Archaeology Magazine - December 1959 - 70

style of writing, gives a detrimentally
casual air to the work. Nonetheless,
the book is a help to one who would
roam through the Hellenistic woods
with full knowledgeof the hazards.
Frances Follín Jones
The Art Museum
Princeton University

thought emerges. I feel that few who
read this book will remember any of
the details so lovingly related. However, they may remember the simple
diversity and grandeur of man's span
on earth. And that- in the final analysis- is important.
Louis Dupree
PennsylvaniaState University

destine discoveryof the tomb, the dispersal of its contents and the reconstruction of subsequentevents through
letters and through their correlation
with other reports make an intriguing
tale.
The second part of the book is a
gathering together of extant Ptolemaic
pictorial material, all of it "minor"
rather than "major" art. The stylistic
and chronologicalevaluation of about
PTOLEMAIC
PAINTINGS
ANDMOSAICS
AND fifty monuments leads to a distinction
THEALEXANDRIAN
STYLE,
by BLANCHE of four styles, ranging from the late
R. Brown, xviii, 108 pages, 2 figures, fourth into the first
century B.c. In45 plates. The Archaeological Insti- evitably a study of this sort is
subjectute of America, Cambridge 1957 tive. It
places a heavy burden on
on
and
(Monographs
Archaeology
artisans rather than artists. Even comFine Arts Sponsoredby The Archaeoparison with datable monuments of
logical Institute of America and The various types presents an elusive eleCollege Art Association of America, ment of interpretation. Can such qualVIII) $10.00
ities as liveliness and cursiveness be
For those who prefer to explore in safely called upon as criteria for disthe world of art history, rather than to tinguishing periods of development?
glean in carefully tilled fields, the Perhaps, under certain circumstances,
Hellenistic period still offers the al- but always with circumspection.Furlure of unmarked trails. And trails ther difficultiesare variable factors, of
there are, crossing and criss-crossing, which continuing tradition and indifor it is not untraveled wilderness.The vidual manner are but a pair of comthrough-road will probably never be plications to be considered.
The final section inquires into the
direct- the terrain is complex- but
sign-posts for the proper course are possibility of a local style which can
slowly going up. Mrs. Brown has surely be marked as Alexandrian. The
placed a marker at one of the par- author feels that, with the evidenceso
far available, we cannot successfully
ticularly confusedpoints.
The book had its origin in a study define and isolate such a manifestation.
of six painted slabs in The Metropoli- As an important city, Alexandria
tan Museum of Art, slabs which came shared characteristicswith other parts
from the Soldiers' Tomb in the Ibra- of its contemporaryworld, and its art
himiya cemetery east of Alexandria. was pan-Hellenistic. Our ignorance
Since the tomb can be dated by its of the art of the period is a handicap
third-century contents and since the to the inquiry, and the author readily
Museum archives preserve documents admits that the future may well
pertinent to its history, the first section change her present conclusion.
The full force of the book is someof the book is a detailed account of
the monument.This part reads like an what blunted by carelessediting which,
archaeological"whodunit." The clan- combined with an occasionallybreezy
290

IN THENEAREST
ADVENTURES
EAST,by
Cyrus H. Gordon. 192 pages, 21
plates, 3 maps. Essential Books, Fair
Lawn, New Jersey 1957 $6.00
In 1941 Professor Gordon published
a very readable account of the archaeological and other researchesin which
he had participated ( The Living Past,
John Day Company, New York). In
the present volume the author reproduces eleven chapters of the former
work and adds chapters on the Coptic
Fathers of Egypt and the Dead Sea
Scrolls* which were undreamed of
when the first book appeared sixteen years earlier. A section of notes
and a bibliography have been added.
This is a lively account in non-technical language of some of the results
of scientific archaeology in the Near
East and of the laborious process by
which they were achieved.
James B. Pritchard
Church Divinity School
of the Pacific
THEANCIENT
AMBER
ROUTES
and the Geoof the EasternBaltic,by
graphicalDiscovery
Arnolds Spekke. xiii, 120 pages, 11
figures, 15 plates, 8 maps. M. Goppers,
Stockholm1957 Sw. kr. 22.50
The amber trade is one of the most
tantalizing of topics. Amber, the
Greek elektron (meaning "substance
of the sun") has been of world-wide
interest throughout the ages. Largescale trade in amber started during
the Neolithic period, continuedthrough
the Bronze and Early Iron ages, and
reached its peak in the Roman period.
Amber traveled thousands of miles
across Europe and the Near East, connecting the Baltic shores with the
higher cultures to the south.
In this handsome book, translated
from the Latvian, the author presents
a sketch of the amber trade during the
first two centuries of our era, based
chiefly on Greek and Latin literature.
He also mentions the amber trade of
prehistoric times. He focuses the

Archaeology Magazine - December 1959

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - December 1959