Radocsay Dénes - Gerevich Lászlóné szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 32-33. (Budapest, 1969)

BOARDMAN, JOHN: Near eastern and archaic greek gems in Budapest

stances. The most basic is that which appears here,

16 but he may be in a papyrus swamp,

17 beneath a canopy,

18 on a Nile boat,

39 flanked by male attendants,

20 by versions of the Egyptian Isis and Nephthys,

21 by uraei,

22 or may be protected by a winged uraeus.

2;i He is often crowned

24 and shouldering a flail, sometimes with the crook, as here. Most of these representations belong to the final main period of Phoenician glyptic, the period best represented by the scarabs in green jasper from Punic sites, of the later sixth to fourth centuries B.C. The Budapest example may go with these, hut a slightly earlier date would be possible and the shape of the beetle is not informative, in this case. 5. Cornelian scarab (Figs. 10, 17).

25 A simple beetle, with the legs fairly well shaped. There is a light spine along the back with slight grooves at either side towards the tail, giving a 'pinched' appearance. An Egyptian hawk, of Horus, crowned by a disc, shouldering a crook, and carrying its wings forward to protect a uraeus snake, is standing on a rather wilting lotus flower. All in a hatched border. The device is again Egyptian in origin, copied in Phoenicia. There are several representations on gems of the hawk perched on a flower, or on an omphalos-like object,

26 which may be derived from the flower. Various crowns may be worn, but the disc is the most common, and crook, flail or both may be carried. A uraeus is regularly shown before the bird, but there are few examples on which the wings are carried forward to protect it, as here.

27 The precise linear style, hatched border and shape of the beetle, show that this goes with the main Punic series of green jasper scarabs and may well be from a western Mediterranean site, like Sardinia. Late sixth or fifth century B.C. 6. Pale green steatite lentoid (Fig. 18).

28 A centaur leaping to the left, his arms raised and head turned back. In the classification proposed in my Island Gems this is an early example of Class C, of the second half but not the very end of the seventh century, The simple, rather tubular body, with the bold cutting of the thin limbs, recalls some of the lentoids with lions, as IGems pi. 3.68. This is an early example to show the farther hind leg as a line duplicating the near leg but not de16 As London BM 359, Walters pi. 6, from Tharros; Annali dell' Inst. 1883 pl. F. 2, from Sardinia; Cagliari 9528, 9564, 9569, 19741, 35120. 17 Paris, Bibl. Nat,, de Luynes 233, Arethusa 5 (1928) pi. 7.1; Ibiza 4728. 18 Cagliari 19726. 19 Barcelona 9204, from Ibiza. 20 B a b e 1 o n, Coll. Pauvert de la Chapelle pl. 4.27, seated on a column, from Asia Minor. 21 Paris, Bibl. Nat., de Luynes 235; Vercoutt e r, Objets eg. ... carthaginois pl. 19.656 ; Oxford 1889. 420, chalcedony from near Beirut, Harden, The Phoenicians, fig. 108c; Madrid 36543, from Ibiza; Ibiza 4199 (Isis alone). These references for Punic seals are taken from the notes of the late Mlle. M. Astruc, whose unfinished work on these objects I hope to complete. 22 Cagliari 19740, Horus on column; London 358, from Tharros, winged uraei; Cagliari 19739, uraei on pillars. 23 London BM 357, Walters pi. 6, from Tharros. 21 With the double crown as here on V e r eoutte r, pi. 19.656. 25 Inv. 53.94. 14x 10,5, height 7,2 mm. 26

1 list some of these in PBSR 34 (1966) 15, n. 21. 27 V e r c o u 11 e r, pi. 15.556, cf. 557 — 8; Babelon, Coll. Pauvert de la Chapelle, pl. 4.29, from Sardinia; Cagliari 19735; Barcelona 9366, from Ibiza; London BM Western Asiatic Dept.. 48493, onyx from Byblos, Iraq 6 (1939) pi. 13,1. On London 362, Walters pi. 6, a crowned figure is protected (not recognised by Walters). 28 Inv. 53.156. 15x 14 mm.