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Some Bucchero Vases from Ardea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

R. M. Cook  and
C. B. R. Butchart
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Extract

The objects described below were found near Ardea in Latium during the digging of a gun-position in June 1944. The site was in a valley bottom about one mile SSE of the modern town, and the area dug was an L-shaped trench two feet wide and with arms four feet and six feet long. Unfortunately military duties prevented continuous observation, but the following points are clear. Work began on the shorter arm of the trench; and there were found sherds of bucchero and of coarse wares (nos. 10, 11, 23–26, 28, 29), and a ‘red pot’ which was removed and lost. Three days later, digging was resumed and yielded first a bucchero cup (no. 15) and oinochoe (no. 9), then sherds of coarse brownish ware (no. 27), and farther on at a depth of two and a half feet two bucchero oinochoai (nos. 7, 8). Next day three bucchero amphoriskoi (nos. 12–14) were found still farther on in the same section of trench. An offset trench was then started to the right, with a depth of two and a half to three feet. In this offset were found six alabastra (nos. 1–6), all lying together, and close to them two bucchero cups (nos. 16, 17); a little beyond were two bucchero kantharoi (nos. 21, 22); nothing else had been found when orders to advance put an end to the work. Apart from the pottery no objects were observed, nor any traces of structures or of discoloration in the soil.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 17 , November 1949 , pp. 1 - 4
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1949

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References

1 I was present when nos. 1–6, 7, 15, 16–17, 21–22 were found, and examined the trench then and at other times. Between my visits the sergeant kept notes and made some careful drawings. C.B.R.B.

2 These pots, except for nos. 3, 5, 14 and 30, are now in the Museum of Classical Archaeology in Cambridge. Dimensions are given in centimetres. The photographs reproduced here were very kindly taken by Dr. H. Bloesch. For the mending of the pots we are indebted to Mr. R. Johnson.

3 Presumably this coat is a finer, peptised solution of the clay of which the pot itself is made: hence its sheen and darker tone.

4 Though the shape may go back to about 625 B.C., Atkinson's date for the two graves from Selinus which she publishes (one contained four of these kantharoi) is too high and should be corrected to early sixth century (see JHS 1946, 73 n. 55; and Dunbabin, T. J., Papers, BSR xvi, 19–23Google Scholar). Two more kantharoi of this group from the Katharsis grave at Rheneia, that is from Delos, are in Mykonos. From Corinth there are now four (Corinth vii. 1, nos. 310–3 n, pl. 37; Hesperia 1948, 227 no. D. 68, pl. 83), all from wells of the end of the seventh century. Of the two kantharoi from Motya quoted by Atkinson one seems rather to be a cup like ours. Add also several examples from Magliano published in St. Etr. ix,—Poggio Volpaio grave 1 (pl. 1, third of second row: with Italo-Corinthian of the late seventh century); grave 4 (pl. 2, six examples in the last three rows: see above under no. 19); grave 5 (pl. 1, first and last of bottom row: with nine chalices); grave 6 (pl. 3, third of second row: with Italo Corinthian of the later seventh century—it is not clear from the text whether the bucchero chalice first of the top row belongs to this grave); grave 7 (pl. 3, first and last of fifth row: with three chalices and an Italo-Corinthian olpe); le Ficaie grave 2 (pl. 4.10: with four chalices and Italo-Corinthian hardly earlier than 600 B.C.). Fragments in (Ithaca, BSA xliii, 103Google Scholar, no. 601, pl. 45) may be from a similar kantharos.

5 K. M. T. Atkinson, who has seen our examples, kindly tells us that the similarity extends to the clay.

6 Orsi, Not. Scav. 1925, 181; Grenier, Bologne Villa novienne et Étrusque, 245, 250; Atkinson, , Papers BSR xiv, 118Google Scholar. Orsi's and Atkinson's references to Ducati are, we think, mistaken.

7 Note also the characteristic section of the foot of both cup and kantharos.

8 With Atkinson's list of kantharoi (Papers BSR xiv 116–9: see also above n. 4) compare the lists of bucchero and other exports from Etruria compiled by Jacobsthal, P. and Neuffer, E., Préhistoire ii, 45–8Google Scholar, and by G. Karo, ἘΦημ. 1937, 316–20. For Etruscan influence in Greece see besides Karo the observations of J. D. Beazley, JHS 1929, 40–1: note also T. J. Dunbabin, JHS 1944, 80.