< PreviousPaleolithic and Neolithic stone tools from Europe.CQ11Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2018A RED-FIGURE JUG WITH SPOUT. H. 16 cm. Clay, black glaze. Squat, bellied body on flat base, wide neck with everted rim, broad strap handle that juts over the rim and tubular spout on the shoulder. To the right of the spout, a nude satyr wearing shoes and holding a thyrsos staff in his left hand is seated on a wine amphora. He holds an offering bowl with his left hand. A stele and an open window before him. To the left of the spout, a nude satyr shouldering a thyrsos staff dances in front of a krater that stands on the ground. A suspended ivy vine and a drinking horn on the ground enliven the background. A band of ovolos around the neck, wave pattern around the rim and a frieze of lines around the base of the spout. Palmettes below the handle. Polychromy partially faded, red preliminary drawing visible. Reassembled from fragments, smaller lacunae restored. Priv. coll. Basel, acquired from Cahn Auktionen AG, Basel, Auction 1, 25.9.2006, lot 441. Lucanian, early 4th cent. B.C. CHF 46,000A BLACK-FIGURE BAND-CUP WITH MALE DANCERS. H. 12.5 cm. Clay. Between the handles a zone of figures rendered in silhouette. A/B: A row of nude dancers (seven on A, six on B) moving to right, all represented in the same slightly crouched posture. A curved row of dots in front of the seventh dancer on side A. Palmettes flank the handles. Reserved bands below the figured zone. Glaze on lower part of cup, together with foot, misfired bright orange. Complete, reassembled from fragments. Formerly Coll. H. Voigt, Essen, Germany. Thereafter priv. coll. Basel, acquired from Cahn Auktionen AG, Basel, Auction 4, 18.09.2009, lot 150. Attic, ca. 500 B.C. CHF 16,500CQ12Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2018UPPER PART OF A FEMALE FIGURINE. H. 17 cm. Fired clay. Upper part of a heavily stylised female figurine. A pair of small breasts below the neck. Short arms project laterally from the body. Elongated, conical, hollow head. The eyes and mouth are formed by circular perforations and the long, straight nose with nostrils is plastically modelled. The headdress or coiffure is severely geomet-rical, thereby accentuating the conical shape of the face. Carefully smoothed surface. The form is congruent with the characteristic repertoire of anthropomorphic terra-cotta figurines, which exhibit a high degree of stylisa-tion, generally with exaggerated, prominent buttocks, over-sized, elongated upper body, short arms, rudimen-tary breasts and small head. Preserved from the breasts upwards. Arms and head slightly worn. Formerly Priv. Coll. Sam Dubiner, acquired between 1954-1958. There-after Priv. Coll. Zakary, Los Angeles, USA, 1960s. Amlash Culture, ca. 10th-8th cent. B.C. CHF 7,800A FRAGMENT OF A RELIEF WITH EROS AND A HIND. L. 29 cm. Marble. A winged Eros strides to right, his head raised, carrying a slain hind that is tied to a staff by the legs, its head dangling lifelessly. The animal is rendered very naturalistically. The hindlegs of a feline are visible in front of Eros. A moulding on the reverse. Underside and short sides roughly finished. Part of the lid of a sarcophagus with Erotes or from a balustrade. Formerly Coll. Prof. Benedict Maedlin, Basel, before 1960. Supposedly once the property of the painter Arnold Böcklin. Roman, ca. 160 A.D. CHF 16,800A MALE IDOL. H. 4.7 cm. Bronze. The schematic figure stands with his over-sized hands raised in a gesture of adoration. The back of the head has a dowel hole, in-dicating that the piece served as an applique. Slight damage to left hand and top of the head. Formerly Coll. Levkovic. Thereafter Coll. Dr. Wassilijew. Western Asia, 8th-7th cent. B.C. CHF 3,400A FOOT OF A CANDELABRUM. H. 6.5 cm. Bronze. This magnificent candelabrum stands on three lion's paws. Each interstice between the legs is adorned by a broad, heart-shaped leaf with finely engraved veins. The ends of the leaves reach all the way up to the hollow shaft, of which the base is preserved. The shaft would originally have been fairly long and have ended in an ornamental support for the oil lamp. Tips of leaves slightly worn. Two ends of the leaves partially preserved. Examples of this type have been found in Pompeii. Comes with three can-delabrum fragments (two shaft fragments and one foot support), most probably from the same find context. With Sasson Gallery, Jerusalem, prior to the year 2000. Roman, 1st cent. A.D. CHF 4,200CQ13Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2018AN ELEPHANT GROTESQUE. H. 8.3 cm. Terracotta. Statuette representing a pot-bellied elephant which sits on the ground and holds its over-sized phallos with its trunk and forelegs. Hand-modelled. Thigh of the left leg preserved. Part of the left ear reattached. Exceptionally rare motif. Formerly MuM AG, Basel, 1962. Thereafter Priv. Coll. C. von Faber-Castell, Switzerland, acquired 1991 from Herbert A. Cahn, Basel. Published: MuM AG, Basel, Sonderliste E, 1962, no. 97 with illus.; H.A.C., Kunstwerke der Antike, Cat. 3, Basel 1991, no. 32 with illus. Greek, 3rd-1st cent. B.C. CHF 2,200A TERRACOTTA HEAD OF A BEARDED MAN. H. 5.2 cm. Terracotta. Small hand-modelled head of a bearded man with round punched eyes, short, angular nose and broad lips. Large, barely offset ears with no detailing in the interior. Brow, hair and full beard indicated by short grooves in the clay. Possibly from a statuette. Formerly UK priv. coll., before 2017. Roman Provinces, 1st-4th cent. A.D. CHF 1,700A GROTESQUE HEAD OF A BALD MAN. H. 7.8 cm. Ter-racotta. Expressive face. Prominent arched brows over heavily lidded eyes with drilled pupils and incised irises. A furrowed brow, large hooked nose, projecting ears and puffed-out cheeks. Incisions suggesting hair on the back of the head. Intact; traces of a white coating. Formerly Coll. J. and M. T., Bonn, Germany, 1950s-1960s. Roman Egypt, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D. CHF 4,200AN ARCHAIC GORGONEION. Dm. 6.5 cm. Fired clay. Hollow object, knob-shaped with circular face. Incised, almond-shaped eyes, circular perforations for the pupils. Nose broken off; remains of its broad bridge. Open-work mouth; most of the long, applied canines preserved. Re-mains of the now lost, lolling tongue at the lower edge of the mouth and chin. An incised moustache between mouth and nose that is interpreted as “fur zone”. The hair is rendered by short incised lines along the rim of the circle. Early, Archaic type of Gorgoneion (Floren 1977), i.e. the stylised head of Gorgo Medusa rendered as a hairy, mask-like, grotesque face with boar’s canines and lolling tongue within a circular shape. In Antiquity, Gorgoneia were thought to be endowed with apotropaeic powers. Due to its fragmentary condition, the function of the object cannot be determined with certainty. How-ever, it may have been a handle, the lid of a vessel, a spout, a spool or a type of stand. Slightly worn. Nose, one tooth and tongue missing. Formerly Bavarian priv. coll., prior to 1990. Phoenician, Archaic, 7th to mid-5th cent. B.C. CHF 1,500A LAMP WITH A BULL'S HEAD. H. 17 cm. Wrought iron. At one end of the large, bowl-shaped lamp the sides are squeezed together to form a nozzle for the wick. The high handle curves inwards and ends in a stylised bull's head applique. The bull's flat head has a drill hole in its middle and a hook is attached to the rounded muzzle. At the transition to the handle, two elegant S-shaped horns curve upwards. The base of the lamp is concave. It comes with its original chain composed of six links connected by hooks and loops. Surface corroded. Intact. Formerly Munich art market, 2008. Scythian, North West Cauca-sus, 1st-2nd cent. A.D. CHF 7,000A HEAD OF A STATUETTE WITH HIGH FOREHEAD AND DISC-SHAPED FACE. H. 5.8 cm. Terracotta. Nose and left ear slightly worn. Right half of face slightly encrusted. Formerly English priv. coll. Thessaly, 7th-6th mill. B.C. CHF 10,800CQ14Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2018loric density, honey must have been a highly sought-after food. On the other hand, the idea of pleasurably savouring a comb of warm lar-vae would seem rather foreign to us, even if, since the beginning of this year, the European Union’s new Novel Food Regulation has per-mitted insects as food for human consump-tion. Bee brood, however, is a good source of protein, fat, several essential minerals and B-vitamins and is still eaten today in consid-erable quantities by various foraging peoples such as the Tamang of Nepal, the Onge of the Andaman Islands and the Efe of the Ituri For-est in the Congo. Primates, too, have a great liking for honey and larvae – indeed to such an extent that they have developed specialised tools for honey dipping, i.e. the harvesting of honey in nests that are not easily accessible. Chimpanzees, for instance, use a long stick as a probe to gather information on the location of a nest in the interior of a tree or under the ground. The stick used to collect the honey is shorter and modified more extensively than the probe, with the bark removed and brush tips produced on one or both ends by chewing the stick to loosen the fibres. (J. Lapuente et al., American Journal of Primatology, 2016, doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22628). One would expect that early humans engaged in similar forms of behaviour and Alyssa Crittenden goes so far as to suggest that even Australopithecines knew how to harvest honey and bee brood. These nutritious foods may, she argues, “have been a crucial energy source to help enlarging the hominin brain.” As such, they would have played a significant role in shaping the course of human evolution. (Food and Foodways, 2011, doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2011.630618). Opportunistic honey hunting is thought to be the earliest form of interaction between humans and bees. Based on ethnological evi-dence it is assumed that this activity, in which hunters raided a bees’ nest when they found one and harvested the honeycombs from it without taking steps to preserve the bees, was practiced by only a few – mostly male – indi-viduals within a group. Such a practice is only possible in the long term if the human pop-ulation density is low and the groups move through a fairly large area to find food, al-lowing the bee population to recover from the inroads made into it. Over time, early humans would probably have developed strategies for Recipe from AntiquityLiquid Gold Honey Collecting and Beekeeping in the Stone Age“When the honey season starts we first do a religious ceremony before entering the forests. We recall the ancestors and spirits of the forest, the clan deities. We ask their protection and blessings. We ask pardon of the bees and the forest since we are going to take their honey. For us honey eating is a serious, solemn thing. We don’t talk when we eat honey.”Since time immemorial, humans have collect-ed the honey of wild bees and many indig-enous groups in Africa, Asia, Australia and South America still pursue this activity today. The words quoted above, in which members of the Kattunayakan, a South Indian trib-al people, express their profound reverence for nature, bees and the honey produced by them, may serve as a mirror for the emotions associated with the collecting and consump-tion of honey by people in prehistoric times. (Interview by Mari Marcel Thekaekara, New Internationalist, 2.9.2009). The inner life of our ancestors will remain forever elusive, but cave paintings nonethe-less provide a tantalising glimpse of how they perceived themselves and the world around them. Prehistoric representations of bees, honey combs and honey gathering have been preserved in many countries, most notably in Spain, India and South Africa, although dat-ing these artworks is often difficult. It is gen-erally accepted, however, that the oldest pre-served depiction of people gathering honey is located in the Cuevas de la Araña in Bicorp, Spain, and was created in the Late Mesolithic Period (ca. 6000 B.C.). To the right of a de-tailed hunting scene in which numerous per-sons slay a herd deer using bows and arrows – possibly an indication that collecting honey was also regarded as a hunting activity – two figures climb up a vertiginous rope ladder in order to reach a wild nest clinging to a rock face. They carry baskets in which to place the honeycombs and the figure closest to the nest is surrounded by a swarm of agitated bees. It is less clear whether there are cave paint-ings referring to the practice of honey gath-ering from the Palaeolithic Period, but some scholars have interpreted various patterns in a side chamber of the famous cave in Altami-ra, which was decorated in several phases between ca. 34,000-15,000 B.C., as ladders, honeycombs and a swarm of bees. (E. Crane, The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting, 1999, 37-38).Ethnographic and primatological observa-tions suggest that not only honey but also bee brood was most probably consumed by early humans and hominids over a period of sever-al million years. It is easy for us to appreciate that due to its sweetness, fragrance and ca-Prehistoric power bars with honey and pine nuts. Back: A CORE (“LIVRE DE BEURRE”). L. 30.4 cm. Stone (silex). France, Late to Final Neolithic, ca. 3000-2200 B.C. CHF 4,600. Left: AN AXE BLADE. L. 20.4 cm. Stone. Europe, Neo-lithic, ca. 5500-1800 B.C. CHF 2,200. Right: AN AXE BLADE. L. 16.3 cm. Stone (silex). Rügen (Northern Germany), Nordic Neolithic, ca. 4000-2000 B.C. CHF 3,400.By Yvonne YiuCQ15Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2018Neolithic Period. Such techniques include the reclosing of openings made to collect honey from cavity-nesting bees, creating artificial cavities in trees, rocks or walls, combating pests and marauding animals and encourag-ing the growth of melliferous plants in the vi-cinity of hives. (Crane, 127 ff.). Furthermore, clearances made in the course of the Neolithic colonisation of previously densely wooded areas would have encouraged the expansion of bee-favourable habitats with a wide variety of shrubs, herbs and flowers. (S. Needham/J. Evans, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 1987, 21-28). That beekeeping was also actively practiced within settlements is suggested by two artificially hollowed-out tree trunks that are interpreted as log hives and were found standing upright next to the wall of a house in the Lake Village of Arbon-Bleiche 3 (Canton Thurgau, Switzerland) which was inhabited for just 15 years between 3384-3370 B.C. The hives were probably covered with a stone slab or a wooden board and an opening at ground level would have served as flight entrance. (A. de Capitani et al., Die jungsteinzeitliche Seeufersiedlung Arbon Bleiche 3, 2002, 212 f.). As they are made of perishable material, such hives as well as the woven skeps were preserved only in exceptional circumstances.finding hives with greater success. These may have included revisiting known nest sites, lis-tening for the humming sound made by bee colonies, studying the flight path of bees and observing the behaviour of animals which eat bees or bee products, for instance apes or the honeyguide bird. The latter engages in a cu-rious interaction with humans and possibly also animals such as the honey badger. With conspicuous movements and repeated cries, the honeyguide seeks to attract the attention of a “hunting partner” and then leads him to a hive. After his partner has broken it open and has taken his share, the bird feeds on the left-over insects and hive fragments. (Crane, 44, 54-55). Ethnographic observations further suggest that a system of nest ownership might gradu-ally have evolved. Nest sites in rocks are gen-erally inhabited by bees for extended periods of time, even if the combs are repeatedly har-vested, and at some point in time people will have realised that a hive remained more reli-ably productive if a certain quantity of brood and honey was left behind. A hive would thus become a valuable asset and may have been marked as someone’s property by a pile of stones or a sign cut into the bark of a tree. (Crane, 107-110). There are hardly any con-crete indications as to when such a practice might have commenced, but as this custom is found in recent hunter-gatherer groups, it is certainly possible that it preceeded the devel-opment of agriculture in the Neolithic Period.An extensive survey of Neolithic pottery shards by M. Roffert-Salque et al. (Nature, 2016, 226-230) has demonstrated that bee products were exploited continuously and in places also extensively by early farming soci-eties in Europe, the Near East and North Af-rica from the 7th mill. B.C. onwards. As small quantities of beeswax, which is composed of a highly constant, chemically easily identifiable suite of lipids, are always present in honey, the wax can serve as a biomarker for honey, which, consisting mainly of water-soluble sugars, does not survive in the archaeologi-cal record. The oldest evidence for beeswax came from Çayönü Tepesi and Çatalhöyük, both Neolithic sites of the 7th mill. B.C. in Anatolia. Most of the assemblages investigat-ed were comprised of rounded pots that were interpreted as cooking vessels and which often contained traces of dairy and adipose fats. On one of the fragments from Çayönü Tepesi bio-markers for beeswax as well as for mammalian animal fat were found. This combination may be due to the re-use of the vessel over time, but it is also quite conceivable that honey was used to sweeten foods containing meat or milk products. (R.P. Evershed et al., Nature, 2008, 528-531; M.S. Copley et al., Journal of Archa-eological Science, 2005, 485-503, esp. 491).Prehistoric Power Bars Finds from Bilancino and Grotta Paglicci (Italy), Pavlov and Dolní Věstonice (Czech Republic) and Kostenki (Russia) reveal that grinding starchy plants into flour using pestle-shaped stones was a widespread practice even 25-30,000 years ago. (A. Revedin et al., La prima farina, 2015). The ingredients of this sweet, protein-rich bar have all been found at Palaeolithic sites, al-beit not together. Such a compact, energy- packed food would certainly have been ideal to take along on a foraging or hunt-ing trip.Comb with Honey and Bee BroodNeolithic Farmer's BreakfastPut one handful of grain per person, for instance einkorn, barley or emmer, into an earthenware pot and cover with plenty of water. Cook gently overnight in the embers. Pour off any excess water in the morning. Add enough milk to cover the grain, sweeten with honey, add dried fruit if desired and reheat briefly.In Central Europe beeswax was found on potsherds from Linearbandkeramik sites oc-cupied by the earliest farmers of Austria and Germany, for instance Brunn am Gebirge (5500-5400 B.C.) and Niederhummel (5360-5220 B.C.). Further finds dating from the 6th mill. B.C. were discovered in Poland, speci-mens from the 5th mill. B.C. were found in the Chasséen settlements in Saône-sur-Loire and finds from the 4th mill. B.C. were made in the Lake Village sites in the French Jura. Although almost 1,200 vessels from Ireland, Scotland and Fennoscandinavia were exam-ined, no conclusive evidence for beeswax was found there. It has therefore been suggested that the 57th parallel North marks the ecolog-ical limit to the natural occurrence of honey-bees in the Neolithic Period.The fact that a significant number of shards containing beeswax residues date from the period in which farming societies began to develop inevitably raises the question wheth-er the finds reflect an incipient domestication process. Archaeological evidence is extreme-ly scant, but it is indeed possible that those nest-tending and beekeeping techniques documented by ethnographers which require only a minimal modification of the existing environment were already employed in the Knead together 150 g einkorn flour, 100 g liquid honey, 100 g pine nuts and 50 g lupine flour. Add a little water if neces-sary. Form the dough into bars. Light a fire above a large, flat stone. After about 30 minutes push the wood and embers aside, brush the soot off the stone with a leafy twig and bake the bars on the stone for 5-10 minutes turning them occasionally.A spring delicacy for immediate consump-tion.CQ16Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2018HighlightA bearded musician steps forward with mea-sured pace, the gentle motion causing his long garment to sway slightly. He plays the cithara, the instrument of Apollo. With the plectrum in his right hand he plucks the strings above the mighty sounding box. The man’s head is thown lustily back so that his haunting song streams upwards to the heavens from his wide open mouth. A wonderful composition!To reach a more precise interpretation of the scene it is necessary to study its iconography. On which occasions did such musical perfor-mances take place? And how does this image of man relate to the imagined myth? The ty-pology of the singer in profile to right is al-most identical to that of the God himself, and he wears Apollo’s clothing: a long chiton and ing from the following couple of decades have been preserved. Singers accompanied by the cithara numbered amongst the entertainments at a symposium. However, some images show a veritable stage platform as well as figures of Nike placing a wreath on the singer. These pictures to all appearances allude to the win-ning entry in an official competition. This is already the case in black-figure vases of the 2nd half of the 6th century B.C. The emer-gence of this new pictorial theme doubtless reflects the increased importance of the dis-cipline in the Panathenaic Games. When, in a second step, these impressive, anonymous citharoedes appear in the works of image in-ventors without any narrative context at all, then there is bound to be a shift in focus to-wards the individual. The isolation of the fig-ure invites the beholder to identify with him and thus forms part of the process leading to a new image of man, here demonstrated by the carousing of the admittedly still aristocratic circles of Athens’ jeunesse dorée. Interesting-ly, even Ernst Buschor felt the need for a his-torical perspective in his celebrated book on Greek vase-painting: “That the commitment to the world of sound now becomes the sub-ject of representation is a sign of the times: this immersion is one of the roots of Classical being.” (Griechische Vasen, 1940, p. 171).The mysterious, indistinct silhouettes of other figures on the left side and back of the vase belonging to the Cahn Gallery are a technical curiosity. These “ghosts”, as the phenomenon is termed, are not related to the scene painted on the vase but were caused by a “mistake” in the production process to which lekythoi were especially prone. These slender vases with al-most vertical sides could be placed closer to-gether during drying and firing than was the case with bulbous vessels such as kraters or amphorae. If the vases actually touched each other, as in the case of the lekythos discussed here, the drawings were liable to “tinge” the adjacent vase. Magical faces from the un-known neighbouring vase can frequently be identified; here we see shadowy figures. There is thus nothing supernatural in this phenom-enon, nor does it do anything to detract from the beauty of this lekythos. Indeed quite the opposite is the case. The accidental counter-proof permits an insight into the highly com-plex production process and thus, in my eyes, makes this vase all the more precious.A RED-FIGURE LEKYTHOS BY THE BRYGOS PAINTER. H. 32.5 cm. Attic, ca. 480-470 B.C. CHF 46,500a cloak draped loosely over it. But extreme emotions such as ecstasy or enthousiasmós are never encountered in representations of the deity; nor are expansive gestures, danc-ing steps, and the act of singing. These are reserved for the mortal chitharoede.The painter who frequently decorated the perfect cups signed by the potter Brygos be-longed to the leading artists active in Ath-ens in the early 5th century B.C. More than 200 vessels have been attributed to his hand. With a sure instinct, the Brygos Painter and his contemporaries committed topical themes of symbolic importance to the curved surfaces of the ceramic products given to them to adorn. Besides mythological scenes, these often included brilliant athletes, ven-erated poets such as Sappho and Alkaios, and of course, time and again, Athena and symposium scenes. Especially on lekythoi, which traditionally served as grave goods and therefore expressed a higher degree of individuality than other vessels, the Brygos Painter also chose to paint unnamed men and women performing music.By a fortunate coincidence, a “sister” vase, also by the Brygos Painter, has also been pre-served. This second lekythos was with Münzen und Medaillen AG, Basel, in 1982 and subse-quently entered the Art Collection of the Ruhr University, Bochum. It is not a true pendant or duplicate as the vessel is 1.5 cm taller. Further- more, the citharoede is somewhat stiffer and the composition more measured. Both lekythos and drawing may well have been created a few years earlier. In any case it testifies to the presence of the motif in the workshop. On the lekythos in Bochum the large piece of colourfully embroidered cloth that is further embellished by borders and long fringes is better preserved than here and drapes down to the ground from the citha-ra. Rather than being part of the musician’s clothing, it is a festive “vestment” adorning the instrument itself.Sir John Beazley was the first to study vases with citharoedes, publishing his programmat-ic essay "Citharoedus" in the Journal of Hel-lenic Studies in 1922. The motif first appears on red-figure vases in the circle of painters around the Berlin Painter at the turn of the 5th century B.C. A few dozen specimens dat-Festive Song as a Social EventCitharoedes on Stage – and in a Vase Painting by the Brygos Painter By Martin FlasharNext >