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Jade ornament for the top of an axe shaft

 

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

China, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture, about 2500 BC.

The graves of the Liangzhu culture (about 3000-2000 BC) sometimes had as many as three hundred as three hundred jade artifacts. These included bead necklaces and other decorative pieces such as this ornament for an axe. Many are carved with motifs derived from monster and human-like faces. The carving is often of the highest quality, with fine modulated relief, openwork and very complicated incised designs. The massive jade cong and discs and such fine personal jades as this example must have belonged to a society of considerable complexity.

 

 

Marble column drum from the later Temple of Artemis at Ephesos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hellenistic Greek, about 340-320 BC.

From Ephesos, modern Turkey. A fragment from one of the Seven Wonders of the World

This is the best preserved column drum from the Temple of Artemis. It has the remains of seven figures, two of which have been almost completely obliterated. The subject portrayed is disputed, but the scene is clearly presided over by the messenger god, Hermes, who gazes upwards with his kerykeion (winged staff) in his right hand and petasos (wide-brimmed sun hat) hanging behind his head. The god appears here in his guise as Hermes Psychopompos (leader of souls to the Underworld). The woman standing in front of him, whom he appears to guide, has been identified as many different tragic heroines, including Iphigenia, Alkestis or Eurydike. Other theories base the scene on the drum around the myth of Persephone. The suggestion that death is involved is supported by the presence of a winged youth with a sword who may be Thanatos, the personification of death. 

 

The Piranesi Vase

18th century, incorporating Roman fragments (2nd century AD). From Tivoli, Italy, An architect's neo-classical invention

The celebrated Italian architect and engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78) is best known for his architectural views of ancient and modern Rome aimed at the Grand Tour market. By the late 1760s he began to engage in the lucrative restoration and sale of antiquities.  Piranesi's description of this vase in his book (vol. II plates 58-59) praises it as a fine work of the time of the Roman emperor Hadrian (reigned AD 117-138). However, it does not mention that only small sections of it are ancient (two of the bull's heads on the base, sections of the lion's legs and parts of the relief depicting satyrs picking grapes), while the rest are entirely of his own making. In effect, the vase is a grand neo-classical work rather than an antiquity.

 

 

Shaman's rattle in the form of an oystercatcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tlingit, 19th century AD. From Alaska, North America

The rattle is carved of wood, in the form of an oystercatcher (?) surmounted by the head of a mountain goat, with a frog on the back whose tongue is joined with that of the goat. A shaman is tying up a witch, from whose mouth a second frog emerges, with long pointed incisors. This frog represents the evil spirit possessing the sorcerer, which the shaman is responsible for removing.

Shamans, like mountain goats, were able to visit the most difficult terrain. Such rattles might be applied over an afflicted part of the body, or left with the patient as guardian.