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Pyxis. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)
Lydian pyxis
The Lydians and their World
(2010)
Cat. 87
- Date
- Ca. mid-6th c BC, Lydian
- Museum
- Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 8384
- Museum Inventory No.
- 8384
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- P86.047
- Material
- Ceramic
- Object Type
- Pottery
- Pottery Shape
- Pyxis
- Pottery Ware
- Lydian Painted - Orientalizing
- Pottery Attribution
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- MMS
- Trench
- MMS-I 86.1
- Locus
- MMS-I 84.1 Locus 34
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E150 - E151.5 / S69.5 - S71.2 *100.3 - 100.25
- Description
- Lydian pyxis. Rather narrow ring foot, cylindrical central body separated from conical shoulder and lower body by beveled ridges, made and applied separately. Low vertical neck with squared rim. Scars of two basket handles on shoulder. Neck and lower body painted with thick matte orangish slip, burned to brown; creamy white slip on central body and shoulder, decorated with large pendant triangles outlined in matte purple slip on shoulder; two registers of diagonally crossed metopes in various permutations on cylindrical central body. Mended from fragments, preserving about 1/4 of foot, about 3/4 of body and neck; both handles missing. Lack of decoration on the neck suggests that it was intended to have a lid. Height 0.225 m, diameter 0.240 m.
- Comments
- The Lydian “pyxis” is a very different vessel from the Greek shapes of the same name, and it should be remembered that many of the names applied to these vessels are modern convention, and do not necessarily reflect ancient terminology. A rather uncommon shape in Lydian pottery, it may have been used for cosmetics or storage of personal items. This example, one of the most complete from Sardis, comes from the house burned in the mid-sixth century BC (Area 1, with 16, 62, 64, 65, 66, 68, 72, 73, 75, 81, 88, 96, 97, 100, 102, 103, 137, 138); unfortunately nothing about its context suggests specifics about its use.
- See Also
- Greenewalt, “Lydian Pottery”.
- Bibliography
- Greenewalt et al. 1990, 154, n. 30, fig. 20; Cahill and Kroll 2005, 601.
- Author
- NDC