Archaeology Magazine - June 1958 - 55

though it may have been composed
earlier. Of paramount interest is a
prayer to the gods of the netherworld
which provides new information about
deities who were thought to rule it.
Edmund I. Gordon spoke on the
fauna of Mesopotamia as depicted in
Sumerian proverbs and fables. Among
the sixty-four species of animal life
referred to in the proverbs, Gordon
chose the monkey, rat and pig, and
discussed Sumerian ideas about the
characters of these animals.
Inscribed Arabic glass vessel stamps
from Egypt were discussed by George
C. Miles,who explained them as labels
of pharmaceutical measures or containers. More than fifty drugs have
been identified, among them pomegranate, sesame seed, lupin, fennel or
dill, tamarind, lentil, cumin, jujube
and wode (isatis tinctoria).
In the Far Eastern section John F.
Haskins discussed bronzes recently
found in China in layers precedingthe
well known assemblage of the Shang
period from Anyang. He singled out
the chüeh, showing a development
from a pottery type to the elegant
metal form of Shang II. Moreover, he
distinguished two types of decoration
in thé pre-Anyang bronzes, one characterized by a flat, angular rendering
of the later ao-ieh wen, the other a
raised thread-line pattern, somewhat
reminiscentof Middle Chou motifs.
Ancient Chinese trade with Borneo
was the subject of John A. Pope's
paper. There is plenty of evidence
from Chinese sources of trading with
Borneo from the tenth century on, but
only recently has any attempt been
made to verify, by systematic excavation, the extent of this trade. In the
last decade five sites in the Santubong
delta have yielded thousands of potsherds that range from the ninth to
the thirteenth century (and to the sixteenth in Brunei). In addition to ceramics there were beads, gold sheets
and glass. The excavationshave served
to locate at least one important Chinese settlement on that huge island.
This is something new and unsuspected since the texts speak only in a
general way about Borneo.
Jane Gaston Mahler presented a
beautifully illustrated survey of Mon
art in Burma, showing Buddhist temples, frescoesand sculptures. Of particular interest was the Nagayon temple, at Pagan (eleventh century), in
which indirect light was concentrated

upon the Buddha statue by means of
a shaft.
The symposium, on the subject:
"Tradition and Innovation in Ancient
Near Eastern, Indian, Islamic and Chinese Art," was a highly stimulating
affair in which Briggs W. Buchanan,
Joseph Campbell, Oleg Grabar and
Nelson Wu participated. Aschwin
Lippe was the chairman.
Edith Porada
Study of Japanese Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass has
announced the award of a special fellowship to Miss Dorothy Blair, a well
known orientalist who proposes to
undertake, for the first time, a study of
Japanese glass as a basis for an
authoritative publication on this subject. While in Japan, Miss Blair will
work with Japanese scholars, museum
directors and private collectors and
make a photographic documentationof
her findings.
Although during the last four years
the Corning Museum of Glass has
awarded a total of twelve fellowships
for research in the history of glass, this
is the first time that this institution has
granted a fellowship to a student of
glass for study abroad.

for several miles along the Hermus
valley, is eventually expected to yield
a rich harvest of finds dating back to
the Lydian kings of the sixth century
before Christ.
This is the second time that Sardis
is being explored by an American expedition. A group headed by the late
Professor Howard Crosby Butler of
Princeton University worked there
from 1910 until the outbreak of
World War I. An attempt to resume
excavationwas made at the end of the
war by the late Professor T. L. Shear,
also of Princeton, but he was forced
to abandon the dig when fighting
broke out between Turks and Greeks.
Amazons in Greek Art
A special exhibition which opened
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York on May 15th will be of
interest to our readers. The exhibit
shows in one room all the representations of Amazons in Greek art which
are in the Metropolitan Museum, and
to these have been added many pieces
lent by private collectorsin the Greater
New York area. Most of the fifty-odd
objects are vases which range in date
from the second quarter of the sixth
century to the end of the fourth century B.c. Sculpture is represented by
the early Attic terracotta relief with
Achilles in combat with Penthesilea,

New Explorations at Sardis
Sardis, the capital of ancient Lydia
in western Anatolia, the city of King Herakles and Amazons.
Amphorain the
Croesus whose fabulous wealth is still mannerof the Lysippidespainter.
a byword, will be the objective of an
expedition sponsored by Cornell University, the Fogg Museum of Harvard
and the Bollingen Foundation, under
the auspices of the American Schools
of Oriental Research. The first of
three campaigns is planned for the
summer of 1958. The field director is
George M. A. Hanfmann of Harvard
University; A. Henry Detweiler of
Cornel] University will be field adviser and chief architect.
During this first season the expedition will concentrate on stratigraphy
and on recording numerous buildings
of the Hellenistic and Roman city.
Among the main objectiveswill be the
identification of the sites of the palace of Croesus and of the great temple of Zeus. It is also hoped that some
of the very early coins of Sardis- perhaps the earliest ever issued- will be
discovered.
The royal cemetery,which stretches

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Archaeology Magazine - June 1958

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