Download Pdf of Dissertation - Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M ...

Fig. 37. Greek relief of the sixth or fifth centuries B.C. of a throne decorated with lions’
paws (Image from Litchfield 1899, 10).
A bronze cylindrical casket made at Palestrina in Latium about 300 B.C., the so-called
“Ficoroni cista,” made to contain a lady’s toiletries, is one of the earliest examples of
lions’ paws in association with a finely-executed object to be used in everyday life. 172
From Pompeii and Herculaneum the number of items decorated with lions’ paws is
remarkable and varied: a statuette of the Goddess Fortuna on a globe (Fig. 38), two
candelabra one with four oil lamps (Fig. 38), and the other which represents Eros holding
in his hand an oil lamp in the shape of a theatrical mask (Fig. 39), a tripod (Fig. 39), a
hydria (Fig. 40), and even a small portable stove (Fig. 41). Pedestals, furthermore, were
not the only artifacts from the Punta Scifo A shipwreck to feature lions’ paws: the bronze
stand for an oil lamp (MOB 8) has three feet decorated with lions’ paws.
172 Burn 1991, 172, fig. 146.
120