44 
Dr. Hoernle— Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
The handles are made, in the form of animals or griffins (see Nos. 
10, 11, J4), standing np and bending over the rim of the vessel, as seen 
in No. 8. In the three-handled Mycenian vases, above referred to, the 
handles, ordinarily are short curves attached to the shoulder of the vessel; 
see Woodcut No. V, 1.2. But examples of three handles rising from 
the shoulder to the top of the neck (as in the Khotan jarsj do occasion¬ 
ally occur ; one is shown in the Mykenische Vasen, Plate VIII, No. 44. 
(Woodcut No. V, 3). In the Roman vases a somewhat similar form of 
handle is usual; see Woodcut No. Y, 4. In these cases the handles are 
plain; but plain handles have been found also in Khotan, as in the 
larger of the two jars of Dr. Sven Hedin (Woodcut No. IY, 1), where the 
body is richly decorated in the usual way, while the handle is compara¬ 
tively plain. Handles imitating animal forms, the Khotanese fashion, 
are extremely rare in Greek art. The only example I remember having 
noticed is an Etrurian cantharus, figured in Ridgeway’s Early Age of 
Greece, yo\. I, p. 67 (Woodcut No. IY, 2). It has only two handles, 
but they terminate in ram’s heads which similarly bend over the rim of 
the vessel. 2 The case of the two-handled cup, ornamented with horses, 
which is shown in Professor Furtwiingler’s Bronzen von Olympia , p. 96, 
Plate XXXY, No. 671 (Woodcut No. Y, 5), is different. Here the 
horses, which look over the rim, are not a constituent element of the 
handles, but are full figures placed on the top of the handles, as mere 
accessory ornaments. This kind of treatment of animal forms, however, 
does not seem to be unknown to Khotanese art. The bird, shown in No. 
12 and in Plate XIX of Part I, No. 50, probably served to adorn the 
top of a plain handle; or possibly it may have formed the handle of a 
lid. It may be compared with the ornamental use of the dove in Greek 
art, see the illustrations on pp. 100,101, 102 of Tsountas and Manatt’s 
Mycenian Age. 
Among the miniatures, in Plate XIX of Part I, the same bird is 
represented, in No. 49, nestled in a flower ; and in No. 70 a twin of them 
is represented, provided with monkey’s heads and arms, playing on a lute. 
art. In these one of the handles is vertical, while the others are horizontal, as in 
the Hydrias called in Italian vasi a tre maniche. (See S. Birch’s History of Ancient 
Pottery, new ed„ p. 364). 
2 In Bronzen von Olympia, pp. 119, 120, Plate XLV, griffins from the Praenestian 
find are shown, but, as Professor Furtwangler explains, these looked outwards, and 
did not form proper handles, but were merely decorative (as shown ibidem, PI. XLIX). 
Similar is the case of certain early Cretan vases which are decorated with three 
(equidistant) plastic female heads, looking outwards and being only false handles. 
See Professor Furtwangler’s Beschreibung der Vasen Sammlung, p. 109, No. 983. 
