• m10-cor-5-10
    Overview of sherds with broken handle. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Early Protocorinthian Linear Kotyle Fragments

Date
Ca. 720-690 BC, Lydian
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
P96.001
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Kotyle
Pottery Ware
Early Protocorinthian
Pottery Attribution
Site
Sardis
Sector
HoB
Trench
HoB
B-Grid Coordinates
W5 - W7.5 / S95 - S101 *99.53 - 98.55
Findspot
A: HoB W 5.00--7.50/S 98.00--101.00 *98.45; found in 1965. B: HoB W 5.00--6.00/S 95.00--99.00 *99.53--*98.55; found in 1966. Both pieces were found in the same area as Cor 9 and on nearly the same level.
Description

Middle EPC or early in late EPC. Two fragments from the rim; the handle stubs are preserved. Exterior: short vertical strokes on the handles (three preserved on one stub, one on the other), but no horizontal framing lines. Two horizontal lines of glaze decorate the lip. Two vertical bars remain in the handle frieze next to each handle stub. Four horizontal lines are preserved on the upper body. Interior: a single line of glaze on the edge of the lip, extending over into the interior. Another line of glaze appears in the reserved area inside the rim; otherwise glazed. Glaze: dark brown in the handle zone; deep reddish orange on the body, both inside and out. Clay: hard and smooth. Light orange on the body, cream on the rim. Munsell nos.: body, 7.5 YR 8/3 (pink); rim, between 10 YR 8/3 and 7/3 (very pale brown).

The change in color from rim to body is probably intentional (supra, "Clay," 17; see also Perachora II, 51, no. 377, pl. 19, and 53, no. 383, pl. 19).The use of short strokes between horizontal lines is typical of the decoration for kotylai handles from the end of LG into the early years of EPC. On this motif, see Coldstream, GGP 106 and pl. 19:k (Athens NM 14476), dated LG; Ithaca V pl. 2, no. 23; Brokaw, “PC Kotyle” fig. 1 (Athens, Vlastos Col.), dated end of LG or beginning of EPC. A single line begins to replace the strokes on kotylai handles late in EPC. By the end of EPC or early in MPC, the change to a single line is already established (supra, "Kotylai with Linear Decoration," 11). The use of the short strokes without framing lines on Cor 5 should place the handles in the period of transition, middle EPC or early in the last phase of EPC.

Dimensions
A: P.H. 0.027; P.W. 0.03; Th. 0.002. B: P.H. 0.027; P.W. 0.025; Th. 0.002.
Comments
See Also
Bibliography
Author
JS