• m10-cor-85-10
    View of handle-plate with portion of the handle remaining. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Fragment of an Early Corinthian Column Krater

Date
Ca. 620-590 BC, Lydian
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
P61.339
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Column Krater
Pottery Ware
Early Corinthian
Pottery Attribution
Site
Sardis
Sector
PN
Trench
PN
B-Grid Coordinates
W245 / S380 *86.80
Findspot
on floor
Description

Handle-plate with portion of the handle remaining. Dog, couchant, facing to left with his front paws raised and his head turned back over his shoulder. A single long incision delineates the cheek and lower jaw, while another forms the muzzle, with a curl for the nostril. A fine, long S curve is used for the shoulder, with four curved incisions below. A long hook defines the front elbow; a single line separates the front legs. The back haunch is formed by a single, reversed curve which continues down along the hind leg and over the paw bump. Two incisions mark the base of the tail. The eye is circular, with extensions at the corners. Two incisions are used to form the wrinkle of the brow. The extended tongue, the teeth, and the interior of the ears are also formed by incisions.

A single incised rosette with several concentric circles in the center appears in the field above the dog's haunch. Added red on the dog's neck, shoulder (between incisions), and haunch (either side of the incision). The incision is sure, light, and fine. The edges of the handle-plate and the handle are glazed. Glaze: black, glossy, crackled in places, and worn. Clay: hard and smooth. Munsell no. 7.5 YR 7/4 (pink).

The style looks back to PC work, both in the fineness of the incision and the relative lack of filling ornament. The pose, with sharply raised paws, is not often used for dogs but appears frequently on panthers, as on a pyxis lid by the Mykonos Painter (Payne, NC 292). A similar rosette appears on a fragment belonging to the destruction resulting from the siege of Alyattes at Old Smyrna: Anderson, “Old Smyrna” 146, pl. 25, no. 94a.

Dimensions
P.H. 0.058; P.W. 0.105; Th., including handle loop, 0.031; Th. of plate 0.01
Comments
See Also
Bibliography
For the development of the handle-plate on Corinthian kraters, see Bakır, Der Kolonnettenkrater in Korinth und Attika zwischen 625 und 555 v. Chr. 11--59.
Author
JS