Spartan naval art: Ivory plaque

Spartan naval art: Ivory plaque- At the start of this century an ivory plaque was unearthed at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta in Greece. It is an example of Spartan art with a nautical theme, which provides more information as to the relationship between ancient Sparta and seafaring. Its dimensions were 24 cm long, 11 cm wide, and the semicircular plaque contained small circles about 0.8 cm in diameter along its rounded edge. Since another one of the hundreds of discovered plaques contained amber inlays, it is believed that these 12 or 13 circles once held similar inlays. The plaque is associated with Laconian I and II pottery, and dates as far back as the late 8th to 7th centuries BC. The ivory plaque shows a relief of a very detailed cataphract ship with a shortened version of the goddess Orthia’s name, which indicates that it was probably offered by the captain as a token for a safe voyage. The ship on the plaque, although detailed, is not entirely accurate. Left of the arm of the figure atop the ship’s ram are two horizontal lines which represent a wale and extend across the ship’s raised bow structure and continue on to become the ship’s deck. Had the portrayal of this warship been more accurate, the horizontal lines would have represented a single feature that extended beyond the ship’s stem, as opposed to two separate entities that stop at the stem and become a part of the figure’s left arm.