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Silver oinochoe with lion’s head handle. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul) -
Silver oinochoe with lion’s head handle. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul) -
Silver oinochoe with lion’s head handle. Detail of spout and lion's head. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)
Silver oinochoe with lion’s head handle
The Lydians and their World
(2010)
Cat. 163
- Date
- Late 6th or early 5th c BC, Late Lydian (Persian)
- Museum
- Uşak, Archaeological Museum, 1.15.96
- Museum Inventory No.
- 1.15.96
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- Uşak 1.15.96
- Material
- Silver
- Object Type
- Metalwork
- Metalwork Type
- Metal Vessel
- Site
- Ikiztepe Tumulus
- Description
- The oinochoe has a trefoil mouth with grooved rim, a short neck, and an ovoid body, angling sharply at the wide shoulder and narrowing towards the flared foot. A rounded ridge decorated with engraved beading encircles the foot near the top, and the same decoration appears around the edge of the foot. The handle, of semicircular section, rises above the level of the rim, a line of beading down the central ridge and the edges. A lion’s head, open-mouthed, forms the upper terminal, with a spool-shaped projection at either side, incised at each end with a rosette and edged with beading. The lion’s head is in low relief, and facial details and curly mane are meticulously engraved. The lower end of the handle takes the form of the foreparts of a panther, in low relief, shown resting its head between outstretched paws. Nose, head and forelegs are dotted, and the pelt is marked by larger punched dots and circles. The individual digits of the paws are particularly well defined. Between the handle proper and the panther is a collar of three rounded ridges, the uppermost plain, the lower two decorated with beading. The vessel was made in three pieces, body and foot hammered separately, handle cast, and all parts joined by solder.
A slightly smaller silver oinochoe (height 0.155 m), with ovolo and beaded decoration, has two spool-like embellishments at both ends of the handle, decorated at the ends with rosettes. (The oinochoe was on the Munich art market in 1986, together with a silver phiale, ladle, and mirror; the group later sold without the mirror.) A silver pitcher in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu, no. 78.AN.368) also has a spool-like embellishment decorated with rosettes at the upper end of the handle” (Özgen and Öztürk 1996). Height to top of handle 0.207 m, diameter of body 0.119 m, diameter of foot 0.073 m, weight 876.3 g.
- Comments
- From the Ikiztepe Tumulus.
- See Also
- Özgen, “Lydian Treasure”; Baughan, “Lydian Burial Customs”.
- Bibliography
- Özgen and Öztürk 1996, no. 13.
- Author
- İÖ