• m10-cor-126-1
    Middle Corinthian Kotyle (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m10-cor-126-10
    Overview of two wall fragments. (©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.
P61.534
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Kotyle
Pottery Ware
Middle Corinthian
Pottery Attribution
Site
Sardis
Sector
HoB
Trench
HoB
Locus
HoB Lydian I - Building D and Extension
B-Grid Coordinates
W10 - W15 / S95 - S100 *99.6 - 98.8
Findspot
A:HoB W 10.00-15.00/S 95.00-100.00 *99.60-*98.80. B:HoB W 10.00-15.00/S 101.00-108.00 ca. *98.40, intrusive.
Description

Two wall fragments, almost joining, probably from an animal-frieze kotyle. Although discovered some distance apart, it is clear from the interior throwing lines, design, clay and glaze colors, and the style of incision that the pieces belong to one vase. Animal frieze: part of the head of a panther on the right, facing forward. His body, moving to the left, is preserved from haunch to shoulder. The head of a goat appears on the left, facing to right, preserved from the lower part of the horns to the beard.

The animals are bulky. The goat's head is large and thick, his wrinkled forehead massive. Two long incisions mark the forehead. A circle with triangular ends is used for the eye, and a series of vertical lines marks the beard. The panther has an ivy-shaped ear, an eye similar to that of the goat, and two heavy hooks for the cheek. His body is almost misshapen, with a heavy hump for the shoulder accentuated by the curve of the shoulder incision. The ribs are created by a series of seven nearly vertical incisions, varying in length and running from shoulder to haunch. Purple-red is added behind the ear of the goat, on the shoulder and belly, between the ribs of the panther, and possibly on the panther's forehead. Blob fillers lie between the goat and the panther. Incised rosettes appear above the back and beneath the belly of the panther. Glaze: medium brown to black, unevenly applied and glossy. Clay: hard and fairly smooth. Deep yellow-buff. Munsell no. 10 YR 7/3 (very pale brown).

Dimensions
A (fragment with goat and panther head): P.H. 0.041; P.W. 0.049; Th. 0.005. B (fragment with panther body): P.H. 0.062; P.W. 0.043; Th. 0.005-0.006.
Comments
See Also
Bibliography
Published: Schaeffer, Panthers 121--22 and fig. 5. For the goat, see Perachora II, pl. 100, no. 2472. A similar panther appears on an unpublished aryballos in Taranto NM, inv. no. 4850. See also CVA France 16, Rodin 1, pl. 5, no. 4 (inv. no. TC607), for an MC pyxis with a series of goats and panthers on the lid, a finer hand close to that of the Royal Library Painter
Author
JS