Fragment of a stele with lotus-volute finial (anthemion).The general type is made clear by the stele Cat. 45 (Figs. 148-149; and a closely comparable fragment from Daskylion (Fig. 152). Preserved is the central part of the finial and the broad raised band which separates the finial from the shaft. In the center there is a downward-pointed tripartite lotus with fine outlining incisions on the chalice and leaves, flanked by two volutes with raised borders ending in broad leaf-like shapes. Most of the l. volute is lost, but the r. has its eye with a six-rayed star or rosette. In the corner between the “leaf” end of the volute and the inner volute is a small leaf.

The general arrangement is very similar to the fragment of a stele from Daskylion which has, however, two bands, one as the base for the anthemion, the other as the top profile for its figurative frieze. Borchhardt (Epichorische Reliefs, 173ff., 192, pl. 44:1) dates it before 500 B.C. Only a bit of empty shaft appears below the border on the Sardis fragment. There is no indication whether it did or did not have figurative reliefs. With its sharper, larger lotus, multiple involutions of spirals, and leaf-like lower volutes, Cat. 46 is more developed than Cat. 45. It is simpler than the Daskylion fragment, on which the volutes are even more complicated and the lotus very attenuated. Such thin, “manneristic” lotuses occur in Buschor’s Polycratean group of Samian stelai (Altsamische Grabstelen, 29, fig. 5, Beil. XI-XIII, 530-520 B.C.) and in vase painting on Caeretan hydriae, ca. 530-520 B.C. (e.g. Arias-Hirmer, 1000 Years, 312f., pl. 77 and XXVII, color). The Sardian fragment should date no later than 530-520 B.C.

Marble, possibly “local”; white, slightly crumbly, reddish discoloration.

Broken on all sides.