• m10-cor-116-10
    Profile view featuring a bull facing to the right. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m10-cor-116-20
    Profile view featuring a panther facing to the right. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m10-cor-116-30
    Profile view featuring a lion facing to the left. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m10-cor-116-40
    Drawing. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Middle Corinthian Kotyle Fragments

Date
Ca. 595-570 BC, Lydian
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
P62.098
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Kotyle
Pottery Ware
Middle Corinthian
Pottery Attribution
Site
Sardis
Sector
HoB
Trench
HoB
B-Grid Coordinates
W15 - W20 / S85 - S90 *99.8
Description
Early in MC. Restored from twenty-nine joining pieces. The kotyle is preserved from the rim to the upper part of the rays. Animal frieze framed by two lines of black glaze at the rim and a wide band of glaze below. In the frieze are a bird and three large animals: panther to right; bull to right, head in profile; lion to left (facing the bull). Part of the wing of the bird appears behind the lion.The panther has small, heart-shaped ears. The animal bodies are elongated and heavy, with short thick legs. The incision is quick and careless. The eyes are created by small circles with a line on either side. Shoulder markings vary: a scroll for the panther, a tight curl for the bull, and a broad curve for the lion. The incision of the foreleg muscles is the same in each case: a line or curve ending in a hook. None of the animals has a belly stripe. No added color remains. Blob rosettes, some with incision, are scattered in the field. Interior glazed. Glaze: exterior, almost entirely vanished; what remains is black, dull, and crackled. Interior, brown, changing to dark orange near the center. Clay: hard and smooth; varies from creamy yellow to pinkish buff, apparently as a result of firing. Munsell nos. between 10 YR 7/4 and 7.5 YR 7/4 (very pale brown to pink).D. A. Amyx (private correspondence, 29 January 1986) suggests that the type of panther head, the heavy bodies, and the lack of a belly stripe are all reminiscent of the works of the Carousel Painter, although the piece is not by his hand.
Dimensions
P.H. 0.070; diam. 0.11; Th. 0.003
Comments
See Also
Bibliography
Published: Schaeffer, Panthers 119--20 and figs. 2--4. Animals with short, stocky bodies appear frequently on kotylai of the early years of MC: Perachora II, pl. 100, no. 2472; Tocra I, pl. 23, no. 325, dated MC; CVA Italy 26, Rome 1, III.C., pl. 3, no. 1 (inv. no. 491), on a krater dated to the beginning of MC; Corinth XV:3, no. 582 (KP 16), pl. 28, dated MC. A somewhat similar lion, but of earlier date, appears on a kotyle from Perachora: Perachora II, pl. 92, no. 2302, dated, however, to TR. A similar kotyle from Corinth: Corinth VII:2, pl. 18, 11 a, b, dated MC. Mansfield, "Three Corinthian Fragments," compares a panther head on an EC amphora: Vallet and Villard, “MégHyb” 2, 58, pl. 40:4 (1/10854).
Author
JS