• latw-216-10
    Hellenistic white-slipped relief-ware lidded jar. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)
  • latw-216-20
    Hellenistic white-slipped relief-ware lidded jar. Detail of relief medallion with beardless man wearing a lion scalp. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)
  • latw-216-30
    Hellenistic white-slipped relief-ware lidded jar. Detail of relief frieze with figures and vessels. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)

Hellenistic white-slipped relief-ware lidded jar

Date
Late Hellenistic, Hellenistic
Museum
Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 2186
Museum Inventory No.
2186
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
P59.412ab
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Jar
Pottery Ware
Hellenistic Tableware
Pottery Attribution
Site
Sardis
Sector
PC
Trench
PC
Locus
PC Tomb of the Lintel
Description
Pottery, broken, mended, partly restored. The finial of the lid has a central opening. One body handle missing and restored. Body is partly mold-made. White slip on exterior surfaces, over which decoration in reddish-orange to dark-sepia slip. On either side of shoulder-neck zone, centered between handles, a relief medallion, of which one survives, showing a beardless head wearing lion scalp. On lower body, relief pattern and friezes (figures, vessels, swags et al.). On lid, shoulder-neck zone, and upper body, painted floral motifs. Height with lid 0.418 m, maximum diameter 0.277 m.
Comments
Recovered from the same tomb (“Tomb of the Lintel,” in excavation sector PC) as No. 217. “Probably local” (Rotroff and Oliver 2003, 79). The possibility that the beardless head wearing lion scalp might represent Omphale was suggested by Hanfmann, and has been noted by others. If so, it is an early example of local legend represented in arts of Sardis (earlier examples, of the sixth century BC, might be reliefs on the back of the “Cybele Naiskos,” No. 34).
See Also
Greenewalt, “Introduction”.
Bibliography
Rotroff and Oliver 2003, 79-80, no. 306, pl. 50 (with older bibliography).
Author
CHG