Archaeology Magazine - June 1972 - 75

LAST

CALL

St. Basil's

Archaeological

Institute

Of America Tour To
Russia and The Balkans
Sept. 6-27, 1972

Some space is still open in the
Archaeological Institute's Art
and Architecture tour to Russia,
Rumania and Bulgaria. The
tour will be under the direction
of Professor A. D. McKenzie of
the University of Oregon.
For a detailed itinerary and
cost please write the Archaeological Institute of America,
260 West Broadway, New York,
New York 10013.

such cases dating becomes subjective
and agreementis difficultto reach. The
author also attributes several terracottas to pedimental or group compositions because of marked asymmetryin
their features. I hesitate in accepting
the idea that sculpturedpedimentswere
frequent in Magna Graecia before the
wave of influence from Greece after
480 b.c.; presumably asymmetriescan
be explained on other grounds, especially since they appear also in single
statuettes, where it is less likely that a
specificviewpoint was intended.
Though the general comments deal
with variousforms of artistic expression
(architecture, painting, bronze, limestone and marble sculpture, terracotta,
coins), the plates illustrate only plastic
works, of which a large number is
naturally representedby terracottas because of the scarcity of local stone.
Wheneverpossible,the commentsto the
illustrations mention the context in
which the objects were found and
therefore pieces which could pass
simply as precious bibelotsacquire special significance,such as the terracotta
maenad of plate xi which was found
clutched in the hand of a female skeleton, or the statuettes of satyrs and
dancers (plates 146-148) from Tarentine tombs. Langlotz's remarks inevitably point out how little we knowabout
the beliefs and cults of the Magna
Graecians,which seem so differentfrom
those of the motherland and require
specific iconography and implements.
The author also amusingly points out
iconographiemotifs which continue in
much later times or find fortuitous
echoesin modernrenderings.
Some of Langlotz's statements are
most stimulating. He believes that not
all Attic vases found in Magna Graecia
were imports, but that many must have
been producedby immigrants,especially
by pupils of the Berlin and the Pan
Painters who established workshopsin
Sicily after 480 b.c. and gradually became assimilated to the local inhabitants. Similarlyhe postulates a definite
wave of Attic artists to South Italy
around 400 b.c., after the disastrous
ending of the PeloponnesianWar. In
the field of sculpture he stresses the
difficulty a stone carver experiencesif
he has not been specificallytrained to
work with crystalline marble; indigenous masters,used to carving limestone,
could not have produced the marble
works found in Magna Graecia, which
therefore must have been imported at
least partially finished. Within certain
limits, the geologicalorigin of the me-

dium may therefore correspond to the
nationality of the master. Magna Graecian sculptors specializedin the softer
local poros,and the mediumdetermined
or magnified some local peculiarities,
such as the interest in physiognomic
traits and emotionalrenderings,or the
lack of interest in the representationof
the naked human body.
Inevitably many comments are repeated several times throughout the
text; in particular, the section on
Formal Evolutionof Sculpturein Magna
Graecia seemssomewhatrepetitiveafter
the chapters on the various statuary
media, and some of the statementsappear also in the notes to the plates.
However the book is meant as a work
of consultationand as such each section
is completein itself, while each entry is
illustrated and discussed per se. This
arrangement makes the book a most
valuablereferencetool for everyscholar
as well as a very intelligibleaccount for
any layman.
Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway
Mawr
College
Bryn

The Cultural History of
Marlborough, Virginia: An
Archeological and Historical
Investigation of the Port Town for
Stafford County and the
Plantation of John Mercer,
Including Data Supplied by Frank
M. Setzler and Oscar H. Darter
watkins. viii,224 pages,
by c. MALCOLM
91 text figures, 89 line drawings,13 appendices,map of endpapers.Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington,
D.C. 1968 $3.75
Rarely does good fortune permit the
planned and programmedinvestigation
of an historical site to begin- in ample
time- with historicaldocumentationfollowed by informed, problem-mindful
analysisof expertly and completelyexcavated field evidence.In fact, it is almost commonplacethat a site is "salvaged" as well and as completely as
difficultcircumstancespermit.
Once more we have the storyof such
a site. Briefly,it is this: In 1938 T.
Dale Stuart, then Curator of Physical
Anthropologyat the Smithsonianbegan
excavationsat the Indian villagesite of
Patawomecke,and noted that the nearby site of MarlboroughTown, the Stafford County seat which flourishedfitfully from 1691 through 1750, merited
excavationas a logical step beyond his
own work. By 1956 Oscar H. Darter,
243

Archaeology Magazine - June 1972

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - June 1972