Kulesza, Ryszard(Wydawnictwo Naukowe "Askon", Wydawnictwo "Attyka", 2005)
W 490 roku p.n.e. na równinie maratońskiej walczyły wojska imperium perskiego i niewielkiej ateńskiej polis. Naprzeciwko siebie stanęli żołnierze-poddani, wykonujący rozkazy rezydującego w odległych o tysiące kilometrów Suzach króla Dariusza, i obywatele Aten, walczący w obronie leżących kilkadziesiąt kilometrów dalej rodzinnych domostw, ojczystego kraju i niezawisłości państwa. Pod Maratonem polis pokonała imperium. Dziesięć lat później syn Dariusza, Kserkses, rzucił przeciwko Helladzie liczącą kilkaset tysięcy żołnierzy armię. Pod Salaminą i Platejami znowu zwyciężyli Grecy. Maraton był pierwszym i w znacznej mierze decydującym epizodem ciągnących się wiele lat zmagań grecko-perskich. Znaczenie bitwy wykracza jednak daleko poza historię starożytnych Greków. Stwierdzenie, że bez Maratonu nie byłoby Grecji klasycznej, nie byłoby Europy - brzmi może nieco patetycznie, ale zawiera wiele prawdy. Niniejsza książka opowiada o tym, jak doszło do bitwy pod Maratonem, na czym polega jej wielkość i jakie są źródła zwycięstwa Ateńczyków....
This paper outlines the influence of the official visual language on the decoration of objects of daily use, and more particularly of the decorated "terra sigillata" ware, produced in "Arretium" (Arezzo in Italy) in the last three decades of the 1st century BC and in the first half of the 1st century AD. The decoration repertoire of this pottery includes triumphal motifs (trophies, pieces of military equipment, personifications of defeated peoples, captives, Victoria standing on a globe, Victoria holding a palm branch, a wreath or both , Venus "Victrix", triumphal quadrigas or bigas) and battle scenes (Roman and Barbarian soldiers). The motifs started appearing on pottery at the end of the 1st century BC. Most of them were in use during Augustus' lifetime and some of them even longer. Pottery with such decoration makes only a few percent of all the known decorated Arretine pieces. However, considering the mass scale of the production, these motifs had to be quite numerous. The group of motifs is interesting also because they were used by more than half of tthe Arezzo potteryworkshops producing relief ware at that time. Yet the phenomenon appears not to have depended solely on the official visual language, because some military and most of the triumphal motifs had already existed in official art and coinage of the later Roman Republic and first years of the Principate. There must have been some other reasons for their much later appearance in pottery decoration. One such reason was the economic situation of the workshops : after many years of prosperity they were forced to fight for new markets against a growing competition from Campania, North Italy and South Gaul. The political situation at the end of the 1st century BC offered a teasing opportunity. The workshops could find new buyers among the Romanized inhabitants of Roman provinces, as well as among the soldiers in legionary camps (especially along the Germanic border). It seems that these new groups of customers and their special needs inspired the craftsmen (not only from "Arretium") to introduce new themes to decorate their pottery....
Smogorzewska, Anna(Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2002)
Cylinder seals appeared in the eastern Anatolia in the end of the 4th millennium BC, together with other elements of late Uruk culture (e.g. Arslantepe VIA). In the Malatya-Elazig region both the cylinder seals of the Syro-Mesopotamian tradition (Norjuntepe, Korucutepe, Tajkun Mevkii, Pulur/Sakyol, Arslantepe) and the seal impressions on the pots are known (Arslantepe, Norjuntepe, Han Ibrahim §ah, Tepecik). In this area the prevailing form are seals and sealings with geometric designs (inter alia, lozenges, triangles, crosshatching, chevrons). Other motifs were also used occasionally: floral and figural (birds, scorpions), as well as quadruple spiral (Arslantepe VIB). The seals from the Upper Euphrates region resemble the "Jemdet Nasr" or "Geometric Style". Many geometric designs derive from the Uruk glyptic tradition. In the Keban area, local geg stamp seals made of clay were popular in the Early Bronze Age. They are distinguished by a characteristic repertoire of designs (swirls, concentric circles, spirals). These motifs are deeply rooted in the Transcaucasian and eastern Anatolian tradition (they were also used as decorative patterns in the "Early Transcaucasian Ware" and EasternAnatolian painted pottery). Cylinder seals and seal impressions from the Upper Euphrates area constitute an important index to the connections, presumably of a trading nature, between Syria, northern Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia. In the local administration and economy they did not become the important device that they were in the 3rd millennium BC Mesopotamia....