Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/93

Bronzes, Statuettes, Votive Boai 75 Fig. 80.— Bronze Handle. Length, 12 c. From Crespi. light anywhere else ; nor of accessories such as we see in these strange monuments, the points or handles of which are set indifferently uppermost. Thus in Fig. 76, the fore quarters of two stags are joined together into one body ; a diminutive figure rising in the centre, whose short tunic, long sword, and notably the two- horned helmet, proclaim him a native warrior ; whilst the space occupied by the soldier is taken up by an altar in Fig. 77. On the other hand, Fig. 78 shows but the sword's point projected between the two sets of antlers ; and again the accessories are still more simplified at Fig. 79. As far as rude fabrication will enable us to guess, the animal thus fixed upon this tall weapon was a bull. Sculptured animal forms, and more generally bulls, are asso- ciated with the objects seen in Figs. 80 and 81, of which the nature is not easy to determine. At the outset, and had they shown traces of holes and hooks for running in the pin and fixing it, they might have been taken for fibulae ; but a similar idea must be abandoned in favour of handles for vases or other recipients ; the bodies being- lighter and of a less resisting material, were destroyed by oxidation. Small bronze boats, such as Figs. 82, 83, and 84, 1 were few in number, and broken into fragments in the Teti repository ; whereas many points of the island have yielded specimens in perfect condition, occupying no incon- siderable place, in the otherwise rich Cagliari collection. They were sup- posed to have been lamps, about 1 These monuments have been described and the more curious figured by M. Crespi, in a paper entitled : Le Navicelle votive in bronza del R. museo di antichilà di Cagliari {Boll. p. 11-20, Plates I. II. 1884). See also Pais's Le Navicelle votive in bro/izo delta Sardegna (pp. 21-31, 32), where all the specimens existing in Sardinian collections, including variants, are catalogued and illustrated, as well as fragments yielded by the Teti repository (p. 115 of Boll., Plate IV. figs. 6 and 7).