• latw-203-1
    Lekythos. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)

    Lekythos

    Date
    Probably fifth century BC, Late Lydian (Persian)
    Museum
    Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 9033
    Museum Inventory No.
    9033
    Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
    P03.313
    Material
    Ceramic
    Object Type
    Pottery
    Pottery Shape
    Lekythos
    Pottery Ware
    Lydian Plainware
    Pottery Attribution
    Site
    Sardis
    Sector
    Nec
    Trench
    Tomb 03.1
    Locus
    Tomb 03.1 Locus 1
    B-Grid Coordinates
    W540 / S995
    Description
    Ovoid lekythos with flat, string-cut disc foot, tall body, broad outwardly thickened rim. Vertical oval handle going from neck to shoulder. Unpainted. Height 0.194 m, diameter 0.069 m.
    Comments
    From the same tomb as Nos. 196-205; found near the head of a skeleton, with No. 204. The tomb itself contained seven lekythoi, four at the head of the skeleton on one couch, one near the leg of another skeleton, and two more on the floor below the couches, perhaps rolled off from the foot of a couch (see Baughan, “Lydian Burial Customs”). Common as Greek grave goods, they probably held oil as an offering to the dead.
    See Also
    Baughan, “Lydian Burial Customs”.
    Bibliography
    Greenewalt 2005, 82-3; forthcoming study by Susanne Ebbinghaus.
    Author
    NDC