Late Protocorinthian Alabastron Fragment
- Date
- Ca. 650-630 BC., Lydian
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- P61.172
- Material
- Ceramic
- Object Type
- Pottery
- Pottery Shape
- Alabastron?
- Pottery Ware
- Late Protocorinthian
- Pottery Attribution
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- PN
- Trench
- PN
- B-Grid Coordinates
- W270 / S355 floor *87.42
- Findspot
- sand and gravel
- Description
Small fragment of convex wall, possibly from an alabastron. Scale pattern in black-polychrome technique covers the entire fragment. Portions of five registers remain. The scales increase in size and complexity from the top to the bottom: three rows of scales with narrow borders followed by two rows with wide borders. The larger scales with wide borders have a single incision marking the inner edge and a set of parallel incisions for the outer edge. The narrow borders are created by two very fine, parallel incisions. Added color as follows: first register, red; second register, black glaze with traces of yellow (?); third register, red; fourth register, black glaze in the center with a border of white dots; fifth register, red in the center with a border of black glaze and white dots. Compass points. The incision and painting are beautifully executed. Glaze: glossy black. Clay: fine, smooth, and slightly powdery. Yellow-buff. Munsell no. 10 YR 8/4 (very pale brown).
An elaborate scale pattern of this type is unusual. A similar treatment can be found on a small group of olpai attached to the workshop of the MacMillan Painter (Albizzati, no. 80, pl. 6).
- Dimensions
- P.H. 0.02; P.W. 0.032; Th. 0.004
- Comments
- Cf. for a somewhat similar treatment of scales: CVA France 21, Louvre 13, pl. 44, no. 2 (Fr. 934), PC olpe; Perachora II, 81, pl. 31, no. 719 (lid); Payne, NC pl. 8:6. See also T. J. Dunbabin, M. Robertson, "Some Protocorinthian Vase Painters," BSA 48 (1953) 180; JohansenVS 104, fig. 56.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Author
- JS