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[German version] I. Introduction Although only a small part of the pavimenta (floor coverings) in ancient buildings was decorated, scholars have paid a great deal of attention to them, esp. to those decorated with mosaics (other floor coverings generally only appear in scholarly literature in relation to the identification of their ancient terminology). In Pompeii only 2.5% of floors were decorated with mosaics, a further 7% were decorated with cement floors and the rest of the buildings are floored with undecorated stone or cement pavimenta or even stamped earth. Pavimenta were alw…

[German version] I. Phoenician-Punic A fundamental technical innovation in the creation of floors first occurred in the 5th cent. BC in the region of Carthage (Kerkouane) [1]: the surface was designed with the help of small, rectangular or almost square cubes ( tessellae) made of terracotta ( opus figlinum, see below II.B.), limestone or marble, which were set into a bed of mortar with the tightest possible fit and were then polished for walking upon. It appears to have developed in this important metropolis of the central Mediterranean (Pavi…

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Caesar | Christianity | Africa | Wine | | Coloniae | Africa | Etrusci, Etruria | Commerce | Colonization | Limes | Limes | Pertinax | Phoenicians, Poeni | Pilgrimage | Punic Wars | Punic Wars | Rome | Rome (Phoenician Qrt-ḥdšt, ‘new town’; Greek Καρχηδών/ Karchēdṓn, Lat. Carthago). I. History [German version] A. From Phoenician foundation to Roman colony According to Timaeus' report (FGrH 566 F 60), C. was founded in 814/13 or 813/2 BC -- on the site of Tunis' modern suburb of the same name. The colonist were …

[German version] I. Phoenicia Facial masks and head protomes (also shortened human representations including the neck and shoulder part) are a common type of monument since the 9th/8th cent. BC in the Phoenician-Punic world. They spread from the Levant (here going back to the 2nd millennium, e.g. in Tell Qāṣila, also from Tyrus, Amrīt, Akhzib, Hazor, Sarepta etc.) via Cyprus, Carthage, Sicily (Motya), Sardinia and Ibiza into the far west (Cadiz). The masks (with openings for eyes and mouth) mostly …

[German version] [1] Town on the Capo di Pula on the south coast of Sardinia This item can be found on the following maps: Sardinia et Corsica | Theatre | Colonization | Phoenicians, Poeni (Νώρα; Nṓra). Town on the Capo di Pula on the south coast of Sardinia, approx. 20 km south of Cagliari. N. is regarded as the oldest town on the island (Paus. 10,17,5; Solin. 4,1; on its location cf. Itin. Anton. 85,2f.; Tab. Peut. 4,1). After a pre-colonial phase (cf. Phoenician inscriptions CIS I 144 c. 800 BC; [1. 1]), N. was founded by the Phoenicians in the mid 7th cent. BC. The Phoenician …

Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) [German version] I. Archaeological Excavations (CT) Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) [German version] A. From the beginnings to the settling of the White Fathers in 1875 (CT) Legends about the untold riches of the Punic metropolis have always fascinated treasure hunters, starting with Scipio's soldiers, who ransacked and razed the city in 146 BC, and with Pompey's legionnaires, who, two generations later, after the victory against the Numidian king Hiarbas near Utica (83 BC), scoured the nearby d…

[German version] [1] City on Cape Bouloustra This item can be found on the following maps: Thraci, Thracia | Colonization | Macedonia, Macedones | Moesi, Moesia | Peloponnesian War | Pergamum | Persian Wars | Pompeius | Punic Wars | Athenian League (Second) (Ἄβδηρα; Ábdēra). City on Cape Bouloustra, in the Aegean, 16 km north-east of the mouth of the Nestus; founded and fortified in 656 BC by Ionian  Clazomenae; destroyed by Thracians at the beginning of the 6th cent. BC. Archaeologically attested archaic graves. From 545 BC, a second fou…

[German version] I. Near East and Egypt Stelae are standing stone slabs with reliefs or inscriptions on one or more sides; in Egypt wooden stelae also survive. In early Mesopotamia their shape can be natural, elsewhere they usually have rounded tops, less often squared tops. From the end of the 4th millennium BC, funeral stelae were used in Egypt at or in tombs (or cenotaphs) as cult places. In the 1st millennium, funeral stelae (mostly wooden) were also placed in the burial chamber: they bear images (…

Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) I. General (CT) [German version] A. Terminology (CT) A peculiarity of the discipline is the absence of a generally accepted concept of Classical Archeology (CA), which in a good third of German-speaking universities is simply called Archaeology, either by way of obvious simplification or by way of conscious extension of the subject-matter, thereby sacrificing the aspect and claim of the ‘Classical’. One of its most prominent research bodies, the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut [20; 55; 89], was founded in Rome in 1829 as the Istituto di corrispond…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt In Egypt and southern Mesopotamia navigation played a major role, especially in inland traffic but also in communication across the sea. In both countries, rivers and canals were the major traffic arteries that were even used by the gods on their mutual visits and by rulers on their tours. Beyond their ordinary significance as a means of transportation for people and goods, ships also had a religious connotation. In Egypt the vocabulary of navigation entered daily life. In both countries, boats sailed or were towed, but in southern M…

(τορευτικὴ τέχνη/ toreutikḕ téchnē; Lat. caelatura; literally 'chiseling', from τορεύς/ toreús, Lat. caelum, 'chisel') denotes the chasing and repoussé work of thin plates of metal, or else works in which chasing is combined with repoussé work to design relief work; repoussé work may be replaced by casts. [German version] I. The Ancient Orient and Egypt Toreutics designates primarily the productive technique by which metals (gold/electrum, silver, copper/bronze, lead, iron) were shaped in a cold state. The objects (plaques), usually thin, were forme…

[German version] I. Definition Silver (ἀργύριον/ argýrion, ἄργυρος/ árgyros; Latin argentum) is a precious metal, which in Antiquity was extracted primarily by smelting silver-bearing ores of lead. Four different kinds occur naturally: 1. as pure silver; 2. as silver ore; 3. as a component of galena, the only economically interesting ore of lead; 4. in alloy with gold, i.e. as electrum (Elektron), in which the gold content can amount to less than 30 %. Pure silver is rare and its surface corrodes, so that…

[German version] I. Ancient Near East Mouldable, quickly hardening material of gypsum, lime, sand and water, occasionally with stone powder, which was used in many places (in Egypt from the Old Kingdom onwards, c. 2700-2190 BC) to smooth walls and as a base for painting. Figurines, vases and moulds for casting metal were also made from stucco. From the Parthian period onwards (1st cent. BC), figured or geometric stucco reliefs covering long walls are attested. They were modelled by hand or using templates; in the Sassanid and early Islamic periods they were also carved. Nissen, Hans Jörg…

Material and motifs indicate that jewellery in antiquity could be thought of as warding off evil or bringing luck. Not only men, women and children, but also idols wore jewellery. Jewellery was also often used as grave goods. [German version] I. Near East Beads made of shell and bone (later also wood) are again and again found in graves from the 7th/6th millennia BC. Gold and silver jewellery is known from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC from the Near East, sometimes with inlaid semiprecious stones, and in a great variety of forms (p…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Ceremonially decorated piece of furniture for gods and rulers to sit on, with a high back and often with arm-rests. The sides were often shaped as animals or animal protomae; the legs were often worked in the shape of animal legs. Apart from a few fragments in stone, most thrones were probably made of wood and hence in the area of the Near East have not been preserved, but are known from numerous depictions. Thrones were presumably usually provided with metal (gold) or ivory embellishments (cf. the numerous surviving examples from Egypt). Nissen, H…

(Μελίτη; Melítē). [German version] [1] Oceanid Oceanid, playmate of Persephone's (Hom. H. 2, 419). Stenger, Jan (Kiel) [German version] [2] Nereid Nereid (Hom. Il. 18,42; Hes. Theog. 247; Verg. Aen. 5,825). She is present on Attic vases at the struggle between Peleus and Thetis [1]. Stenger, Jan (Kiel) [German version] [3] Naiad Naiad ( Nymphs), daughter of the river-god Aegaeus. When Hercules comes to the land of the Phaeacians to atone for the murder of his children, he fathers a son, Hyllus [2], by M. (Apoll. Rhod. 4,537ff.). Stenger, Jan (Kiel) [German version] [4] Lover of Hercules Dau…

I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. General comments In the Near East, idols which functioned as cult images (CI) could be found in central temples, peripheral sanctuaries, private houses, and sometimes on open-air sanctuaries and cult alcoves. Their material consistency, appearance, and size varied depending on their origin and the context of their use. Berlejung, Angelika (Heidelberg) [German version] B. Egypt CI of gods already existed in earliest times. They could be anthropomorphic (anthr.), theriomorphous, or of mixed shape, and were created as in…

(σαρκοφάγος/ sarkophágos, stone coffin, literally 'flesh-eater'; Lat. arca, capsula and sarcofagus, Juv. 10,171). I. Graeco-Roman [German version] A. Material, typology, research Since the 18th cent., scholars have been referring to containers for corpses decorated with reliefs as sarcophagi. These were made of marble, less frequently of limestone, tuff, sandstone, granite, basalt or porphyry. Pliny describes a lapis ... sarcophagus from Assus (Plin. HN 2,210; 36,131) as 'corpse-consuming'. Terracotta and lead were used in certain regions. Wooden sarco…

[German version] I. Middle East and Phoenicia Ivory, i.e. tusks of the boar, the hippopotamus and particularly the (African as well as Asian)  elephant, was extremely popular from the Neolithic period onwards as a material in ‘craftwork’. In the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age, the important workshops of the Syrian-Phoenician coastal towns and also of Egypt developed styles that were recognizably their own. Ivory carvings (IC) were widespread through intensive trade and almost always formed part of t…

[German version] I. Definition 'Town' and 'city' in modern parlance have become general terms to describe settlements of a particular size, with a particular complement of buildings and administrative and legal structure. Owing, however, to the manifold forms assumed by towns and cities, we lack a specific, all-embracing definition: criteria such as a closed built environment, a highly evolved division of labour, and central administrative and economic functions for the surrounding territory, have p…