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Imported West Anatolian Pottery at Gordion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2015

Gerald P. Schaus
Gerald P. Schaus
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada
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Extract

Beginning in the early sixth century a large-scale rebuilding programme was undertaken by the Phrygians on the City Mound at Gordion, probably with the approval of their overlords, the Lydians. This renewed activity was no doubt one factor in the appearance at this time of several new imported fine wares at Gordion. These supplement the small number of imports finding their way to Gordion during the seventh century. One large group consists of Lydian pottery belonging to several fabrics including black-on-red, bichrome, marbled ware, and black-on-buff. Detailed study of this pottery has yet to be carried out. Work here will depend heavily on the study and classification of pottery from excavations at Sardis. Another, smaller body of imported pottery came from the cities of Greece. Study of this material, mainly from Corinth, Athens, and East Greece, is being conducted by K. DeVries and is now well advanced. A third small body of pottery, originating from areas to the west and south of Gordion, is presented here. The different wares of this group are very poorly known from other West Anatolian sites, so that the Gordion material adds considerably to our understanding of each of them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 42 , December 1992 , pp. 151 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1992

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References

1 For a summary discussion of the history of the site at this time, see DeVries, K., “Gordion and Phrygia in the Sixth Century B.C.”, Source, Notes in the History of Art 7.3–4 (1988) 51–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

I would like to thank Keith DeVries for the invitation to work on this material. It has been a pleasure to be associated with the Gordion excavations. To him, to G. Kenneth Sams, whose advice through earlier drafts of this paper was invaluable, to Ellen Kohler for her kind assistance in using the Gordion records, and to my wife, Pamela, for her patient help with the pottery drawings, I am much indebted. Grants for travel to Gordion in 1986 and 1988 were received from Wilfrid Laurier University.

(For abbreviations additional to those listed for this journal see end of article.)

2 Unless otherwise noted, the catalogued pieces come from the City Mound at Gordion. Other find spots include Küçük Höyük (abbreviated “KH”) and the Cemetery area. Clay colour readings are based on the Munsell Soil Colour Charts (1975 ed.), taken outdoors in the shade.

Abbreviations used in the Catalogue:

3 In Anatolia, besides a locally-made variety in central Phrygia (below n. 4), black-on-red may also have been made in Lydia, in the region around Burdur in southwest Anatolia (once the borders of Phrygia), and in Cilicia. For the types, see Mellaart, J., “Iron Age Pottery from Southern Anatolia”, Belleten 19 (1955) 115–35Google Scholar; and note Birmingham, J., AS 14 (1964) 29–33Google Scholar.

4 A Phrygian made black-on-red pottery has been identified both at Gordion and Midas City, Mellink, , AJA 58 (1954) 168Google Scholar; Young, , AJA 72 (1968) 239–40Google Scholar; Sams, , Pottery, 52–3Google Scholar. Its local origin was disputed by Mellaart, , Belleten 19 (1955) 124Google Scholar, but Sams, , Pottery, 166–7Google Scholar argues persuasively in favour of it. For previously published examples of Phrygian black-on-red from Gordion, see Körte, G. and Körte, A., Gordion, Ergebnisse der Ausgrabung im Jahre 1900 (Berlin 1904) figs. 160–1Google Scholar; Young, R. S. et al. , Three Great Early Tumuli, Gordion I (Philadelphia 1981) 34–7, 47Google Scholar cat. nos. TumP 53–4, 58 (TumP 59 is thought by Sams to be an import from Cyprus or adjacent area); Young, , AJA 60 (1956) 263Google Scholar pl. 94 fig. 48, idem, AJA 70 (1966) 273 pl. 74 fig. 14; idem, AJA 72 (1968) 239–40 pl. 76 fig. 30; Sams, Pottery, passim.

5 Sams, , Pottery, 47–8, 52–3Google Scholar. For changes in painted pottery at Gordion in Middle Phrygian (i.e. post-destruction) contexts, see Sams, , Pottery, 252–5Google Scholar.

6 Sams, Pottery, pls. 1–7 for the range of motifs.

7 The Lydian wares at Gordion will be studied separately. The Southwest Anatolian black-on-red at Gordion was discussed briefly in Sams, G. K., Expedition 21.4 (1979) 13Google Scholar.

8 Mellaart, , Belleten 19 (1955) 119, 122–3Google Scholar distinguished a black-on-red I which he believed began in Southwest Anatolia c. 800 B.C., and a black-on-red II beginning later and mostly dating from the sixth century. The former is finer, with a light red surface, either slipped or unslipped, and good matte black paint. The latter is less refined, often unslipped, with grey-black washy decoration. Both have geometric motifs although the latter may also have naturalistic patterns.

A check at the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara failed to turn up more than a handful of odd sherds from Mellaart's survey of Iron Age pottery of Southern Anatolia, and none from Birmingham's survey (above n. 3). It was therefore difficult to make comparisons between the Gordion pottery and finds from these surface collections although it seems that most of the southwest Anatolian black-on-red at Gordion fits Mellaart's description of black-on-red I.

9 Seven black-on-red vases are on display in the Burdur Museum (TAD 24.2 (1977) 9–15Google Scholar). All came from graves dated to the sixth century. Of these, the two from Uylupinar (Burdur) differ from the Gordion vases both in shape (pilgrim flask and lekythos) and in the glossier than usual paint. On the other hand the five small vases from Kilavuzlar now in Burdur are decorated in a similar way to the Gordion black-on-red, but again the shapes are different (jug, two oinochoai [one with feeder spout], ring vase, dinos). The vases in Afyon include a babyfeeder, two miniature round mouth jugs, and an aryballos. Each has a simple band of ornament on the shoulder similar to the Gordion vases. An aryballos and a one-handled cup in the Aphrodisias museum were found in the Archaic levels below the Aphrodite temple there: Erim, K., Aphrodisias, A Guide to the Site and Museum, 3rd ed. (Istanbul, 1992), 21Google Scholar fig. 19 (colour photo). For other references, see Greenewalt, C. jr.,CSCA 6 (1973) 114Google Scholar n. 22; idem, Dinners, p. 17 n. 18; idem, Proc. Xth Inter. Cong., II 727 n. 27. Bossert, E.-M., MDOG 94 (1963) 61–4, 68–9Google Scholar figs. 8–10 nos. 13–17 published several imported black-on-red vases from Phyrgian levels at Boğazköy. These were dated to the early seventh century, but they may continue into the second half of this century, see Sams, , Pottery, 267 n. 18Google Scholar. For examples of similar imported black-on-red from Midas City, see Haspels, C. H. E., Phrygie III, La cité de Midas; céramique et trouvailles diverses (Paris 1951)Google Scholar pl. 9. b and c, and for Gordion, Sams, G. K., Expedition 21.4 (1979) 13Google Scholar fig. 10 (here nos. 2 and 8); Anderson, , Cemetery, 129, 234 no. 57 and p. 258 no. 76Google Scholar (here nos. 2 and 7). Two zoomorphic vases from Tumulus P at Gordion, one an askos and the other a ram jug, were once connected with the black-on-red of southwest Anatolia by Sams, , Pottery. 104, 553–5 nos. 167–8Google Scholar; Young, , AJA 61 (1957)CrossRefGoogle Scholar pl. 93 fig. 26 centre, pl. 94 fig. 27. He no longer thinks there is a connection.

A few pieces of Anatolian black-on-red have turned up on Greek sites, including Ephesos, Proc. Xth Inter. Cong., pls. 225–6, Hogarth, D. G., Excavations at Ephesus. The Archaic Artemisia (London 1908) 223Google Scholar no. 10 fig. 49; Old Smyrna, noted by Mellaart. Belleten 19 (1955) 119, 122Google Scholar; and Mytilene, unpublished fragment from the Greek/Canadian excavations in the lower town.

10 Exceptions only to this description are mentioned in the catalogue. For the manganese paint, see Noll, W., Holm, R., and Born, L., “Manganschwarz-Malerei—eine Technik der Ornamentierung antiker Keramik,” Berichte der deutschen keramischen Gesellschaft 50 (1973) 328–33Google Scholar, and on HoB ware, below pp. 174–5.

11 It seems more accurate to consider these vases as a type of black-on-red than to treat them under another heading, such as “Black/brown on ground coat”, the term used by Sams, , Pottery, 48, 53–6Google Scholar for this kind of surface decoration. For a similar type of decoration, see Haspels, , Phrygie III, 37 type 3Google Scholar. A large oinochoe in the Burdur Museum has black-on-red decoration on the body but a figured panel on the neck over buff slip.

12 Sams, , Pottery, 48, 53–6Google Scholar.

13 This may be the same fabric as certain pieces from Birmingham's Southwest Anatolian II ware, AS 14 (1964) 30, 32Google Scholar fig. 11, but it was impossible to check examples from her survey in order to be certain. See above n. 8.

14 From context bags stored in the pottery depot at Gordion: (a) found in KH 1957–16 (red band between thin lines on both interior and exterior); and (b) in KH 1959–3B (red and black lines on both interior and exterior).

15 For the shape in Corinthian pottery, see Amyx, D. A., Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period (Berkeley 1988) 457–9Google Scholar. “Greek kotylai” (skyphoi) were made in all three local Cilician wares in the sixth century, i.e. black-on-buff, black-on-white, black-on-red wares, Goldman, H., ed., Excavations at Gözlü Kule, Tarsus III, The Iron Age (Princeton 1963) 146Google Scholar. The shape is also common at Labraunda in a variety of fabrics, Jully, J. J., Archaic Pottery, Labraunda II. 3 (Stockholm 1981) nos. 84–7, 126–35. 156Google Scholar. At Smyrna a “Lydian cup” was found in the Temple Pylon destroyed in the mid-sixth century having a profile close to that of 47, see Cook, J. M., BSA 53–4, (1958–1959) 29Google Scholar pl. 4a right. A similar variety of skyphoi was found at Sardis and dated to the second and third quarters of the sixth century. These have taller narrower bases. See Greenewalt, jr., Dinners, pl. 31.

16 Vallet and Villard's types A2 and B1, Mélanges d'archéologie et d'historie de l'École française de Rome 67 (1955) 18–26Google Scholar figs. 3–4; see also Boardman, J. and Hayes, J., Excavations at Tocra 1963–5, The Archaic Deposits I (Oxford 1966) 111–13Google Scholar “Rhodian” types I–VII.

17 The only previous study of this pottery is Greenewalt, C. jr.,“Fikellura and ‘Early Fikellura’ Pottery”, CSCA 4 (1971) 153–80Google Scholar. That this ware is not truly early Fikellura has already been noted, E. Walter-Karydi in Walter, H., ed., Alt-Ägina II, i (Mainz/Rhein 1982) 12Google Scholar no. 53; eadem, in Müller-Wiener, W., ed., Milet 1899–1980 (Tübingen 1986) 75Google Scholar n. 6; Schaus, G. P., BSA 81 (1986) 289Google Scholar n. 127. Although the motifs found on this ware are very closely influenced by East Greek Wild Goat, it is likely the school around Ephesus which is being imitated rather than that around Miletus where the Fikellura style developed.

18 Greenewalt, C. jr.,CSCA 4 (1971) 163–4Google Scholar.

19 Anderson, G., Cemetery, 153Google Scholar.