chytra
- Description
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Small pottery cooking pot (chytra). Globular-squat shape with one thin strap handle, red-brown micacous Nile silt clay, red-brown (Munsell 2.5YR 5/6); smooth, and somewhat shiny clay slip, patch of black on wall. Chipped at lip, hole in wall. Traces of burning on outside (from use?) and on inside (residue?); from the way the base looks and scratches some use is at least likely.
- Production date
- 4thC BC-2ndC BC
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 5.50 centimetres (outside rim)
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Diameter: 4.20 centimetres (rim inside)
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Diameter: 5.50 centimetres (rim)
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Height: 7.90 centimetres
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Width: 10 centimetres
- Curator's comments
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Object owned and held by the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow. This record is included in the British Museum database as part of the Museum’s Naukratis Project, a research collaboration that aims to virtually re-unite finds from the ancient port city of Naukratis, now distributed over 80 museums worldwide.
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A Naukratis provenance is confirmed by the original register at Kelvingrove, where it is described as a type of vessel known as 'aryballos (Roman period)'. It appears to be a cooking pot, not an 'aryballos', though this error by the Kelvingrove registrar does not invalidate the provenance which was not recorded in the transcribed registers on file in Glasgow.
Form resembles early Ptolemaic cooking pots, but with a less pronounced groove on the lip. If from well, this may be from a 2nd century BC context.
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For the profile, compare e.g. Sparkes and Talcott, Agora 12, pl. 93 no.1930 (1st half 4th century BC).
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- External
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: 1892.21.e (Accession Number)