• m10-cor-107-10
    Overview of wall fragment. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m10-cor-107-20
    Drawing. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Early Corinthian Kotyle Fragment

Date
Ca. 615-595 BC, Lydian
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
P62.339
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Kotyle?
Pottery Ware
Early Corinthian
Pottery Attribution
Site
Sardis
Sector
PN
Trench
PN
B-Grid Coordinates
ca. W235 - W238 / S375 - S380 *87.2
Findspot
“Lydian B”; found near Cor 83, Att 77, a cup, and Att 87, a Hermogenean skyphos.
Description

Middle years of EC. Wall fragment. An animal frieze below a wide band of black glaze. The head of a panther to left, facing forward, appears opposite the muzzle of a doe (?) facing right. A carelessly incised rosette is placed between the animals. The feline has bear-shaped ears. His almond-shaped eyes are sharply slanted, with circular pupils. The incision used for the forehead and nose area of the panther resembles a Y. Two curves separate the muzzle from the cheeks, and two vertical dashes appear in the whisker area. The muzzle of the doe (?) is separated from the upper nose by two parallel reverse curves; the nostril is represented by a circle and the mouth by a single line. There is added red on the forehead, nose, and neck of the panther. Glaze: exterior, black and glossy, somewhat crackled; interior, chocolate brown, glossy, streaky, chipped and worn. Clay: fine, smooth, and hard, with faceted breaks. Interior beige with a pale pink hue. Exterior creamy and worn. Munsell nos.: interior, 10 YR 7/4 (very pale brown); exterior, 7.5 YR 6/6 (light brown).

The facial type used for the panther can be traced from TR to the early years of MC. A panther similar to the Sardis example appears on an EC oinochoe in Leipzig. The similarities and peculiarities of the incision, especially in the forehead and eye areas, suggest that these two pieces were at least produced in the same workshop, if not by the same hand. D. A. Amyx (private correspondence, 29 January 1986) suggests, "tradition of the Sphinx Painter, leaning toward the Chimaera Group, but less fancy."

Dimensions
P.H. 0.047; P.W. 0.041; Th. of wall 0.006
Comments
Cf. CVA Germany 14, Leipzig 1, pl. 53, no. 4 (oinochoe; = PayneNC no. 729, pl. 23:4), EC; MüM Auktion 1961, no. 112, the Detroit Painter (panther in the lower register); Payne, NC pl. 14, no. 168, an olpe in Heidelberg, inv. no. 55, TR period; Kraiker, Aigina 75, pl. 35, no. 461 (inv. no. 2014.2023), on an olpe dated TR.
See Also
Bibliography
Published: Schaeffer, “Panthers” 118--19 and fig. 1. For the Sphinx Painter, see Amyx/Lawrence, “Sphinx Painter” 387--90, with lit. For the Chimaera Group, see Lawrence, “Chimaera Painter” 349--63.
Author
JS