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Silver trefoil-mouthed oinochoe. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul) -
Silver trefoil-mouthed oinochoe. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Silver trefoil-mouthed oinochoe
- Date
- First half of 6th c BC, Lydian
- Museum
- Uşak, Archaeological Museum, 1.2.89
- Museum Inventory No.
- 1.2.89
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- Uşak 1.2.89
- Material
- Silver
- Object Type
- Metalwork
- Metalwork Type
- Metal Vessel
- Site
- Basmacı Tumulus
- Description
- The jug has a trefoil mouth, a broad cylindrical neck, a squat globular body and a ring foot. Around the base of the neck is a ridge, hammered from the inside. The handle, rising high above the level of the rim, is made from two plates of metal, the lower plate folded over the upper at the edges. The upper plate is decorated with beading down the central concave groove. The upper end of the handle is enclosed by a ribbed oblong collar and soldered to a narrow rectangular attachment plate, which is fixed by two rivets to the inner face of the rim. The lower end of the handle is in the shape of a palmette (broken), which is soldered to the body of the jug. Above the palmette is a vertically grooved horizontal molding. The neck and body are hammered in one, and the separately made profiled ring foot is attached by solder. The handle is damaged from corrosion (Özgen and Öztürk 1996). Height 0.112 m, height to top of handle 0.146 m, diameter at rim 0.088 m, diameter of body 0.106 m, diameter of foot 0.041 m, weight 365.12 g.
- Comments
The Basmacı Tumulus is the only one of the rich tumulus graves near Güre to be excavated scientifically, by the Uşak Museum. Although the mound was largely destroyed by treasure hunters, the chamber was found intact, and contained a sarcophagus with the bones of the deceased (see Baughan, “Lydian Burial Customs”; Akbıyıkoğlu 1991; Akbıyıkoğlu 1994; and Özgen and Öztürk 1996, 53). In addition to the seven items included here, it also contained a silver mirror, a limestone (?) comb, a bronze pin, a marble cup, a Corinthian aryballos (cf. No. 100), and a circular bone ornament. The date of these items is probably earlier than the other tombs near Güre, probably in the first half of the sixth century BC.
This oinochoe and No. 156 are similar in shape to the ceramic examples Nos. 74 and 75.
- See Also
- Baughan, “Burial Customs”; Özgen, “Lydian Treasure”.
- Bibliography
- Özgen and Öztürk 1996, no. 222; Akbıyıkoğlu 1991, 6, 21, fig. 20; Akbıyıkoğlu 1994, 6, fig. 4.
- Author
- İÖ