pelike
- Museum number
- 1864,1007.1677
- Description
-
Pottery: red-figured pelike.
(a) A woman seated in a chair on the left, holding out in both hands a wreath. Confronting her is another woman closely draped, holding a forked branch of ivy; each wears long chiton and himation, and a fillet; the seated woman wears earrings. Above her hangs an alabastron.
(b) On the left an old, bald-headed, bearded man draped in a mantle stands with his right hand resting on a knotted staff. Confronting him is a woman in long chiton, himation, and saccos, who holds out in her right hand a circular box on three feet, with arching handle, decorated with three horizontal rows of pattern.
Drawing careless. Purple wreath, berries and fillets, and cord of alabastron. Brown inner markings (e.g. wrinkles and outline of beard of old man in b). Eye of transition type. Below and above each design, a strip of sets of three maeanders separated by red cross squares (diagonal). On the lower part of each handle, a double palmette.
- Production date
- 470BC-440BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 33.02 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Attributed to Fikellura grave 205, based on evidence from Biliotti's Kamiros diary, Kamiros tomb list, British Museum register, departmental Kamiros index card. Description in Biliotti's Kamiros diary: Amphora – red figures – female upright carrying a basket (perhaps) – male seated and holding a stick – reverse- seated female and another female standing and presenting her with a branch (1 entire). No marking of grave number visible on the object itself.
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 (G20a/dc36)
- Acquisition date
- 1864
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1864,1007.1677
