• m10-cor-34-10
    Overview of fragment with scale pattern. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Late Protocorinthian Alabastron Fragment

Date
Ca. 650-630 BC., Lydian
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
P61.172
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Alabastron?
Pottery Ware
Late Protocorinthian
Pottery Attribution
Site
Sardis
Sector
PN
Trench
PN
B-Grid Coordinates
W270 / S355 floor *87.42
Findspot
sand and gravel
Description

Small fragment of convex wall, possibly from an alabastron. Scale pattern in black-polychrome technique covers the entire fragment. Portions of five registers remain. The scales increase in size and complexity from the top to the bottom: three rows of scales with narrow borders followed by two rows with wide borders. The larger scales with wide borders have a single incision marking the inner edge and a set of parallel incisions for the outer edge. The narrow borders are created by two very fine, parallel incisions. Added color as follows: first register, red; second register, black glaze with traces of yellow (?); third register, red; fourth register, black glaze in the center with a border of white dots; fifth register, red in the center with a border of black glaze and white dots. Compass points. The incision and painting are beautifully executed. Glaze: glossy black. Clay: fine, smooth, and slightly powdery. Yellow-buff. Munsell no. 10 YR 8/4 (very pale brown).

An elaborate scale pattern of this type is unusual. A similar treatment can be found on a small group of olpai attached to the workshop of the MacMillan Painter (Albizzati, no. 80, pl. 6).

Dimensions
P.H. 0.02; P.W. 0.032; Th. 0.004
Comments
Cf. for a somewhat similar treatment of scales: CVA France 21, Louvre 13, pl. 44, no. 2 (Fr. 934), PC olpe; Perachora II, 81, pl. 31, no. 719 (lid); Payne, NC pl. 8:6. See also T. J. Dunbabin, M. Robertson, "Some Protocorinthian Vase Painters," BSA 48 (1953) 180; JohansenVS 104, fig. 56.
See Also
Bibliography
Author
JS