The Washington herald., 1913-11-30
ART TREASURES
IN BURIED ship
Priceless Statues Taken from
Ruins of Ancient Boat Of
the African Coast.
ARE 1000 YEARS OLD
Bronze Eros Credited to PraxiteIes
One Of Worlds Most Pre-
cious Works.
Special Cable to Ths Washington Hsrald

Special Cable to Ths Washington Herald.
Paris, Nov. 29.-One of the most i'm
portant discoveries In art during the last
century was made known to the
Academy of Inscriptions recently when
NJ Merlin, in charge OF the excavation
Of an ancient Greek ship sunk on the
coast of Mehdia, Africa, announced the
reclaiming Of statue Of Eros. probably
executed by Praxiteles.
The discovery Of the sunken ship was
made known in 1907. when a native came
back from the seaboard one day an
nounctng that he had looked down into
the water and had seen a buried city.
The queer shape lay some forty-three
yards beneath the surface Of the sea
Great piles were driven on all sides
OF the sunken wreck, and excavation be-
meath the sea commenced The sediment
Of years and the ceaseless washing of
the tides had covered the treasure with
a heavy deposit. As work continued II
was discovered that the buried wreck
was not a city but a Greek ship. As
near as scientists can calculate, 1t was
probably sunk in the year s6, B. c.
Cargo of Art Works.
The boat carried a heavy load Of art
treasures taken from Athens at the time
that city was sacked, and on their way
to adorn the parks and palaces of Rome
The ship was probably driven far out of
its way by a gale and finally waterIogged
on the coast Of Tunis.
Many of the marble pieces had been
destroyed by the ravages of wave and
time. The bronze figures were preserved
for happier fate. The brine of the sea
seemed to have formed a sort Of coat
about them. and though some of them
were battered and broken, several valu-
ahIa riaraa faIr -
The most important of these is, of
course, the Eros which had been imputed
to Praxiteles. crRator of the famed
Aphrodite of Cnidus, called by Pliny the
finest statue in the world, of the Eros of
Thespiae. Of numerous statues Of satyrs.
one Of which has been immortaIized by
Hawthorne in the Marble Fam," and
Of the Hermes of Olympia
Left Arm Is Lost.
The piece is fifty-two inches high, and
when 1t was found in the silt at the bot
tom OF the sea the wings had been dis
lodged and the left arm had been torn
away. 1t was covered with a heavy
saline deposit The figure. in its original.
probably carried a bow
That Praxiteles fashioned such a
figure, historians have on the authority
Of the rhetorician Callistrate, whose de-
in every detail to the Eros lust un-
earthed. The hand of a master is no.
ticeable in every line Of the statue, and
there is little reason to believe that il
is other than the work of the second
Golden Age of the Greeks.
N. Merlin reports that the statutes
taken from beneath the ancient ship's
hulk are more numerous than the full
sized figures. A satyr in bronze, thirteen
inches high, was found in almost perfect
condition. The metal had corroded in
some places, but not so much as to dis
figure it greatly. The face was almost
perfect.
A remarkable head of Hermes was
also discovered upon which the artist
Dionysius had generously left his name
The bronze head OF a horse was among
the other treasures, and two grotesuue
figures, one a dancer, were also found.
The most perfect piece OF marble un-
earthed was bust Of Aphrodite. The
base Of one Of the arms was gone. but
the face was hardly distinct Candlesticks
in metal and a few other minor figures
complete the remarkable discoveries of a
wreck that sank 1900 years ago.