EARLY GREEK ART.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 395, 2 January 1909, Page 14

EARLY GREEK ART.

Great Enthusiasm was shown at. the: an-1 j nual meeting of the British School at Athens, ; held in;the rooms of the Society of Antiquar-1 ies, when Mr. Dawkins, the'director of the school, announced that the sohool had discovered the foundations,of the earliest Spar- '■ .tan Temple, that .dates hack nearly 3000 'i yeam:The; remains. show. : 'that_ it'' was originiV 'ally built of niud'brick, that it rested on a foundation'of undressed, stones, and'was'lield ' ..together/'byS a, framework .< of' : wooden beams, V ''while a-row. of wooden columns ran downtho ■y centre. '. The'; tcmplo probably hada' gable roof. ; It .was dedicated to: Arfcemis Orthia. Duiingithe' excavations trfices were fotmd of ' a small rocess, intended, no doubt, for the' a xoanon, or sacrcd imago of tho goddess, . which, legend asserts, .was carried away'from •' the Taurie Chersonese (Crimea) ,by Iphigenia. ' The gross ingratitude of Iphigenia, who was miraculously .saved by the goddess from being sacrifived, and who eventually stole away the goddess's image; . and-fled'from the .temple '. with her brother, apparently brought no mis- . fortune on the Doriansj. who • built for the ! 7 imago, the temple which was discovered this ;• yea rby.Mr. Dawldns. In.the course ofex- > cavations several - good specimens of Dorian '? art have been recovered, including some finely carved.ivory figures of animals. An 0 example' of pottery j dating,, back to the, : seventh .oentury,-shows a dead man swathed '*; like a mummy; with three .mourners standing ■ behind him. Four- of ths ivories are wonder't fully, beautiful;'and wore evidently preserved \> in the temple, as being of espeoial value.