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  • Cirene e la ceramica laconica: Cirene “Atene d’Africa.” by Oscar Mei
  • Gerald Schaus
Oscar Mei. Cirene e la ceramica laconica: Cirene “Atene d’Africa.” Monografie di archeologia libica 35. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. 2013. Pp. 135, figs. 40, pls. 22 (colour). € 105. ISBN 9788891306951.

This short monograph promises to be the start of a series of studies of the Archaic pottery excavated by the Italian mission at Cyrene since 1957. It is a long time coming and much to be hoped that it continues despite the recent death of project director, Mario Luni. Mei’s careful study covers only 77 fragments of Laconian pottery from a half century and more of digging. It is lavish in its format, with colour photos of every piece, considering that only 13 sherds are from black-figure vases, the rest being black-glaze or black-patterned fragments. Highlights of the collection are a cup with water birds attributed to the Painter of the Taranto Fish (no. 12), circa 590–580 bc, a cup with a fine rendering of a centaur or Silenos by the Arcesilas Painter (no. 22), circa 565–560 bc, and a rare black-glaze “Campana” krater (no. 76), circa 500 bc. The wide range of shapes is worth noting, unusual for exported Laconian wares: “skyphoi” (7), beakers (4), cups of six different types (27), a hemispherical bowl, a fruit dish, phialai (2), lakainai (3), kraters (volute [3], patterned [8] and black-glaze [3]), aryballoi (11), kothons (2), a possible calyx krater, two possible lekythoi, and the “Campana” krater. The catalogue is arranged chronologically (in groups dated 630–575 bc, 575–550 bc, 550–525 bc, 525–500 bc, 500–475 bc) and by shape (43–78). Each chronological group is described for the production and distribution of Laconian pottery generally, and its appearance at various places in Cyrenaica specifically, before catalogue entries are provided by shape for the Cyrene material within the period. Only one significant problem stands out in this part of the study—Mei’s dating of seven fragmentary skyphoi to 650–620 bc (“Laconian I”) based on Conrad Stibbe’s classification of the shape.1 This is the very earliest time of Cyrene’s founding, traditionally given as 631/630 bc, and it suggests that Laconians may have brought these pieces with them in the first wave of settlement. The problem is that no other Laconian pottery from Cyrenanica can be securely dated this early, and even among Mei’s material, the next closest pieces are dated circa 600 bc. Stibbe’s classification should not be applied too rigidly, especially since the decoration of the “skyphoi” shows little variation. Besides, almost no Laconian pottery is exported this early. The Cyrene fragments could just as easily be classified as Laconian II (circa 620–580 bc), though probably in the earlier half of this phase. Of course, this has implications for the question of whether Laconians took part in the original settlement of Cyrene from Thera or only participated in a second wave of immigration from a variety of Greek states, circa 580 bc, or, [End Page 156] what seems more likely based on the finds, that they began to establish ties with Cyrenaica in the late seventh or early sixth century.

Two major bodies of Laconian pottery from Cyrenaica have been published previously, one by J. Hayes from Tocra’s Demeter Sanctuary (106 pieces)2 and the other by myself from Cyrene’s Demeter Sanctuary (222 pieces).3 Mei includes the new material from Italian excavations with these two bodies and discusses their implications for our knowledge of trade and distribution of Laconian pottery within Cyrenaica, a region that apparently had close ties to Laconia, either from settlers moving to Libya from Laconia at some point or, more indirectly, through ties between Sparta and Thera, Cyrene’s mother city.4 Mei, however, also tackles the question of cultural influences from Cyrenaica on Laconia, re-examining the iconography on certain well-known Laconian cups, including the cup with King Arcesilas of Cyrene supervising the weighing of a white substance, commonly taken to be either silphium or wool, and the cup with the nymph Cyrene wrestling a...

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