ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. I5 



figures have been cleaned or repaired ; fifteen Imndred and twenty-one gems, with their 

 impressions, have been mounted on velvet-covered blocks ; seventeen pastes and two 

 thousand two hundred and forty-seven casts of gems have been mounted in gilt-edged 

 paper ; forty-three j^laster casts of gems have been made ; the arrangement of tlie gems 

 IS nearly complete ; two new cniciform cases and five glass shades have been placed iu 

 the First and Second Vase Rooms ; descriptive titles have been attached to seven hundred 

 and two objects; two hundred and nine objects have been catalogued, and five hundred 

 and thirty-seven objects have been registered ; the second volume of the Catalogue of 

 Greek and Etruscan vases has been published. 



Acquisitions. 



1. A collection of inscriptions, architectural marbles, fragments of sculpture, and other 

 antiquities, excavated by Mr. R. P. Pullan, in the Temple of Athene Polias at Priene, in 

 Asia Minor. 



Presented hy the Dilettanti Society. 



This Temple, views of which may be seen iu the " Ionian Antiquities " of the Dilettanti 

 Society, is a beautiful specimen of Ionic architecture, executed about the same period as 

 the Mausoleum, and probably by the same arcliitect. It was dedicated, as appears bj an 

 inscription, found in situ, by Alexander the Great, and was thrown down by an earth- 

 quake at some unknown subsequent period. 



The marbles noAv presented by the Dilettanti Society consist of the following : — 



Architecture. — 1. The capital of an Ionic column, and — 



2. The capital of a pilaster, both from the Temple. 



3. The capital of a smaller Ionic column. 



4. Various portions of the cornice, richly ornamented with lions' heads and flowers. 



Sculpture, — 1. A female head, probably of a goddess, heroic size, the hair arranged 

 in regular curls over the forehead and partially covered with a cap, on which a net, 

 hehryphalos, has been painted in brown ; traces of colour may also be seen in one of the 

 eyes. This head is in a very fine style, and very similar in character to one found iu the 

 Mausoleum, and engraved, Newton, Travels and Discoveries, ii. p. 106. 



2. A male head, life size, probably the portrait of a king. 



3. A colossal hand which probably belonged to the statue of Athene Polias in her 

 Temple. From the scale of this hand, the figure of which it formed part was probably 

 about 24 feet hio-h. 



&■" 



4. Two colossal feet, probably from a female figure, about 12 feet high. 



5. A draped female torso, the arms and head wanting. The composition of the drapery 

 is remarkable for its simple architectonic beauty. 



6. A number of fragments of a frieze iu high relief, the subject of which may be a 

 Gigantomachia. 



All these scul^Dtures are very similar in style to those found iu the Mausoleum, and 

 were probably executed by the same school of artists. 



Inscriptions. — 1. A number of blocks and fragments of marble containing portions of a 

 long inscrijition of considerable historical interest. It relates to a long pendmg dispute 

 between the people of Priene and the Samians concerning some teri'itory and a fortress in 

 Asia Minor, situated probably on the coast opposite to Samos. This dispute was the cause 

 of wars between these two states as early as the middle of the sixth century B.C. Avhich 

 terminated in the defeat of the Prienians, after which a treaty was concluded between 

 the two states by the intervention of the philosopher Bias. The dispute respecting the 

 territory was revived in the Macedonian period, and referred successively for arbitration 

 to kings Lysimachos and Antiochos, to the Rhodian people, to the consul Cn. Manliiis, and 

 finally to the Roman senate, who decided In favour of the Prienians by a decree B.C. 136. 

 The portions of the text which have been preserved contain parts of the following docu- 

 ments : — A decree of the Prienians addressed to king Lysimachos ; a letter of the 

 king to the people of Priene apparently in reply to the decree ; a judgment of the 

 Rhodian arbitrators, which, from internal evidence, must have been made after B.C. 247, 

 and before B.C. 136; the decree of the Roman senate, in the consulsliip of Servius 

 Fulvius, B.C. 136. 



The blocks on which this Insci-iption is preserved are partly from the anfae at the west 

 end of the Temple and partly from the adjacent v.all of the cella. Most of these marbles 

 were copiedin 1770 by Chandler, and published, Boeckh, C. I., 2905. They were rc-cojned 

 by Lebas, and published with many additions and corrections in tlie recent edition of his 

 Voyage Archeologique, by M. Waddington. The marbles presented by the Dilettanti 

 Society include nearly all the portions of the text previously published, together with 

 some valuable unedited portions. 



272. B 4 2. The 



