154 



Y.—On a fragment of Greek Pottery from Afghanistan. 



The recent transactions in Afghanistan however unfortu- 

 nate in their political results, have at least served to increase 

 our knowledge of the earliest recorded connection of civili- 

 zation with the still barbarous inhabitants of these inhos- 

 pitable regions. The discovery of the finely executed coins 

 of Graeco-Bactrian sovereigns has enabled us to trace the 

 progress and gradual decay of the colonies planted by the 

 Macedonian invasion and contributed a list of princes whose 

 very names were hitherto unknown ; and it was chiefly from 

 these that the antiquarian acumen and tact of the late James 

 Prinsep was enabled to trace the introduction into this coun- 

 try of an improved style of coinage by the substitution of 

 the dies of the Greek artists for the rude punches and 

 moulds previously employed in the Indian mints. The re- 

 searches of others were rewarded by the acquisition of gems 

 and seals engraved in the best style of art and the silver 

 Tazza with the story of Silenus obtained by Dr. Lord in 

 Budakshan and again unfortunately lost in the sack of Sir 

 A. Burns' house in 1841, is familiar to all. 



The fragments of a Greek fictile vase lately exhibited 

 at the meeting of the 'Society and of which a figure is here 

 given, afford an additional record of the cultivation of 

 Grecian taste in an uncongenial clime, for tho* some of 

 the other relics, lately discovered, might have been trans- 

 ported from the parent soil, it is hardly possible that so fra- 

 gile an article as a terracotta vessel could have been brought 

 from any distance. 



The fragments in question are 3^ inches in length by 

 1^ inches in breadth and seem to have formed the handles of 

 a vessel as shown in the restored sketch. They display a 

 female figure in flowing garments, the right hand holding 

 something like a cup, the left what may be taken for a wreath 



