Abstract
Protection and conservation are not feasible without a deeper knowledge of the cultural heritage of the subject of intervention. A careful analysis of documentation, a detailed visual inspection of surfaces, and a systematic diagnosis of the inner properties are the basis for planning preventive strategies of restoration. Digital noninvasive techniques represent an advantageous tool with useful outputs to estimate the state of health of cultural heritage in order to minimize the progress of degradation. This paper deals with a 3D metric survey through photogrammetry and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) tests applied to the study of the trapezophoros with two griffins attacking a doe of Ascoli Satriano, a masterpiece of ancient art that needs to be protected. This work provided information on both visible and hidden defects, such as numerous cracks that affect the sculpture.
Highlights
The trapezophoros with two griffins attacking a doe (Figure 1) was found in the 1970s through illegal excavations in the territory of Ascoli Satriano (Foggia, Italy). It represents a supporting ritual table (325–300 B.C.) realized using an oriental marble probably coming from Aphrodisias di
It is probably part of the remains of princely funeral equipment placed in a chamber tomb, made in the typical shapes and sizes of the funerary costume of the Daunian communities during the 4th century B.C. [2] p. 1
This is suggested by the relatively good state of conservation, the link with other artifacts in marble discovered in the same place, and the analogy with a similar table with a function of support for offerings found in the monumental hypogeum Lagrasta I of Canosa [3]
Summary
The trapezophoros with two griffins attacking a doe (Figure 1) was found in the 1970s through illegal excavations in the territory of Ascoli Satriano (Foggia, Italy). It represents a supporting ritual table (325–300 B.C.) realized using an oriental marble probably coming from Aphrodisias di. The sculpture, 0.95-m-high and 1.48-m-long, consists of a pair of griffins, each with a lion’s body and a dragon’s head with a crest on the head and wings spread upwards They are in hunting action while grasping with claws a doe on the ground that emerges with its snout lying on the ground with its front legs folded and its rear ones fully extended. The subject is present with similar iconography in the clay appliques from Taranto [4,5] and was reproduced in one of the painted bands that decorates the Kline A, a mortuary bed of the Macedonian tomb of Potidea [6]
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