11-06-2013, 09:25 PM
Quote:Here you go, from my big collection of Lorica musculata pictures:
This is getting off-topic, but I noticed that a number of them have facing winged quadrapeds, griffin-like creatures. One has them each side of a tree. This seems to me to be related to the important Middle Eastern design of the tree of life flanked by two "sphinxes", or as they actually are, cherubim. I'd be very interested in seeing other derivations of this design if anyone has seen them. I'm rather interested in finding things related to the attached shield from Olympia, which looks to me as though it has West Syrian/Phoenician origins, and may have been modified in the Roman period with the addition of an umbo. Maybe.
[attachment=8326]6b168f11f9dc64ec8aab0785882b37fa.jpg[/attachment]
Robert Mason D.Phil (Oxon)
World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, Canada.
E-mail: [email protected]
World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, Canada.
E-mail: [email protected]
