- Museum number
- 1864,1007.156
- Description
-
Pottery amphora decorated in the Fikellura style with a running man. Neck, triple cable. Shoulder, chain of simplified pomegranates, joined alternately. The diameter of the mouth is 0.16 m. from back to front, 0.135 m. between the handles: some pinching is common in Fikellura, but this is the extreme instance so far as is known.
- Production date
- 530BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 34 centimetres
-
Weight: 2 kilograms
-
Width: 28.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
CVA British Museum 8
J. D. Beazley has suggested that the running man is based on Attic sprinters like those of the Panathenaic amphora, Halle 560 (E. Langlotz, zur Zeitbestimmung, pl. 1. 1). The identification of the figure as a pigmy is less likely, since the proportions are for this painter normal.
[A. 1311.] Boehlau no. 10. E. Schmidt, Münchener Archäolog. Stud., 300 fig. 24 (of A). E. Buschor, Griechische Vasenmalerei2, fig. 62 (of A). H. Schaal, Bilderhefte iii, pl. 7. 13 (of A). Buschor, Griechische Vasen, fig. 105 (of A). Burlington Magazine, Aug. 1925, 69 (handle ornament). P. Jacobsthal, Ornamente, pl. 21a (handle ornament). BSA xxxiv, 20 (L 1), 23-24, 66, 82-84; pl. 11a (detail of A).
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Attributed to Fikellura grave 85, based on evidence from Biliotti's marking on the object (grave number incised and on label), Biliotti's Kamiros diary, Kamiros tomb list, British Museum register, departmental Kamiros index card. Description in Biliotti's Kamiros diary: Amphora large yellowish ground dark brick colour figures two men running one on each side, and antefixal ornaments (1 entire).
Attributions to find-spots are based on (1) Alfred Biliotti’s diary kept during excavations at Kamiros between November 1863 and June 1864, which records the contents of two votive deposits and over 300 graves; (2) entries in the Museum Register, often stipulating the find-spots of individual objects excavated by Biliotti; (3) the Kamiros tomb list, produced around the same time as his entries in the Museum Register. It lists the contents of each grave and votive deposit, along with their corresponding registration numbers; (4) the Kamiros index cards, written by Donald Bailey in the 1960’s. These mainly record the contents of graves from the Fikellura cemetery and are organised according to tomb group. All archives are kept in the Department of Greece and Rome. In addition, Reynold Higgins’ Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1954) has been checked for attributions to the Fikellura cemetery.
- Location
- On display (G13/dc6)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1980 5 Jun- 26 Oct, London, BM, The Ancient Olympic Games
- Acquisition date
- 1864
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1864,1007.156
