Antiquities and Ancient Art

Catalogue XXXI Available from Fragments of Time -- More than 65 Objects Highlighted

Fragments of Time, Inc., a leading international dealer in museum-quality ancient art, today announced availability of Art from the Ancient World XXXI, a full-color and authoritatively researched catalogue highlighting more than 65 provenanced ancient objects from its inventory.

For more than 10 years, company founder John Ambrose, who had previously spent 15 years as a private collector in Europe and the USA, has been one of the few American antiquities dealers publishing quarterly, fully researched and illustrated, fixed-price catalogues dedicated to fine antiquities. Fragments of Time enjoys an international reputation for quality antiquities, scholarly expertise, competitive prices, and unrivalled service.

In addition to a variety of classical Greek, Roman, Hellenistic and Italic objects, Catalogue XXXI also includes a selection of antiquities from the Near East, Holyland, Cyprus and Byzantium.

The cover of Catalogue XXXI features a large and important Athenian red-figure lekythos, circa 480-470 BC, depicting a beautifully composed youthful female standing in a domestic setting that includes ancient furniture, weaving implements, and baskets containing fruit or flowers. The vase also has a 130-year documented provenance and has been extensively published. It was also exhibited in the mid 1940s at the London Royal Academy of Arts.

“Fine Attic red-figure pottery continues to be one of the most desirable areas for collectors of classical antiquities but demand sharply outstrips supply,” said Ambrose. “Objects, such as this lekythos, with long pedigree histories and well executed scenes are a superb addition to any serious collection.”

The catalogue features a variety of superb classical Greek objects including a fine Athenian drinking cup with a Dionysiac procession (ex-French 19th century collection), a wonderful standing Greek Kore in terracotta (ex-California collection), and a pristine molded Athenian “Head Vase” circa 475-450 BC (ex-Canadian collection).

Collectors of Greek South Italian pottery and terracottas will fine an array of objects including an extremely interesting and rare 4th Century BC skyphos with an owl with outstretched wings on one side and a seated sphinx in profile on the reverse. This vase is a striking and artistically powerful departure from the standard but still pleasing “owl cup” representative of the goddess Athena.

In addition to a selection of Roman pottery, lamps and bronzes, Catalogue XXXI features a small group of fine Roman glass objects, circa 1st-5th Century AD, including an attractive “grape flask,” a near colorless glass cup, pale green shallow glass dish, and a group of miniature glass juglets that were worn as jewelry by the ancients.

Egyptian collectors will find a selection of fine scarabs – each fully attributed and described. In addition, the catalogue features an inscribed steatite obelisk amulet inscribed for the “controller of the wine production of Ra,” and an inscribed Shabti for Padi-Aset, and a pair of papyrus scepter amulets, among others.

Advice for Collectors of Antiquities

Five years ago, there were fewer than 50 "professional" dealers of ancient art in North America. These dealers had long-earned reputations, established bases of operation, traveled internationally to all the key antiquities events, and had a deep knowledge of the field. Today, it seems anyone who has every purchased a pottery sherd or an ancient Roman coin has created a web site and claims to be a dealer. The web is a maze of pseudo-dealers, legitimate up-and-coming dealers, and established expert dealers. How do you distinguish? One way to judge is whether the dealer publishes a catalogue. A catalogue is more than tool to help the buyer peruse the selection of objects, it is an important document that establishes provenace, adds value to an object at resale time, and is an important reference source. More.

New Software Breakthrough Helps 'Piece Together' Large Fragments

Technology is helping advance archaeological knowledge at unprecedented speeds. Yet another example comes from the Bradeton Herald in Florida which recently described a new software algorithm that is being used to discover matches between large marble fragments...

It's the world's oldest and largest jigsaw puzzle, an ancient map of Rome in 1,200 fragments of marble. Archaeologists for centuries have tried to painstakingly piece together the sculpture, fragment by fragment. Now, computer wizards at Stanford University say they have created a software program that holds the key to the puzzle and the ancient city.

At the heart of the program are three-dimensional scans of the fragments and algorithms to find possible matches. Already the work has produced several dozen probable and possible matches.

"They've advanced farther and faster in the last months than we have in centuries," said Roman archaeologist Margaret Laird, a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago. "These new matches are going to change a lot of what we know about the city of Rome."

The undertaking is a five-year study conducted by Marc Levoy, an associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford, to be completed by the summer. The findings and interactive 3-D models of the fragments are online, allowing scholars as well as elementary-school students unprecedented access to the monument.

It's the first time anyone has applied technology to piece together the ancient puzzle. Short of a 1961 book that's now out of print, the project's Web site is the only place where archaeologists will be able to examine each fragment of the map, known as the Forma Urbis Romae.

Levoy thinks the advance may shepherd a "revolution in computational humanities," where technology and the arts intersect.

"There is a trend toward putting knowledge online, where it can be searched by anyone," said Levoy. "Google is the encyclopedia of tomorrow. A kid working on his sixth-grade history report of Roman aqueducts now has access to information you'd find in a graduate library."

The project started in 1999, when Levoy and a group of students went to Italy to scan and build a 3-D interactive model of Michelangelo's "David." As a side project, they went to Rome and scanned the fragments of the ancient map, working around the clock and sleeping in shifts to meet a deadline.

The third-century map itself is a feat of cartography. It detailed nearly every architectural feature of the city, from large monuments like the Colosseum to shops, apartments and even staircases. The completed map, made up of several marble slabs, measured 60 feet by 43 feet and hung in one of the grandest monuments of the ancient city, the Templum Pacis. Today, only about 15 percent of the map survives, but it includes core parts of the city.

For centuries, scholars have visually matched up the heavy pieces of marble, some weighing several hundred pounds. In modern times, one match has been found every few years - a cause for huge celebration in the academic world.

The software program finds an average of one match a month. More.

Thracian Temple Found in Bulgaria

While there is some debate regarding who the recently discovered Bulgarian temple was dedicated to, there is no disagreement that the find is significant. Following are excerpts, for the full story visit the Sofia News Agency:

An archaeological expedition led by prominent Bulgarian Professor Nikolay Ovcharov unveiled the mystery of the excellently preserved Thracian temple in the region of Tatul village.

Though most of the archaeologists in the expedition assume that the Thracian temple was dedicated to the mythical Orpheus, there are still some suggestions that that it might have been built in honour of a Thracian king.

The sanctuary is a unique finding and a monument of the Hellenistic ages in Bulgaria, Professor Ovcharov explained. It has hidden many of the ancient sacraments and rituals administered there.

Major Etruscan Road Discovered

Word is spreading through the media of a major find in Tuscany of a major Etruscan road. Following are excerpts from a report in Discovery:

A plain in Tuscany destined to become a dump has turned out to be an archaeologist's dream, revealing the biggest Etruscan road ever found.

Digging in Capannori, near Lucca, archaeologist Michelangelo Zecchini has uncovered startling evidence of an Etruscan "highway" which presumably linked Etruscan Pisa, on the Tyrrhenian coast, to the Adriatic port of Spina.

Passing through Bologna, the ancient "two-sea highway" runs just a few meters away from today's modern highway which links Florence to the Tyrrhenian coast.

"It all started with the discovery of four big stones. I realized they could not lie in an alluvial plain by chance. As we dug a sample area, we found a large road still bearing the ruts left by chariots 2,500 years ago," Zecchini told Discovery News.

Dating to the end of the 6th century B.C., the seven-meter-wide (23-foot) road supported intense chariot traffic towards Spina, an Etruscan-controlled trading emporium where Etruscan and Greeks lived and worked together, and through which were imported great quantities of Greek goods.

"A great amount of information, including tombs, monuments and villages, lie hidden along this road," Zecchini said.

The ancient highway was also mentioned by Greek geographer Skylax, who in the 4th century B.C. wrote that a great road linked Pisa with Spina by a three-day journey.

For more, click to read the Discovery story.