art 251
the finds from samʾal include a large bronze cauldron,226 a sarcophagus,227
several mace heads,228 horse blinkers with a lion sphinx,229 a cauldron
with a handle attachment in the form of a bull’s head,230 and two chariot
pole ornaments, one with a nude woman holding a reversed lion in each
hand, the other, in quite fragmentary form, featuring two rampant lions
recognizable by their tails and hindquarters.231 all these objects under-
score the possible significance of samʾal as a center for the production of
precious metal products. these products also include sheets of silver with
stamped decorations of sphinxes and rosettes that are possibly related to
a similar piece from Olympia.232 Finally, mention must be made of the
bars of silver and the small bronze ingot that were found during excava-
tions in Zincirli. three of the silver bars are inscribed with the words “Bar-
rakkab, son of panamuwa.”233
several of the above-mentioned objects, including the ivories, are
among the orientalia found not only at holy places in Greece (e.g., Olym-
pia in the peloponnese, the temple of apollo in eretria, the heraion of
samos, the temple of athena at Lindos, the archaic temple of athena in
Milet, the Idaen cave on crete), but also in cemeteries in Greece and Italy
(e.g., the cemetery in the Kerameikos district of athens, the necropolis of
Lefkandi, and the necropolises in etruria).234 together with their counter-
parts from assyria and the asian regions farther to the east, they testify
to the enormous productivity and proliferation of the specialized craft
workshops in the syrian region, which reached their peak in the late 9th
and 8th centuries B.c. the aramaean city of samʾal was just one of many
such centers. the paths that these diverse groups of minor art took as they
spread through these regions were quite complex and involved diverse
combinations of factors such as trade, gift-giving, tributes, and looting.235
the bronze horse frontlet discovered in the heraion of samos is just one
example of how objects could enter new contexts and change ownership
226 von Luschan 1943: pl. 57a and Wartke 2005: fig. 82.
227 von Luschan 1943: pl. 57b and Wartke 2005: fig. 83.
228 von Luschan 1943: fig. 107 pl. 42 and Wartke 2005: fig. 91.
229 von Luschan 1943: fig. 152 pl. 54d.
230 von Luschan 1943: pl. 49g.
231 von Luschan 1943: figs. 90–91 pl. 40c–d.
232 von Luschan 1943: 112f fig. 155 pl. 55 and Wartke 2005: fig. 88. For comparable silver
sheets from Olympia, see seidl 1999: 279 n. 34.
233 von Luschan 1943: 120f figs. 170–172, pl. 58t–v and Wartke 2005: 83 fig. 87.
234 summarized in Braun-holzinger – rehm 2005. For the finds from etruria, see also
Muscarella 1970.
235 e.g., Winter 1988: 206–212; Braun-holzinger 2005: 181–183.