Archaeology Magazine - June 1957 - 67

long and distinguished career by producing a monumentalvolume in which
all major and many minor masterpieces
of Hellenistic art are discussed and illustrated with the extensive documentation that makes her work invaluable
as a text, a reference and a springboard for future research.
Besides twelve chapters which present Hellenistic sculpture from its antecedents in the fourth century B.c.,
through the traditional arrangement of
geographical "schools" and rococo
trends in the third and secondcenturies
B.c., and into the classicismof the century before Augustus, the book contains a Chronologyof Historical Facts
and Dated Works of Art, an extensive
Selected Bibliography, a full Index,
and a List of Plates in which titles by
subject groupings and all photograph
sources are given. These features are
mentioned because they serve to make
the book a veritable encyclopedia of
scholarshipin this field during the century since Johann Gustav Droysen
coined (1833) the word "Hellenistic,"
meaning late Greek.
In a short review of such an important work it is perhaps petty to comment on the quality and labeling of the
photographs. If every scholar withheld
his publishable material until better
photographs became available, a book
such as Miss Bieber's would be subject
to even longer delays in appearing.
However, even the casual critic will be
struck by the superiority of many of
the illustrations and the inferior, dated
quality of others. For example, Figures
54, 56 and 57 show the Fogg Art Museum Meleager in the old Hunt Hall
setting rather than in the present building, constructednearly thirty years ago.
It seems a shame that Replica C
(Bulle) of the so-called Pothos of
Skopas,with its alien head, appears as
Figure 62, rather than Replica A, also
in the UffiziGallery, or Replica D, discovered just before the war in Rome,
in the Via Cavour. The Vatican-UffiziDuncombe Park mastiff (Figure 660)
is hardly a "bulldog."
Miss Bieber's other writings of recent years have revealed her great interest in the treasures of American museums, especiallythe smaller Classical
collections (Cleveland, Princeton, Toledo, etc.) , in relation to the better
known show-piecesof Europe. This interest is manifest in the number of
Americanexampleswhich are included

in her new book. American collections
continue to increase their holdings of
major masterpieces in the Hellenistic
field. The heretofore conjectured head
of Achilles in the Achilles and Penthesilea group, reconstructed by Giuseppe
Lugli from scattered fragments (pages
79f.) is probably representedby a head
which passed recently from London to
the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu,
California. The head suits Lugli's reconstructionadmirably.The Getty Museum has also acquired a fine though
headless replica of the so-called Trophos in Florence, a standing woman in
a pose which led Arthur Milchhöfer to
include her at the left of his reconstruction of the celebratedNiobid groups in
Florence and elsewhere (Bieber, Figure
263). The Metropolitan Museum now
displays the handsome and somewhat
enigmatic bronze rider in elephant-skin
cap and cloak (Figure 298) suggested
as Demetrios of Bactria but perhaps
representingAlexander the Great as he
appears on coins struck by Ptolemy
Soter, who ruled Egypt in the name of
Alexander's son towards the end of the
fourth century b.c.
Cornelius Vermeule
Mawr
College
Bryn
FURNITURE
IN ROMAN
BRITAIN,
by JOAN
Liversidge. Foreword by J. M. C.
Toynbee, viii, 76 pages, 5 figures, 69
plates. Alec Tiranti, London 1955
(Chapters in Art, Vol. 27) 10s.6d.
This small, concisebook on a specialized subject by a recognized authority
fillsa need. Using all availableevidence,
well illustrated and furnished with
notes, it recreates Roman interiors.
Owing to geographical and chronological circumstances,British furniture
tended toward those Roman types least
obviously of Greek derivation. Only a
few of them can be mentioned here.
Couchespreferably were low with high
closed back, like sofas, and the British
preference was for curved ends. These
couches had resilient seats. The commonest chair had a rounded back in one
with the sides,heavy low base and sometimes four little feet. This design was
frequently executed in wicker, and
wickerchairs were preferred by women.
Of iron folding stools, the author accepts two from Britain, both having a
curious interrupted upper front bar (cf.
others from Bulgaria: Bulletin de l'Institut ArchéologiqueBulgare VII [193233] 418, 421) but doubts, at least in its

present form, a richly decorated stool
having both an interrupted bar and
three jointed horizontal bars (for the
decorationand somedetails of construction, compare the fragments in Fasti
ArchaeologiciIV [1949]564 and American Journal of Archaeology55 [1951]
185, plate 13 D). Folding tripods are
indicated. Tables with animal foreparts
as legs, a common imperial type, are
distinctly British if made of Kimmeridgeshale.
Hangings, cushions, mattresses and
pillows enhanced the comfort and
beauty of the homes, which were also
equipped with candelabra, chests, footstools and other amenities.It is a rich
life that has skilfully been delineated
with the help of these disiecta membra.
Dorothy Kent Hill
The Walters Art Gallery
of an InChronicle
PAA-KO,
Archaeological
dian Villagein NorthCentralNewMexico,
Parts I-V, by Marjorie F. Lambert.
ThePhysicalTypeof the Paa-koPopulation,
Part VI, by Spencer L. Rogers. Parts
I-V: xviii, 183 pages, 54 figures, 39
plates, 13 tables. Part VI: iii, 48 pages*
65 illustrations, 32 tables. School of
American Research, Santa Fe, New
Mexico 1954 (Monograph 19) Parts
I-V $6.00, Part VI $3.00
Paa-ko lies thirty-five miles northeast of Albuquerque, New Mexico,on
the edge of the Galisteo Basin. The
setting is spectacular. The Sandia
mountains rise abruptly to the west of
the site, and scatteredrolling hills blend
into the plains to the east. The region
is fairly thickly covered with piñón
and scrub oak, which grade to the
west into dense pine-coveredslopes of
the Sandia mountains.
One of the main objectivesof the excavation was to preserve the remains
of the village as a museum in situ. The
portions at present uncovered are almost entirely obliterated because of
lack of care, as this objective of the
program never materialized.
Paa-ko has long been popular with
excavators. N. C. Nelson was the first
to excavate, in 1914-15. A combined
project of the Museum of New Mexico, the School of American Research
and the Universityof New Mexicowas
carried out in 1935-37.It is with this
excavation that the present report
deals. Lastly, the University of New
Mexico did further work in 1949-50.
The pueblo is made up of two major
147

Archaeology Magazine - June 1957

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - June 1957