patrons variously and
contemporaneously commissioned sculpture that
followed Phoenician, Egyptian, and Greek traditions.
Beginning with cult objects proper, the only sculptures
uncovered that clearly served such a purpose are the two
so-called Astarte thrones, an object exclusive to
Phoenicia that exhibits no input from Greek religious
practices or iconography. These thrones are characterized
by their armrests, which are in the form of female winged
sphinxes, a type typically found in Phoenician glyptics
since the Iron Age. These thrones typically are empty or
have a cutting for the placement of an iconic cult object
(e.g. a betyl), and often on the front or on the backrest
there are cultic scenes or symbols. Approximately a
dozen of these thrones have been found in Phoenicia, all
in the region of Sidon and Tyre,54 and they are associated
with Astarte mainly on the basis of the iconography.55
Thrones featuring animals as armrests have a long history
in the Near East, and sphinx thrones with seated kings or
divinities can be found in relief carvings in the early first
millennium in Phoenicia and the Levant, such as on the
Ahiram sarcophagus and in glyptics and ivory carving.56
Whereas the early glyptic representations of such thrones
show a divinity (or in the case of Ahiram, a king) seated
in the throne, the physical thrones found in Sidon and
Tyre were clearly intended to remain vacant and thus
serve as an aniconic cult object, as indicated either
because of their small size, the slope of the seat, or the
presence of an object. It is understood that the emptiness
of the throne, or the object within, is an indication of the
presence of the divinity.57
Dunand and Duru 1962, nos. M. 436, E. 213, E. 173, E. 102. Caubet
et al. 2002, 19, 38, catalog nos. 145-149); these were acquired by
clandestine collecting at the prodding of Ch. Clermont-Ganneau in the
19th century.
60
Amrit: Lemke 2004, 50-56 and nos. 119-165, with bibliography;
Bostan ech-Sheikh, near Sidon: Stucky 1993. For examples in Cyprus,
see Karageorghis et al. 2000. See also the excellent discussion of this
statue type in Phoenician art in Markoe 1990.
61
Dunand recovered fifteen fragments: M. 362, M. 98, M. 13, M. 14; E.
88-90, 112, 123, 129, 130, 134-136, 141. (Dunand and Duru 1962)
Renan recovered three nearly complete examples, now in the Beirut
museum (Doumet-Serhal et al. 1998, no. 69 and 70; the third is
unpublished but reproduced here, see Figure 10) Four further fragments
were excavated by Renan and are now in the Louvre: AO 4851, AO
4852, AO4952 and AO 4841 (Caubet et al. 2002, nos. 132-135).
53
96
J. NITSCHKE: HYBRID ART, HELLENISM AND THE STUDY OF ACCULTURATION IN THE HELLENISTIC EAST
63
Ptolemy VI: Stanwick 2002: figs. 52-53, 58, 74-75, 77. Ptolemy VIII:
Stanwick 2002: figs. 81-82, 84-85, 98-99.
64
AO 4868; Caubet et al. 2002, 131.
65
E.g. Stanwick 2002, figs. 258-9 (dated to 121/0); Smith 1991, fig.
241.
66
For the widely held view of separate, distinct cultures with little
interest on the part of Greek speakers in Egypt for Egyptian culture, see
the following: Momigliano 1975, Praux 1978, Samuel 1983 and 1989,
Lewis 1986, Bagnall 1988, Green 1990, and Cartledge 1997.
67
Recent research has demonstrated the clear incorporation of Egyptian
culture and ideas into aspects of Greek elite culture in Alexandria, such
as poetry, kingship ideology, and artistic self-expression: Stephens
2002, Koenen 1993, Baines 2004 with bibliography.
62
97
68
Dunand and Duru 1962, catalog nos. M. 602 (pl. 33, 2), M. 426 (pl.
35, 5), M. 439 (pl. 33, 1). Without being able to examine these pieces it
is difficult to type them.
69
See Dunand and Duru 1962, 164-7; the knowledge that the ruins of
Umm el-Amed were a source of Phoenician inscriptions prompted such
clandestine activities; these stelai were sold to collectors, and eventually
made their way to the Louvre: Caubet et al. 2002, nos. 150, 154, 156163; and Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 1835 (see Dunand and
Duru 1962, pl. XXVII). The three discovered in the 1950s are in the
National Museum in Beirut (inv. 2071, 2072, 2075); see Doumet-Serhal
1998, nos. 88-90.
70
98
J. NITSCHKE: HYBRID ART, HELLENISM AND THE STUDY OF ACCULTURATION IN THE HELLENISTIC EAST
72
99
What bearing, then, does this sanctuary and its finds have
on how we understand Phoenician identity, and the
question of acculturation among the Phoenician citystates in the Hellenistic period? In this regard it is
relevant to note that nothing found at the temple argues
for anything other than a purely Phoenician cult: as
mentioned earlier, all the inscriptions are to a Phoenician
deity, written in the Phoenician language, by people with
Phoenician names, suggesting that the inhabitants and
primary patrons were locals. But if we did not have this
written evidence, would we be tempted to conclude from
the presence of hellenizing elements in the architecture
and art a gradual hellenization of the cult and its patrons
as well? Scholarly precedent suggests we might. But does
the appearance of these elements really indicate that
Phoenician art and architecture is less Phoenician than
before, as suggested by the scholarly commentary cited at
the beginning of this paper?
CONCLUSION
Considering the material of Umm el-Amed as a whole,
we have clear evidence of the incorporation of certain
characteristics of Greek visual culture such as building
material, naturalistic style, architectural ornamentation,
and fashion. Does this merit the use of a label such as
hellenized or perhaps the less loaded GrecoPhoenician, to describe this people and their culture?
Does the incorporation of elements of Greek art into
80
100
J. NITSCHKE: HYBRID ART, HELLENISM AND THE STUDY OF ACCULTURATION IN THE HELLENISTIC EAST
Fig. 15: Bull-protome capital from Sidon. Marble. Beirut, National Museum. (Photo: J. Nitschke)
101
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102
J. NITSCHKE: HYBRID ART, HELLENISM AND THE STUDY OF ACCULTURATION IN THE HELLENISTIC EAST
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104