Hellenistic amphorae of Panathenaic shape from the necropolis of Olbia Pontica (original) (raw)

2019, Daily Life in a Cosmopolitan World: Pottery and Culture During the Hellenistic Period. Proceedings of the 2nd Conference of IARPotHP, Lyon, November 2015, 5th – 8th (Phoibos Verlag, Vienna 2019)

Olbia Pontica and its necropolis belong to the most important sites of the North Pontic area 1. While working with materials from the Olbian Hellenistic necropolis our attention was attracted to two table black-glazed West Slope amphorae, which came from the excavations of B. V. Farmakovskiï held in 1896 2 and are preserved now in the State Historical museum in Moscow. These vessels have been recently published among inventory from several graves of the Olbian necropolis 3 , but without special investigation. West Slope amphorae The first amphora (fig. 1, 1-2; 2, 1) from the grave 25/1896 has an elongated ovoid body, a high neck and funnel-shaped, offset rim (SHM 36519, B 14/17, No. 16) 4. The convex-concave foot is high and moulded. Body fluted in two zones, each bordered above and below by two horizontal bands. The handles are not preserved, they had oval shape. At the places of the handles attachments there are round rotellae. Both sides of the neck are decorated with a spearhead-shape necklace in white and orange clay. An ornamental wave-shaped band is incised on both sides of the shoulders. Under these, between two horizontal reserved bands, there is a row of white dots. The middle part of the amphora is decorated with a broad frieze situated between two bands of dots over and under which there are also narrow bands made in scraped-off glaze. The frieze consists of palmettes and dots rosettes. Clay is light-brown, slightly pinkish. On the surface there are some mica inclusions. The glaze is black, of not very high quality. Shape of the second amphora 5 from grave 39/1896 (fig. 1, 3-4; 2, 2) is very similar to the first one (SHM 36519, B 14/17, No. 17), while decoration is a bit different with a more complicated composition on the shoulders. Spearhead-shape necklaces are applied with clay and white paint on both sides of the neck. A wave-shaped ornament is incised on one side of the shoulders and a band of dot-rosettes and birds made with white paint is depicted on the other. Under them there is a row of white points between two horizontal bands. A broad frieze is situated in the middle part of the amphora between bands of dots, over and under which there are bands made in added clay. The ornament of the frieze on the central part is also different. Wreathes, dot rosettes and palmettes made with white paint are depicted on the frieze. There are two clay bands on the lower part of the body. 1 The main part of the huge city necropolis is still unpublished. The special book about Hellenistic necropolis (Parovich-Peshikan 1974) is very sketchy and does not represent the grave-contexts of the necropolis.