Monday, April 1, 2019

Minoan Ax with Inscription


Now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. They say the Linear A inscription "may be an invocation to the goddess Demeter," but since nobody can read Linear A that seems to me a stretch. The provenance for this work is pretty lame:
  • 1934: said to have been found by a farmer at Arkalokhori (?); 
  • date unknown: said to have been in the possession of Herr Bruns; 
  • by 1954: with Hans M. F. Schulman, 545 Fifth Avenue, New York 17, N.Y.; seen on the New York market in July 1956
So who knows where it really came from; a looted tomb, most likely.

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