Acquisition number: 1980.10
Intact but for a small chip from the left ear. Orange-brown clay with mica and small white inclusions.
The figurine is hand-made (rather than mould-made). It has a flattened, up-turned snout, long ears, a clearly defined ridge of bristles along the spine and its tail curled to the right. It is hollow with a small vent-hole cut in the belly. There is a pellet inside so that it rattles.
Title: Figurine of a Boar - 1980.10
Acquisition number: 1980.10
Culture or period: Greek Classical.
Date: Later 5th century BC.
Material: Clay - Terracotta
Object type: Sculpture and figurines
Dimensions: 104mm (l) × 52mm (h)
Origin region or location: Greece
Display case or on loan: 3
Keywords: Greek, Classical, Figurine, Demeter
Charles Ede Ltd (London), Antiquities 117 (1980) no. 23 (ill.).
1980.10
Figurine of a Boar
Purchased. Max.ht 5.2cm.; length 10.4cm.
Intact but for a small chip from the left ear. Orange-brown clay with mica and small white inclusions.
The figurine is hand-made (rather than mould-made). It has a flattened, up-turned snout, long ears, a clearly defined ridge of bristles along the spine and its tail curled to the right. It is hollow with a small vent-hole cut in the belly. There is a pellet inside so that it rattles.
Perhaps of the later part of the fifth century BC. For the standard rather clumsy rendering of the boar, see R.A. Higgins, Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, i (London 1954), pl. 33, 177-182. Compare also B. Vierneisel-Schlörb, Kerameikos XV. Die figürlichen Terrakotten griechischer Zeit (Berlin 1998) 165 and nos 565-569, pl. 99, for examples from Athens (both Athenian and Rhodian) of the fifth century; she gives further parallels. Compare also the five pieces, probably Apulian, in G. Sena Chiesa and E.A. Arslan (eds), Miti greci. Archeologia e pittura dalla Magna Grecia al collezionismo (Milan 2004) 402-403 nos 382-386 (F. Giacobello).
Many animals have a religious significance at this period, the pig forming part of the cult of Demeter (see generally V. Hinz, Der Kult von Demeter und Kore auf Sizilien und in der Magna Graecia [Palilia 4, Wiesbaden 1998]). They were frequent offerings at sanctuaries in Greece and in South Italy. See also K. Clinton, “Pigs in Greek Rituals”, in: R. Hägg and B. Alroth (eds), Greek Sacrificial Ritual, Olympian and Chthonian (Stockholm 2005) 167-179; A. Muller, “Mythes et rites éleusiniens et pratiques votives”, in: C. Bobas, A. Muller and D. Mulliez (eds), Mythes et sociétés en Méditerranée orientale. Entre le sacré et le profane (Lille 2005) 61-77 (on votives of pig figurines for Demeter) and the same author’s “Fabriquer des figurines d’animaux dans l’antiquité: techniques et matériaux”, in: B. Gratien, A. Muller and D. Paraye (eds), Figurines animales des mondes anciens (Anthropozoologica 38, 2003) 11-16 (on terracotta votives of animals more generally). Note also the evidence presented by D. Ruscillo, “Thesmophoriazousai. Mytilenean Women and their Secret Rites”, in: G. Ekroth & J. Wallensten (eds), Bones, Behaviour, and Belief: the Zooarchaeological Evidence as a Source for Ritual Practice in Ancient Greece and Beyond (Stockholm 2013) 181-195.
For terracotta figurines of females holding piglets from the Sanctuary of Demeter at Heraclea, of the fourth century, see for example G. Pugliese Carratelli (ed.), Magna Grecia. Lo sviluppo politico, sociale ed economico (Milan 1987) 192-3, figs. 273-5; or for the series from Gela, M. Squaitamati, L'offrante de porcelet dans la coroplathie géléenne: étude typologique (Mainz 1984). See also those from M. Sannace: Monumenti Antichi 45, 1960, 222 figs. 63 and 65; and from Conversano, Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 1964, 105 fig. 4.27. There is an amusing depiction of a pig waiting near an altar in a Demeter sanctuary on a fragmentary Apulian red-figure krater in Geneva: Chr. Aellen, A. Cambitoglou, J. Chamay, Le Peintre de Darius et son milieu (Geneva 1986) 189.
Among many studies of animal sacrifice in Greek art, see N. Himmelmann, Tieropfer in der griechischen Kunst (Opladen 1997).
A good volume which emphasises the importance of faunal remains for our understanding of religious sanctuaries and what went on in them, see R. Hägg (ed.), Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Archaeological Evidence. Proceedings of the Fourth International Seminar on Ancient Greek Cult, Athens, 22-24 October 1993 (Stockholm 1998). And then a collection of papers edited by F. D’Andria, J. De Grossi Mazzorin and G. Fiorentino, Uomini, piante e animali nella dimensione del sacro (Bari 2008).
For an attractive Etruscan bronze figurine of a boar, see K.M. Phillips Jr., Melanges d’Archéologie et d'Histoire - Antiquité 104, 1992, 537-561, where he illustrated a number of comparable pieces.
Charles Ede Ltd (London), Antiquities 117 (1980) no. 23 (ill.).