alabastron
- Museum number
- 1864,1007.253
- Description
-
Pottery: alabastron. Design black, partly painted and partly outlined, on drab ground. On either side of the vase, ears.
An Amazon (?) to right looking to left, with long hair, short chiton and embroidered linen cuirass, beneath which are a sleeved jerkin and anaxyrides in one piece, embroidered with rows of white dots. She has a quiver at her back and double-headed battle-axe in right hand; over her left arm is an embroidered chlamys with zigzag border. On the right is a small table; beyond it, a palm-tree, roughly drawn.
- Production date
- 480BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 15.24 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
BM Cat. Vases
Froehner, Deux peintures de Vases Grecs, pl. ii.; Naukratis I. (C. Smith), p. 51; Arch. Zeit. 1872, p. 35; Athen. Mittheil. xiv. (1889), p. 41; Corey, Amaz. Ant. Fig. p. 89. Much broken and worn away at back.
The technique resembles that of Naucratis, cf. the fragments BM Vases Β102(8), 102(27), 102(33), 103(9), 103(18).
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Attributed to Fikellura grave 266, based on evidence from Biliotti's Kamiros diary, Kamiros tomb list, British Museum register, departmental Kamiros index card. Description in Biliotti's Kamiros diary: Alabastron earthenware black figure on black ground. Warrior holding an axe in one hand and a lose (sic) garment in the other. Hair hanging on shoulders. Wears a kind of short Fustanella (Albanian petticoat). At the place towards which he walks there is a chair and further on a palm tree (1 broken). 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 (G69/dc4)
- Acquisition date
- 1864
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1864,1007.253
