• m10-cor-120-10
    Profile view. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m10-cor-120-20
    Profile view. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m10-cor-120-30
    Top view. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Middle Corinthian Round Aryballos Fragment

Date
Ca. 595-570 BC, Lydian
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
P68.075
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Round Aryballos
Pottery Ware
Middle Corinthian
Pottery Attribution
Site
Sardis
Sector
AT
Trench
AhT
B-Grid Coordinates
Ahlatli Tepecik Grid: E 50-E 55/S 15-S 10; * 73.32-73.12
Description

A large fragment, preserved from the top of the handle to the belly. On the shoulder are sixteen long narrow tongues, evenly spaced. Two glazed bands below the tongues separate them from the belly frieze. On the handle are four horizontal lines of glaze. On the belly is a frieze of padded dancers (komasts) moving to the right. Portions of three dancers remain. The heads are flat with long noses and narrow projecting chins (or beards?). The hair is formed in a single mass. The arms are thin and awkward, the bodies are small with only cursory incisions to indicate the chitons. The large incised rosettes and dots in the field are executed carelessly. Glaze: dark brown to black and crackled. No added color. Clay: hard and calcined. Pale yellow-buff. Munsell no. 10 YR 8/3 (very pale brown).

An example of what may have been an EC komast appears on a small shoulder fragment from an aryballos (P67.38:7386) found at PN W 263.80--265.70/S 339.40--340.50 *86.90--*85.60. The head of the figure impinges on the horizontal lines that decorate the shoulder. In the field are two incised rosettes, one with concentric circles at the center.

Dimensions
P.H. 0.025; diam. 0.08; Th. 0.006
Comments
Cf. Corinth VII:2, pl. 15:90 (CP-2358), an MC aryballos. For another Corinthian komast, see Cor 83; for Attic examples of komasts, see Att 84 and Att 46; for a Lakonian example, see Lak 5.
See Also
Bibliography
Published: BASOR 199 (1970) 14, fig. 3. For komasts in general, see Seeberg, Komos, passim; Perachora II, 149, pl. 61, no. 1574 (a slightly earlier and better rendering of the komast).
Author
JS