Anatolian Collection of Charles University [antikvár]

FOREWORDA report on excavations prepared for publication by persons who were not present at the excavations themselves is always difficult and certain problems, in the end, can be resolved only to a limited degree. Not only did few authors of this volume know Professor Salae personally, but even the reports on the excavations have survived only fragmentarily. Of the material found during excavation, only a few negatives and slides have remained and on this basisthanks to the kindness of Dr. M. Baran in the Izmir Museum only one item, the marble torso of a seated boy, has been identified for the moment. The second marble statue-the head of Aphrodite, one weshebt, two sherds of a Megarian bowl and two fragments of a mould for ithave survived in slides or on photographs; and one weshebt with inscription was published by Salac. The whereabouts of the rest of the material is unknown, nor has anyone been able to discover any more about where it is now being kept.1)According to the information of Prof. Salac there were difficulties with the material from the excavation, housed in the Smyrna Museum. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why preparations for a definitive excavation report, which Salac had prepared in the late twenties together with his architect J. Nepomucky, were postponed. Other problems were of a financial nature, difficulties with publication (Salac's paper on stamps on amphora handles from Thassos is still filed away in manuscript form in the French School at Athens), and possibly personal matters as well.When the plans and some photographs were found among Salac's effects and those of architect Nepomucky, and several photos and slides were discovered in Salac's office at the faculty, there seemed a possibility of reviving the idea of elaborating and publishing the excavation report. This material gradually increased thanks to several lucky finds, yet many problems continued to remain, and therefore, although in 1967/1968 a more intensive beginning was made to prepare this volume, the need was felt to prepare, primarily, some sort of introductory part, with the topography and history of the city, and at the same time, to substitute in some manner the loss of material from Salac's excavations.2)Material from earlier excavations at Kyme exists chiefly in Istambul and the Louvre. There are smaller collections in other places,3) but very little has been published about them, and so it seemed suitable to us to anticipate the actual excavation report by what is really a modest set of objects from Kyme, housed in Charles University, and which were in Prof. Salac's possession: it was presented to the Institute for Classical Archaeology partly by Salac, and partly by his heirs.Prof. Salac, who remained a bachelor, devoted himself very intensively to collecting from his early youth. The main subjects of his interest were Oriental carpets, Oriental furniture and Classical coins, but he bought or obtained for Charles University small examples of Classical art as well. He was instrumental in having the Greek Minister of Education give Charles University a gift of a fine study*) Cf. R. SalditTrappman, Tempel der ägyptischen Götter in Griechenland und an der Westküste Kleinasiens, Leiden 1970, 37f.2)Cf. the preliminary reports to this volume by J. Bouzek and M. Dufkova in: Soziale Probleme im Hellenismus und im römischen Reich, Praha 1973, 265294; cf. also Zprävy JKF 4 1962, 814.3)Virginia Grace kindly informed me that the University of Pennsylvania Museum posseses a small collection of Hellenistic pottery from Kyme, including mould fragments of Megarian bowls.