1.
Red-figure pottery
–
Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 520 BC and remained in use until the late 3rd century BC and it replaced the previously dominant style of black-figure vase painting within a few decades. Its modern name is based on the depictions in red colour on a black background. The most important areas of production, apart from Attica, were in Southern Italy, the style was also adopted in other parts of Greece. Etruria became an important centre of production outside the Greek World, Attic red-figure vases were exported throughout Greece and beyond. For a long time, they dominated the market for fine ceramics, only few centres of pottery production could compete with Athens in terms of innovation, quality and production capacity. Of the red figure vases produced in Athens alone, more than 40,000 specimens, from the second most important production centre, Southern Italy, more than 20,000 vases and fragments are preserved. Starting with the studies by John D. Beazley and Arthur Dale Trendall, some vases can be ascribed to individual artists or schools. The images provide evidence for the exploration of Greek cultural history, everyday life, iconography, red figure is, put simply, the reverse of the black figure technique. Both were achieved by using the three-phase firing technique, the paintings were applied to the shaped but unfired vessels after they had dried to a leathery, near-brittle texture. In Attica, the normal unburnt clay was of orange colour at this stage, the outlines of the intended figures were drawn either with a blunt scraper, leaving a slight groove, or with charcoal, which would disappear entirely during firing. Then the contours were redrawn with a brush, using a clay slip. Occasionally, the decided to somewhat change the figural scene. In such cases the grooves from the original sketch sometimes remain visible, important contours were often drawn with a thicker slip, leading to a slightly protruding outline, less important lines and internal details were drawn with diluted glossy clay. Detail in other colours, like white or red, were applied at this point, the relief line was probably drawn with a bristle brush or a hair, dipped in thick paint. The suggestion of a hollow needle seems somewhat unlikely, the application of relief outlines was necessary, as the rather liquid glossy clay would otherwise have turned out too dull. After the techniques initial phase of development, both alternatives were used, so as to differentiate gradations and details more clearly, the space between figures was filled with a glossy grey clay slip. Then, the vases underwent triple-phase firing, during which the glossy clay reached its characteristic black or black-brown colour through reduction, the new technique had the primary advantage of permitting a far better execution of internal detail
Red-figure pottery
–
Procession of men,
kylix by the
Triptolemos Painter, circa 480 BCE.
Paris:
Louvre
Red-figure pottery
–
The wedding of
Thetis,
pyxis by the
Wedding Painter, circa 470/460 BCE.
Paris:
Louvre
Red-figure pottery
–
black-figure scene on the
Belly Amphora by the Andokides Painter (Munich 2301).
Munich:
Staatliche Antikensammlungen
Red-figure pottery
–
Red-figure scene on the
Belly Amphora by the Andokides Painter (Munich 2301).
Munich:
Staatliche Antikensammlungen
2.
Paestum
–
Paestum was a major ancient Greek city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Magna Graecia. The ruins of Paestum are famous for their three ancient Greek temples in the Doric order, dating from about 600 to 450 BC, the city walls and amphitheatre are largely intact, and the bottom of the walls of many other structures remain, as well as paved roads. The site is open to the public, and there is a national museum within it. After its foundation by Greek colonists under the name of Poseidonia it was conquered by the local Lucanians. The Lucanians renamed it to Paistos and the Romans gave the city its current name, as Pesto or Paestum, the town became a bishopric, but it was abandoned in the Early Middle Ages, and left undisturbed and largely forgotten until the eighteenth century. Today the remains of the city are found in the frazione of Paestum. The modern settlement, directly to the south of the site, is a popular seaside resort. Much the most celebrated features of the site today are the three temples in the Archaic version of the Greek Doric order, dating from about 550 to 450 BC. All are typical of the period, with massive colonnades having a pronounced entasis. Above the columns, only the second Temple of Hera retains most of its entablature, the two temples of Hera are right next to each other, while the Temple of Athena is on the other side of the town center. There were other temples, both Greek and Roman, which are far less well-preserved, Paestum is far from any sources of good marble. The three main temples had few stone reliefs, perhaps using painting instead, painted terracotta was for some detailed parts of the structure. The large pieces of terracotta that have survived are in the museum, the whole ancient city of Paestum covers an area of approximately 120 hectares. It is only the 25 hectares that contain the three temples and the other main buildings that have been excavated. The other 95 hectares remain on land and have not been excavated. The city is surrounded by walls that still stand. The walls are approximately 4750 m long,5 –7 m thick and 15 m high, positioned along the wall are 24 square and round towers. There may have been as many as 28, but some of them were destroyed during the construction of a highway during the century that effectively cut the site in two
Paestum
–
Paestum contains some of the most well-preserved ancient Greek temples in the world.
Paestum
–
Nomos of Poseidonia, c. 530–500 BC.
Poseidon is seen wielding a
trident with a
chlamys draped over his arms.
Paestum
–
The temples of Hera in Paestum, by Y. Gianni 1898
Paestum
–
Map of Paestum by Costantino Gatta, 1732.
3.
Louvre
–
The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
Louvre
–
the Richelieu wing (2005)
Louvre
–
The only portion of the medieval Louvre still visible
Louvre
–
Antonio Canova 's
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss was commissioned in 1787, donated in 1824.
Louvre
–
The
Venus de Milo was added to the Louvre's collection during the reign of
Louis XVIII.
4.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
Greek language
–
Idealized portrayal of
Homer
Greek language
–
regions where Greek is the official language
Greek language
–
Greek language road sign, A27 Motorway, Greece
5.
Pottery of Ancient Greece
–
The shards of pots discarded or buried in the 1st millennium BC are still the best guide available to understand the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks. There were various specific regional varieties, such as the South Italian ancient Greek pottery, throughout these places, various types and shapes of vases were used. Some were highly decorative and meant for consumption and domestic beautification as much as serving a storage or other function. As the culture recovered Sub-Mycenaean pottery finally blended into the Protogeometric style, the rise of vase painting saw increasing decoration. Geometric art in Greek pottery was contiguous with the late Dark Age and early Archaic Greece, the pottery produced in Archaic and Classical Greece included at first black-figure pottery, yet other styles emerged such as red-figure pottery and the white ground technique. Styles such as West Slope Ware were characteristic of the subsequent Hellenistic period, interest in Greek art lagged behind the revival of classical scholarship during the Renaissance and revived in the academic circle round Nicholas Poussin in Rome in the 1630s. Though modest collections of vases recovered from ancient tombs in Italy were made in the 15th and 16th centuries these were regarded as Etruscan. It is possible that Lorenzo de Medici bought several Attic vases directly from Greece and it was Gerhard who first outlined the chronology we now use, namely, Orientalizing, Black Figure, Red Figure, Polychromatic. Where the 19th century was a period of discovery and the out of first principles the 20th century has been one of consolidation. Efforts to record and publish the totality of public collections of vases began with the creation of the Corpus vasorum antiquorum under Edmond Pottier, Beazley and others following him have also studied fragments of Greek pottery in institutional collections, and have attributed many painted pieces to individual artists. Scholars have called these fragments disjecta membra and in a number of instances have been able to identify fragments now in different collections that belong to the same vase, some vase shapes were especially associated with rituals, others with athletics and the gymnasium. Within each category the forms are roughly the same in scale and whether open or closed, some have a purely ritual function, for example white ground lekythoi contained the oil used as funerary offerings and appear to have been made solely with that object in mind. Many examples have a second cup inside them to give the impression of being full of oil. There was a market for Greek pottery since the 8th century BC. An idea of the extent of trade can be gleaned from plotting the find maps of these vases outside of Greece. Only the existence of a second hand market could account for the number of found in Etruscan tombs. South Italian wares came to dominate the trade in the Western Mediterranean as Athens declined in political importance during the Hellenistic period. The process of making a pot and firing it is fairly simple, the first thing a potter needs is clay
Pottery of Ancient Greece
–
Bilingual amphora by the Andokides Painter, c. 520 BC (Munich)
Pottery of Ancient Greece
–
Protogeometric amphora, BM
Pottery of Ancient Greece
–
Boeotian Geometric Hydria lamp, Louvre
Pottery of Ancient Greece
–
Protocorinthian skyphos, c. 625 BC, Louvre
6.
Black-figure pottery
–
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BC, stylistically it can be distinguished from the preceding orientalizing period and the subsequent red-figure pottery style. Figures and ornaments were painted on the body of the vessel using shapes, delicate contours were incised into the paint before firing, and details could be reinforced and highlighted with opaque colors, usually white and red. The principal centers for this style were initially the commercial hub Corinth, other important production sites are known to have been in Laconia, Boeotia, eastern Greece, and Italy. Particularly in Italy individual styles developed which were at least in part intended for the Etruscan market, Greek black-figure vases were very popular with the Etruscans, as is evident from frequent imports. Greek artists created customized goods for the Etruscan market which differed in form, the Etruscans also developed their own black-figure ceramic industry oriented on Greek models. Black-figure painting on vases was the first art style to give rise to a significant number of identifiable artists, some are known by their true names, others only by the pragmatic names they were given in the scientific literature. Especially Attica was the home of well-known artists, some potters introduced a variety of innovations which frequently influenced the work of the painters, sometimes it was the painters who inspired the potters’ originality. Red- as well as black-figure vases are one of the most important sources of mythology and iconography, since the 19th century at the latest, these vases have been the subject of intensive investigation. The foundation for pottery painting is the carrier, in other words the vase onto which an image is painted. Popular shapes alternated with passing fashions, whereas many recurred after intervals, others were replaced over time. But they all had a method of manufacture, after the vase was made. The workshops were under the control of the potters, who as owners of businesses had a social position. The extent to which potters and painters were identical is uncertain and it is likely that many master potters themselves made their main contribution in the production process as vase painters, while employing additional painters. It is, however, not easy to reconstruct links between potters and painters, but such attributions can only be made with confidence if the signatures of potter and painter are at hand. The painters, who were slaves or craftsmen paid as pottery painters, worked on unfired. In the case of production the subject was painted on the vase with a clay slurry which turned black after firing. This was not a color in the sense, since this surface slip was of the same material as the vase itself
Black-figure pottery
–
Heracles and
Geryon on an Attic black-figured amphora with a thick layer of transparent gloss, c. 540 BC, now in the
Munich State Collection of Antiquities.
Black-figure pottery
–
Athena wearing the aegis, Attic black-figured hydria by the potter
Panphaios (signed) and the
Euphiletos Painter, c. 540 BC. Found in Tuscania, now in the
Cabinet des Médailles, BNF, Paris
Black-figure pottery
–
Scene from a black-figure amphora from Athens, 6th century BC, now in the
Louvre, Paris
Black-figure pottery
–
Depiction of a pottery kiln on a Corinthian
pinax, c. 575/550 BC, found in Penteskouphia; now in the Louvre, Paris
7.
Greek mythology
–
It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homers epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War, archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles, in the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an influence on the culture, arts. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes, Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. Mythical narration plays an important role in every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus and this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c, 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection, however the Library discusses events that occurred long after his death, among the earliest literary sources are Homers two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiods Works and Days, a poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama
Greek mythology
–
Bust of
Zeus,
Otricoli (Sala Rotonda,
Museo Pio-Clementino,
Vatican).
Greek mythology
–
Greek Mythology
Greek mythology
–
Prometheus (1868 by
Gustave Moreau). The myth of Prometheus first was attested by
Hesiod and then constituted the basis for a tragic trilogy of plays, possibly by Aeschylus, consisting of
Prometheus Bound,
Prometheus Unbound, and
Prometheus Pyrphoros.
Greek mythology
–
The Roman poet
Virgil, here depicted in the fifth-century manuscript, the
Vergilius Romanus, preserved details of Greek mythology in many of his writings.
8.
Bronze
–
These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as stiffness, ductility, or machinability. The archeological period where bronze was the hardest metal in use is known as the Bronze Age. In the ancient Near East this began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, with India and China starting to use bronze around the same time, everywhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300 BC and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BC, the discovery of bronze enabled people to create metal objects which were harder and more durable than previously possible. Bronze tools, weapons, armor, and building such as decorative tiles were harder and more durable than their stone. It was only later that tin was used, becoming the major ingredient of bronze in the late 3rd millennium BC. Tin bronze was superior to arsenic bronze in that the process could be more easily controlled. Also, unlike arsenic, metallic tin and fumes from tin refining are not toxic, the earliest tin-alloy bronze dates to 4500 BCE in a Vinča culture site in Pločnik. Other early examples date to the late 4th millennium BC in Africa, Susa and some ancient sites in China, Luristan, ores of copper and the far rarer tin are not often found together, so serious bronze work has always involved trade. Tin sources and trade in ancient times had a influence on the development of cultures. In Europe, a source of tin was the British deposits of ore in Cornwall. In many parts of the world, large hoards of bronze artefacts are found, suggesting that bronze also represented a store of value, in Europe, large hoards of bronze tools, typically socketed axes, are found, which mostly show no signs of wear. With Chinese ritual bronzes, which are documented in the inscriptions they carry and from other sources and these were made in enormous quantities for elite burials, and also used by the living for ritual offerings. Pure iron is soft, and the process of beating and folding sponge iron to wrought iron removes from the metal carbon. Careful control of the alloying and tempering eventually allowed for wrought iron with properties comparable to modern steel, Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, and has continued in use for many purposes to the modern day. Among other advantages, it does not rust, the weaker wrought iron was found to be sufficiently strong for many uses. Archaeologists suspect that a disruption of the tin trade precipitated the transition. The population migrations around 1200–1100 BC reduced the shipping of tin around the Mediterranean, limiting supplies, there are many different bronze alloys, but typically modern bronze is 88% copper and 12% tin
Bronze
–
Yoruba bronze head sculpture, Ife, Nigeria c. 12th century AD
Bronze
–
Bronze deer figurine dating from between the 9th and 6th centuries BC,
National Archaeological Museum of
Sofia
Bronze
–
A hoard of bronze socketed axes from the
Bronze Age found in modern Germany. This was the top tool of the period, and also seems to have been used as a store of value.
Bronze
–
Chinese Ding,
Western Zhou (1046–771 BC)
9.
Minoan pottery
–
Minoan pottery is more than a useful tool for dating the mute Minoan civilization. The extremely fine palace pottery called Kamares ware, and the Late Minoan all-over patterned Marine style are the points of the Minoan pottery tradition. The traditional chronology for dating Minoan civilization was developed by Sir Arthur Evans in the years of the 20th century AD. His terminology and the one proposed by Nikolaos Platon are still generally in use, for more details, see the Minoan chronology. Evans classified fine pottery by the changes in its forms and styles of decoration, Platon concentrated on the episodic history of the Palace of Knossos. A new method, fabric analysis, involves geologic analysis of coarse, the resulting classifications are based on composition of the sherds. A brief introduction to the topic of Early Minoan pottery is stated below and it concentrates on some better-known styles but should not be regarded as comprehensive. A variety of forms is known, the evidence is certainly open to interpretation, and none is decisive. Early Minoan pottery, to some extent, continued, and possibly evolved from, many suggest that Minoan civilization evolved in situ and was not imported from the East. Its other main feature is its variety from site to site, Studies of the relationship between EM I and FN have been conducted mainly in East Crete. There the Final Neolithic has affinities to the Cyclades, while both FN and EM I settlements are contemporaneous, with EM I gradually replacing FN, EM I types include Pyrgos Ware, also called Burnished Ware. The major form was the chalice, or Arkalochori Chalice, in which a cup combined with a stand could be set on a hard surface without spilling. As the Pyrgos site was a shelter used as an ossuary. This type of pottery was black, grey or brown, and burnished, another EM I type, Incised Ware, also called Scored Ware, were hand-shaped, round-bottomed, dark-burnished jugs and bulbous cups and jars. Favored decor was incised line patterns, vertical, horizontal or herring-bone and these pots are from the north and northeast of Crete and appear to be modelled after the Kampos Phase of the Grotta-Pelos early Cycladic I culture. Some have suggested imports or immigrations, a dark-on-light painted pattern was then applied. From this beginning, Minoan potters already concentrated on the forms of designs, perfecting coherent designs. Shapes were jugs, two-handled cups and bowls, the ware came from north and south central Crete, as did Lebena Ware of the same general types but decorated by painting white patterns over a solid red painted background
Minoan pottery
–
"Medallion
Pithoi ", or storage jars, at the
Knossos palace. Named from the raised disks, they date to MM III/LM IA.
Minoan pottery
–
Restored
frieze at Knossos showing Minoan ware. Although the
rhyton (conical vase) is probably
steatite, the other ware is most likely
ceramic.
Minoan pottery
–
Shelves of Early Minoan pottery, mainly Vasiliki Ware,
Heracleion Archaeological Museum at
Iraklio.
Minoan pottery
–
Bird shaped clay vessel from
Koumasa, 2600–2300 BC.
Heraklion Archaeological Museum
10.
Regina Vasorum
–
The Regina Vasorum or Queen of Vases is a 4th-century BC hydria from Cumae depicting Eleusinian divinities with gilded flesh in polychrome relief. It is held in the collections of the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, in addition to its aesthetic qualities, it is valued as an iconographical source for ancient Greek religion. The Regina Vasorum is a spectacular and unusually large example of experimentation among Greek potters after the red-figure style had run its course. The figures were made separately, painted, and gilded, then attached to the vase with slip, south Italian Ancient Greek pottery Elena Ananitch, Lucanian Vases, p.7 online. Kevin Clinton, Greek Sanctuaries p.92 online, beth Cohen, The Colors of Clay, Special Techniques in Athenian Vases, p.115. Erika Simon, Festivals of Attica, An Archaeological Commentary, passim, color photo of the Regina Vasorum at the website of the Hermitage Museum
Regina Vasorum
–
Photo of the Regina Vasorum; the
hydria stand 65.5cm high
Regina Vasorum
–
Drawing of Eleusinian figures around the neck of the Queen of Vases, pictured center
11.
Hermitage Museum
–
The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1754 by Catherine the Great and has open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of only a small part is on permanent display. The collections occupy a complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace. Apart from them, the Menshikov Palace, Museum of Porcelain, Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya, the museum has several exhibition centers abroad. The Hermitage is a state property. Since July 1992, the director of the museum has been Mikhail Piotrovsky, of the six buildings in the main museum complex, five, namely the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre, are open to the public. The entrance ticket for foreign tourists more than the fee paid by citizens of Russia. However, entrance is free of charge the first Thursday of every month for all visitors, the museum is closed on Mondays. The entrance for visitors is located in the Winter Palace. A hermitage is the dwelling of a hermit or recluse, the word derives from Old French hermit, ermit hermit, recluse, from Late Latin eremita, from Greek eremites, literally people who live alone, which is in turn derived from ἐρημός, desert. Originally, the building housing the collection was the Small Hermitage. Today, the Hermitage Museum encompasses many buildings on the Palace Embankment, apart from the Small Hermitage, the museum now also includes the Old Hermitage, the New Hermitage, the Hermitage Theatre, and the Winter Palace, the former main residence of the Russian tsars. In recent years, the Hermitage has expanded to the General Staff Building on the Palace Square facing the Winter Palace, the Western European Art collection includes European paintings, sculpture, and applied art from the 13th to the 20th centuries. It is displayed, in about 120 rooms, on the first, drawings and prints are displayed in temporary exhibitions. Since 1940, the Egyptian collection, dating back to 1852 and it serves as a passage to the exhibition of Classical Antiquities. A modest collection of the culture of Ancient Mesopotamia, including a number of Assyrian reliefs from Babylon, Dur-Sharrukin, the collection of Classical Antiquities occupies most of the ground floor of the Old and New Hermitage buildings. Its floor is made of a marble mosaic imitating ancient tradition, while the stucco walls
Hermitage Museum
–
Winter Palace
Hermitage Museum
–
The Hermitage Museum complex. From left to right: Hermitage Theatre – Old Hermitage – Small Hermitage – Winter Palace (the "New Hermitage" is situated behind the Old Hermitage).
Hermitage Museum
–
Egyptian Hall
Hermitage Museum
–
The Pavilion Hall
12.
Aquamanile
–
In modern usage, an aquamanile is a ewer or jug-type vessel in the form of one or more animal or human figures. It usually contained water for the washing of hands over a basin, historically the term was sometimes used for any shape of basin or ewer so used, regardless of shape. Most surviving examples are in metal, typically copper alloys, as pottery versions have rarely survived, persian aquamaniles predate any zoomorphic aquamaniles known in Europe. Among the latest in date is one also at the State Hermitage Museum, Islamic law deprecated the use of such representational figures, and the Islamic zoomorphic aquamanile tradition died out. However the tradition was taken up enthusiastically in Europe, where the form remained popular until the Renaissance, the earliest European portable aquamaniles date to the eleventh century. As a ritual object, metal was considered more suitable than pottery, although most examples in pottery no doubt were broken, Church records inventory aquamaniles in silver or gilt copper, but the great majority of surviving examples are in base metals, which were not worth melting down. There are two kinds of lion, one is timid, has a body and curly hair, the other has straight hair. A lions strength is seen in its chest, its firmness in its head, there are three main natures of the lion, each have a meaning that come from Christianity. The lion erasing its tracks with its tail represents the way Jesus concealed his divinity, the lion sleeping with its eyes open represents Jesus, physically dead after crucifixion, but still spiritually alive in his divine nature. The lion roaring over his dead cubs to bring them to life represents how God the father woke Jesus after three days in his tomb. 1215, in the treasury of the cathedral at Aachen, takes the form of a mans bust, it is a rare survival of an aquamanile in a precious metal. An aquamanile in the form of Aristotle on hands and knees, being ridden by Phyllis, bore several moral lessons, with ribald undertones, bronze aquamaniles in the form of leopards were part of court ritual in Benin, where the concept may have arrived from the Islamic north. An 18th-century bronze leopard aquamanile from Benin is in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, from the Renaissance elaborate versions of the conventional ewer were preferred to zoomorphic forms. A late version of the aquamanile was the silver-gilt mounted rider on a stand, bought in 1700 for the treasury of the Basilica of St-Denis and its form is recorded in an engraving by Félibien. The idea of ewers in fantastic shapes has never died out, bartmann jugs, also known as Bellarmine jubs, pottery jugs with bearded faces manufactured in Europe in 16th and 17th centuries. Toby jug, pottery jug in the form of a seated person, cow creamer, ceramic or silver cream dispenser in the shape of a cow. Ornamenta Ecclesiae, Kunst und Künstler der Romanik, catalogue of an exhibition in the Schnütgen Museum, Köln,1985. Lion entry in The Medieval Bestiary Barnet, Peter, Dandridge, lions, Dragons, & other Beasts, Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table
Aquamanile
–
Brass aquamanile from
Lower Saxony, Germany, c. 1250 (
Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Aquamanile
–
Bronze aquamanile in the form of a mounted knight, second half of the 13th century,
Lower Saxony (
Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Aquamanile
–
An 11–12th century Islamic aquamanile from
Iran, later used in liturgy by
Medieval Spanish Christians (
M.A.N.,
Madrid)
Aquamanile
–
Aquamanile, about 1170/80, (
Aachen Cathedral Treasury)
13.
Barry Cunliffe
–
Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe CBE FBA FSA, known as Barry Cunliffe, is a British archaeologist and academic. He was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007, since 2007, he has been an Emeritus Professor. Cunliffes decision to become an archaeologist was sparked at the age of nine by the discovery of Roman remains on his uncles farm in Somerset. After studying at Portsmouth Northern Grammar School and reading archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cambridge, fascinated by the Roman remains in nearby Bath he embarked on a programme of excavation and publication. In 1966 he became a young professor when he took the chair at the newly founded Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. There he became involved in the excavation of the Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex, another site in southern England led him away from the Roman period. He began a series of summer excavations of the Iron Age hill fort at Danebury. His interest in Iron Age Britain and Europe generated a number of publications, Cunliffe lives with his wife in Oxford. Cunliffe inspired the name for the character Currant Bunliffe, an archaeologist in David Macaulays 1979 book, Motel of the Mysteries. Keith Brannigan, alternative perspectives from archaeology, genetics and literature. Britain Begins By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean, The Birth of Eurasia Barry Cunliffe School of Archaeology, video interview Prof Cunliffe describes the East Gate at Danebury hillfort
Barry Cunliffe
–
The dolphin mosaic found by Cunliffe's team at Fishbourne
14.
Typology of Greek vase shapes
–
The pottery of ancient Greece has a long history and the form of Greek vase shapes has had a continuous evolution from Minoan pottery down to the Hellenistic era. The task of naming Greek vase shapes is by no means a straightforward one, a few surviving vases were labelled with their names in antiquity, these included a hydria depicted on the François Vase and a kylix that declares, “I am the decorated kylix of lovely Phito”. Vases in use are depicted in paintings on vases, which can help scholars interpret written descriptions. With those caveats, the names of Greek vases are well settled. The following vases are mostly Attic, from the 5th and 6th centuries, many shapes derive from metal vessels, especially in silver, which survive in far smaller numbers. Some pottery vases were intended as cheaper substitutes for these. Some terms, especially among the types of kylix or drinking cup, combine a shape, some terms are defined by function as much as shape, such as the aryballos, which later potters turned into all sorts of fancy novelty shapes. In addition various standard types might be used as external grave-markers, funerary urns containing ashes, several types of vase, especially the taller ones, could be made in plastic forms where the body was shaped sculpturally, typically to form a human head. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Typology of Greek vase shapes
–
Disk
Typology of Greek vase shapes
–
Flaring
Typology of Greek vase shapes
–
Echinus
Typology of Greek vase shapes
–
Inverted Echinus
15.
Amphora
–
An amphora is a type of container of a characteristic shape and size, descending from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products and they are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. The amphora complements the large container, the pithos, which makes available capacities between one-half and two and one-half tons. In contrast, the amphora holds under a half-ton, typically less than 100 pounds, the bodies of the two types have similar shapes. Where the pithos may have small loops or lugs for fastening a rope harness. The necks of pithoi are wide for scooping or bucket access, the necks of amphorae are narrow for pouring by a person holding it by the bottom and a handle. The handles might not be present, the size may require two or three handlers to lift. For the most part, however, an amphora was tableware, or sat close to the table, was intended to be seen, stoppers of perishable materials, which have rarely survived, were used to seal the contents. Two principal types of amphorae existed, the amphora, in which the neck and body meet at a sharp angle. Neck amphorae were used in the early history of ancient Greece. Most were produced with a base to allow upright storage by embedding in soft ground. The base facilitated transport by ship, where the amphorae were packed upright or on their sides in as many as five staggered layers. If upright, the bases probably were held by some sort of rack, heather and reeds might be used as packing around the vases. Racks could be used in kitchens and shops, the base also concentrated deposits from liquids with suspended solid particles, such as olive oil and wines. Amphorae are of use to maritime archaeologists, as they often indicate the age of a shipwreck. They are occasionally so well preserved that the content is still present, providing information on foodstuffs. Amphorae were too cheap and plentiful to return to their origin-point and so, amphora is a Greco-Roman word developing in ancient Greek during the Bronze Age. The Romans acquired it during the Hellenization that occurred in the Roman Republic, cato is the first known literary person to use it
Amphora
Amphora
–
Amphora
Amphora
–
Chinese
celadon vase in form similar to an amphora,
Song or
Yuan Dynasty
Amphora
–
Collection of amphoras on
Island of Vis, ancient Greek colony Issa, today
Croatia
16.
Cotyla
–
The cotylae are also features on the proximal end of the radius and of the ulna in birds. In classical antiquity, the cotyla or cotyle was a measure of capacity among the Romans and Greeks, by the former it was also called hemina, by the latter, τρυβλίον and ἡμίνα or ἡμίμνα. It was the half of the sextarius or ξέστης, and contained six cyathi and this measure was used by physicians with a graduated scale marked on it, like our own chemical measures, for measuring out given weights of fluids, especially oil. A vessel or horn, of a cubic or cylindrical shape, the whole vessel was called litra, and each of the parts an ounce. This measure held nine ounces of oil, so that the ratio of the weight of the oil to the number of ounces it occupied in the measure would be 9,12 or 3,4. The name is given to a type of ancient Greek vase broadly similar in shape to a skyphos
Cotyla
–
Corinthian Cotyla cup with an owl (5th century BC),
National Museum in
Warsaw.
17.
Kantharos
–
A kantharos or cantharus is a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking. Although almost all surviving examples are in Greek pottery, the shape, like many Greek vessel types, in its iconic Type A form, it is characterized by its deep bowl, tall pedestal foot, and pair of high-swung handles which extend above the lip of the pot. The Greek words kotylos and kotyle are other ancient names for this same shape, the kantharos is a cup used to hold wine, possibly for drinking or for ritual use or offerings. The kantharos seems to be an attribute of Dionysos, the god of wine, kylix Rhyton Ancient Greek vase painting Pottery of ancient Greece Gina Hander. CU Classics, Greek Vase Exhibit, Kantharos
Kantharos
–
Red-figure Apulian kantharos with a female head, 320–310 BC (
Walters Art Museum)
Kantharos
–
Bucchero kantharos (
Latial culture, 830–730 BC)
Kantharos
–
Geometric funerary kantharos (
Attica, ca. 780 BC)
Kantharos
–
Black-figure kantharos with
sphinxes (
Boeotia, ca. 550 BC)
18.
Mastos
–
A mastos is an ancient Greek drinking vessel shaped like a womans breast. The type is called a parabolic cup, and has parallel examples made of glass or silver. Examples are primarily in black-figure or white ground technique, though early examples may be red-figure, a mastos typically has two handles and a nipple at the bottom, though some examples have a foot as a base instead. A mastoid cup is conical, but with a flat bottom, the handles of a mastos may be paired horizontally, but they may also be arranged with one horizontal, and one vertical like the handle of a mug. The vertical handle would have facilitated drinking from the relatively deep vessel, having one handle turned at a different angle may also have been a device for hanging the cup when it had the pointed base. In some archaeological contexts, the shape of the cup suggests ritual functions. The dedications were made by wet nurses. The breast-shaped cup may have a religious significance, the drinking of breast milk by an adult who is elderly or about to die symbolized potential rebirth in the afterlife. In the Etruscan tradition, the goddess Juno offers her breast to Hercules as a sign that he may enter the ranks of the immortals
Mastos
–
Black-figure mastos, ca. 530 BC, with combat scenes (
Walters Art Museum)
19.
Oenochoe
–
An oenochoe, also spelled oinochoe, is a wine jug and a key form of ancient Greek pottery. There are many different forms of oenochoe, Sir John Beazley distinguished ten types, the earliest is the olpe, with no distinct shoulder and usually a handle rising above the lip. The type 8 oenochoe is what one would call a mug, with no single pouring point, the chous was a squat rounded form, with trefoil mouth. Small examples with scenes of children, as in the illustrated, were placed in the graves of children. Oenochoai may be decorated or undecorated, oenochoai typically have only one handle at the back and may include a trefoil mouth and pouring spout. Their size also varies considerably, most, at up to 25 cm tall, could be held and poured with one hand. Most Greek oenochoe were in painted terracotta pottery but metal oenochoai were probably common among the better off, though as with other vessel shapes. Again as with other shapes, large versions in stone were used as grave markers. In pottery, some oinochoai are plastic, with the body formed as sculpture, typology of Greek vase shapes Corpus vasorum antiquorum Ancient Greek vase painting Pottery of ancient Greece Media related to Oinochoes at Wikimedia Commons
Oenochoe
–
A
trefoil oenochoe, wild-goat style, C. 625 BC–600 BC, in the
Louvre
Oenochoe
–
A
bronze oenochoe in the History Museum of Nova Zagora, Bulgaria with a trefoil spout
20.
Pelike
–
A pelike is a one-piece ceramic container similar to an amphora. It has two handles that are vertical on their lateral aspects and even at the side with the edge of the belly, a narrow neck, a flanged mouth. Unlike the often-pointed bottom of many amphorae, the bottom is always flanged so it will stand on its own. Pelikes are often painted, usually depicting a scene involving people. The shape first appeared at the end of the 6th century BCE, red-Figure Pelike by the Darius Painter Neck-pelike with aulodic contest British Museum, Red-figure pelike, attributed to the Marsyas Painter Shapes of Greek pottery
Pelike
–
Woman and a youth,
Apulian red-figure pelike, ca. 370 BC,
British Museum (F 316)
21.
Rhyton
–
A rhyton is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as libation, or merely at table. They are typically formed in the shape of an animals head, the English word rhyton originates in the ancient Greek word ῥυτόν. The conical rhyton form has been known in the Aegean region since the Bronze Age, however, it was by no means confined to that region. Similar in form to, and perhaps originating from, the drinking horn, liddell and Scott give a standard derivation from Greek rhein, to flow, which, according to Julius Pokorny, is from Indo-European *sreu-, flow. As rhutos is stream, the neuter, rhuton, would be sort of object associated with pouring. Many vessels considered rhytons featured a mouth at the top. Smith points out that use is testified in classical paintings and accepts Athenaeuss etymology that it was named ἀπὸ τῆς ῥύσεως. Smith also categorized the name as having been a recent form of a vessel called the keras, horn. The word rhyton is not present in what is known about Mycenaean Greek, however, the bulls head rhyton, of which many examples survive, is mentioned as ke-ra-a on tablet KN K872, an inventory of vessels at Knossos, it is shown with the bull ideogram. Ventris and Chadwick restored the word as the adjective *keraa, with a Mycenaean intervocalic h, rhyta shaped after bulls are filled through the large opening and emptied through the secondary, smaller one. This means that two hands are required, one to close the opening and one to fill the rhyton. This has led scholars to believe that rhytons were typically filled with the help of two people or with the help of a chain or a rope that would be passed through a handle. Rhytons modeled after animals were designed to make it look like the animal was drinking when the vessel was being filled, a bull rhyton weighed about three kilograms when empty and up to six kilograms when full. Other rhytons with animal themes were modeled after boars, lions, some shapes, such as lioness rhyta, could be filled through simple submersion, thanks to the vessel’s shape and buoyancy. Horizontally designed rhyta, like those modeled after lionesses, could be filled by being lowered into a fluid, vertically designed rhyta, like those modeled after boars, required another hand to cover the primary opening and to prevent the liquid from spilling as the vessel was filled. Rhyta were often used to strain liquids such as wine, beer, some rhyta were used in blood rituals and animal sacrifice. In these cases, the blood may have been thinned with wine, some vessels were modeled after the animal with which they were intended to be used during ritual, but this was not always the case. It cannot be supposed that every drinking horn or libation vessel was pierced at the bottom, the scoop function would have come first
Rhyton
–
Example: Golden rhyton from Iran's
Achaemenid period. Excavated at
Ecbatana. Kept at
National Museum of Iran.
Rhyton
–
Fresco from Herculaneum demonstrating the use of a rhyton.
Rhyton
–
Boar's head rhyton from
Ugarit, view from the bottom.
Rhyton
–
Horn, possibly for drinking, at the
Iraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete.
22.
Skyphos
–
A skyphos is a two-handled deep wine-cup on a low flanged base or none. The handles may be horizontal ear-shaped thumbholds that project from the rim, Skyphoi of the type called glaux have one horizontal and one vertical thumbhold handle. Early skyphoi were made during the Geometric period, corinth set the conventions that Athens followed. Over a long period the shape remained the same while the style of decoration changed, Skyphoi were also made of precious metals, generally silver and gold leaf, many examples exist. One possible, well-preserved example is the Warren cup, an ovoid scyphus made of silver, a Roman skyphos of cameo glass can be seen at the Getty Museum. Comparable forms of a drinking cup on a base included, Kotyle. Black-figure pottery Red-figure pottery Boscoreale Treasure Skyphoi Perseus Encyclopedia, skyphos
Skyphos
–
Emperor Tiberius's triumph. Silver skyphos with repoussé decoration, late 1st century BC–early 1st century AD. From the villa della Pisanella at Boscoreale, 1895. Below: Attic skyphos depicting a
hoplite, ca. 490-480 BC.
Skyphos
–
Skyphos
23.
Krater
–
A krater or crater was a large vase in Ancient Greece, particularly used for watering down wine. At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in the center of the room and they were quite large, so they were not easily portable when filled. Thus, the mixture would be withdrawn from the krater with other vessels. In fact, Homers Odyssey describes a steward drawing wine from a krater at a banquet and then running to, the modern Greek word now used for undiluted wine, krasi, originates from the krasis of wine and water in kraters. Kraters were glazed on the interior to make the surface of the clay more impervious for holding water, at the beginning of each symposium a symposiarch, or lord of the common drink, was elected by the participants. He would then control of the wine servants, and thus of the degree of wine dilution and how it changed during the party. The krater and how it was filled and emptied was thus the centerpiece of the symposiarchs authority, an astute symposiarch should be able to diagnose the degree of inebriation of his fellow symposiasts and make sure that the symposium progressed smoothly and without drunken excess. Drinking ákratos wine was considered a faux pas in ancient Greece, enough to characterize the drinker as a drunkard and someone who lacked restraint. By using dehydrated grapes, and could withstand dilution with water better, such wines would have also withstood time and the vagaries of transportation much better. Nevertheless, the ancient writers offer scant details of ancient vinification methods and this form originated in Corinth in the seventh century BCE but was taken over by the Athenians where it is typically black-figure. They ranged in size from 35 centimetres to 56 centimetres in height and were thrown in three pieces, the body/ shoulder area was one, the base another, and the neck/ lip/ rim a third. These are among the largest of the kraters, supposedly developed by the potter Exekias in black figure though in fact almost always seen in red, the lower body is shaped like the calyx of a flower, and the foot is stepped. The psykter-shaped vase fits inside it so well stylistically that it has suggested that the two might have often been made as a set. It is always made with two robust upturned handles positioned on opposite sides of the body or cul. This type of krater, defined by volute-shaped handles, was invented in Laconia in the early 6th century BC and its production was carried on by Greeks in Apulia until the end of the 4th century BC. This strip would then have been continued downward until the bottom of the handle where the potter would have cut a U-shaped arch in the clay before attaching the handle to the body of the vase and this form looks like an inverted bell. According to most scholars ceramic kraters imitated shapes designed initially for metal vessels, these were common in antiquity, among the largest and most famous metal kraters in antiquity were one in the possession of the Samian tyrant Polycrates, and another one dedicated by Croesus to the Delphic oracle. There are a few extant Archaic bronze kraters, almost exclusively of the volute-type and their main production centres were Sparta, Argos and Corinth, in Peloponnesus
Krater
–
Krater discovered on the
acropolis of
Mycenae, depicting fully armed warriors, date 1200-1100 BC. Located in the
National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Krater
–
Manner of
Lydos, Black-figured column crater depicting swans, ca. 550 BC, Museum of the
Ancient Agora,
Athens
Krater
–
Euphronios & Euxitheos, Cratère attique à figures rouges, 515-510 B.C.,
Louvre
Krater
–
Darius Painter,
Red-figure volute krater,
Medea at
Eleusis, ca. 340-330 B.C..
Princeton University Art Museum
24.
Olla (Roman pot)
–
In ancient Roman culture, the olla is a squat, rounded pot or jar. An olla would be used primarily to cook or store food, in ancient Roman religion, ollae have ritual use and significance, including as cinerary urns. In the study of Gallo-Roman art and culture, an olla is the small pot carried by Sucellus, by the mallet god often identified with him, olla is a generic word for a cooking pot, such as would be used for vegetables, porridge, pulse and such. Isidore of Seville said that the word derived from ebullit, it boils up. It was a word of ordinary usage, and does not appear in works by Vergil, Horace. The kitchen reconstructed at the House of the Vettii from Pompeii shows a large set on a tripod on the stove. Ollae were used for funerary purposes from earliest times, in Italic inhumations, ollae might be placed with the body in the tomb as grave goods, sometimes with a ladle or dipper. A tomb from a 7th-century BC necropolis at Civita Castellana yielded an olla decorated with a pair of horses, from the 3rd century BC into the 2nd century AD of the Imperial era, cremation was the most characteristic means of disposing of a body among the Romans. Ollae shifted function to hold cremated remains for entombment, a practice of Etruscan as well as Italic burials, the remains of those of modest means might be contained in earthenware ollae placed on the shelves of an ollarium or columbarium. The exta were the liver, gall, lungs. The olla was one of the implements of sacrifice, and appears in reliefs as such. Ollae figured in the rituals of the Arval Brethren, the Brothers of the Fields who constituted a college of priests dating from Romes archaic period, the exta of the victims used in their sacrifices were placed in an olla and cooked. Examples of these pots have been uncovered by archaeologists in the sacred groves of the Arvals. Their rudimentary technique suggests the antiquity of the religious traditions associated with them. After conducting their rites, the Arval priests opened the door to the temple, the name of the woodland god Silvanus appears in inscriptions within the province of Gallia Narbonensis with representations of a mallet, an olla, or both. The mallet is not an attribute of Silvanus, and may be borrowed from the Celtic mallet god sometimes identified with Sucellus
Olla (Roman pot)
–
An olla appears in the right hand of the
Gallo-Roman mallet god; the shape of the fragment suggests that the pot itself might have been an olla
Olla (Roman pot)
–
Ollae of varying shapes in a reconstruction of a Roman kitchen; top shelf, and on the rack over the fire
Olla (Roman pot)
–
Gallic mallet god with olla, perhaps Sucellus
25.
Lebes
–
The lebes is a type of ancient Greek cauldron, normally in bronze. It is a bowl with a rounded bottom. It was often supported by a sacrificial tripod, in classical times, a foot was attached and it was typically used as a cooking pot. The tripod lebes is characterized by two vertical handles and by three strut-supported legs. All were separately cast then riveted to the cauldron, artefactual evidence indicates the tripod lebes was not used as a mixing bowl, even long after it lost its role as a cooking pot. The lebes gamikos, or nuptial lebes, appears to have been a part of pre-wedding purification ceremonies and it may have stood by the brides door and was probably used in ritual sprinkling of the bride with water. Lebetes gamikoi stood on variously long or short bases and each typically was painted with a scene of a wedding procession, oftentimes, the wedding depicted was mythic or included mythic elements such as chariots bearing Helen and Menelaos. Under the barter system that existed in early Iron Age Greece, goods, however, such transactions were aided by conventionally accepted reference values. Certain commodities were used as reference points for evaluating the relative values of different goods. Cattle was common as such a reference in early cultures. In Greece during this period, in addition to cattle, bronze, remnants of stone inscriptions preserve numerous examples of fines and compensatory damages denominated in bronze lebetes from ancient Crete, as early as the 7th century BCE. For example, in one instance, a tripod of ten lebetes was recorded as payment for a fine. In the Iliad, a bronze lebes was valued at one ox, by the Hellenistic period, long after the introduction of coin based money, the lebes survived as a term for a quantity of silver coinage
Lebes
–
Lebes gamikos, a vessel that was part of an ancient Greek wedding
26.
Fish plate
–
This article relates to the type of Greek pottery. For the connection bar used in railways, see Fishplate, a fish plate is a Greek pottery vessel used by western, Hellenistic Greeks during the fourth century BC. Although invented in fifth-century BC Athens, most of the corpus of surviving fish plates originate in Southern Italy, the name fish plate comes from their usual decoration of seafood items which includes various fish and other marine creatures. The form of the plate was called a pinax or pinakion, meaning tablet, because of its flat shape. The fish plates form was that of a dimpled disk elevated on a pedestal, in words, round. Its rim was turned down, and often bears a border, either spiraling waves, Greek key and meander motifs. A fish plate is almost always also elevated above table level by a pedestal foot and these Attic fish plates are characterized by fish whose bellies are oriented towards the outside rim of the plate. In Athens the palette was restricted to red clay fabric and black gloss slip with rare uses of white overpainting, later, Italiote Greek settlers in Southern Italy began to mass-produce more colorful fish plates in Taranto, Paestum, Capua, and Cumae. The South Italian fish plates are characterized by decoration in which the fishs bellies are oriented towards the sauce cup at the center of the plate, fish plates can be classified by the workshops that made them. Fish plates were made in almost all South Italian ceramic fabrics except for those in Lucania, for illustrations of fish plates made by these fabrics, see the external links at the end of this article. All fish plates are red ware, meaning that the creatures are left in reserve. Then dilute glaze and white overpainting were applied, sometimes, in the South Italian examples the palette is enlarged to include deep red, pink, and yellow overpainting as well. This polychrome technique with its chiaroscuro is called sovradipinto, many of the creatures pre-evidence the trompe loeil art characteristic of later, Graeco-Roman painting and mosaics found at Pompeii and other Roman resorts in Magna Graecia. Some contend that fish plates were decorated with pictures of the seafood they were intended to hold, most of them, however, have been found in mortuary contexts, so it might be surmised that the fish images could represent symbolic offerings for the dead. On the other hand, these plates could just as well be objects which were in use among the living. Von Zabern, Mainz 1991 ISBN 3-8053-1111-7 Christian Zindel, Meeresleben und Jenseitsfahrt, die Fischteller der Sammlung Florence Gottet, Kilchberg/Zürich 1998, ISBN 3-905083-13-2 Rolf Hurschmann, Fischteller, in Der Neue Pauly Bd
Fish plate
–
Three sea-perch and three
limpets,
Apulian red-figured fish plate, ca. 340–320 BC,
British Museum
