Lydian Pottery 1

L Lydian Pottery: A Quick Guide

(Draft May 2004, Nick Cahill)

Sardis produces an enormous variety of ceramics of the Lydian period. For the purposes of this guide I will consider as Lydian the pre-Hellenistic Iron Age local ceramic traditions of Sardis and related sites. The following account will focus on the most common shapes and wares, which make up the bulk of ceramics in most archaeological contexts at Sardis. I will omit unusual pieces, gured pottery and imports, as these warrant much more extensive treatment, much of which is available in other studies. Within this period there is much continuity and standardization, and local products often cannot be closely dated with condence. Much of what follows is therefore very speculative, and should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism. For general remarks on the recording of pottery at Sardis, see Marcus Rautmans manual on Roman pottery and the excavation manual.

understanding, diagnostic of particular periods. ca. 600 BC: new shapes include lamps (of Broneer Type 12A), lydia, column kraters. Decline of grayware, bichrome decoration. ca. 547 BC: new shapes include Achaemenid bowls, Broneer Type 21A lamps. Changes in column kraters and jars, to thinner walls, duller slip. It is not clear whether these shapes are introduced more or less simultaneously or more gradually, but they generally distinguish one phase from another.

Fabrics
Four fabrics or clay mixtures are commonly used in indigenous Lydian pottery: 1. nely levigated, reddish-brown micaceous fabric, which is used for most ne and table wares. This comes in coarser and ner varieties, but broadly constitutes a single category. 2. gray ware, which is essentially the same material, but red in a reducing atmosphere to a uniform gray color, sometimes slipped with glittering micaceous wash and/or burnished. Related black-polished ware is very distinctive, with shiny burnished surface, darker fabric. 3. cooking ware, which has large sandy inclusions and often contain even more mica than the ne wares 4. a very soft, coarse cooking fabric used for breadtrays. Imported ceramics are not uncommon in Lydian levels. These include East Greek wares, including Bird Bowls and Ionian cups; Athenian, Corinthian and Lakonian pottery, and rather smaller amounts of pottery of other Anatolian cultures, much of which is difcult to identify. As far as I know, we get relatively few imported coarse wares such as Greek transport amphoras; but you should watch for these unusual fabrics.

Phases of Lydian Ceramics

The rst stratigraphic sequence of Lydian pottery was excavated and analyzed by Gus Swift and Andrew Ramage at sector HoB (House of Bronzes). Swift divided the sequence into Bronze Age (not discussed here) Geometric, Protogeometric (not discussed here) Lydian III: ca. 700-650 BC acc. to SPRT; but SPRT perhaps earlier to judge from Corinthian ceramics (under study by AR) Lydian II: ca. 650-600 BC Lydian I: ca. 600-547 BC The period between 547 BC and the Hellenistic era is less well known. Rather than Persian or Achaemenid, I prefer to call this period Late Lydian, as its ceramic tradition shows marked similarities to the previous periods. There are some distinct new shapes and changes in traditional shapes, however, and excavators should pay particular attention to the ceramics in these levels. For Hellenistic pottery, see Rotroff, Hellenistic Pottery at Sardis. Precise dating still rests primarily on more diagnostic imported wares, such as Attic and Corinthian. There are, however, a few groups of shapes which are, to my

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Shapes
Column Krater. Open bowl with narrow ring foot, short aring neck, squared horizontal everted rim, upside-down U shaped handle, no handle plate. Examples from the rst half of the sixth century generally fairly thick-walled, with a much thinner lower wall. The thickness of the walls and characteristically thick lustrous streaky or dark glaze inside and out makes even body fragments recognizable. Shape probably begins no earlier than the late 7th century; therefore important for dating. Late Lydian examples are generally smaller and thinner-walled, with a duller slip, and are quite distinct from the earlier examples.
Column krater from MMS-I, ca. 550 BC (P86.46)

Late Lydian column krater rim from PN, probably before 213 B.C. (Rotroff no. 239)

Skyphos Krater. Open bowl with aring neck, rim not everted, two horizontal skyphos-like handles, often painted in bichrome decoration. More common in 7th c levels than in the 6th c; predates, perhaps replaced by column krater (?). None found in mid-sixth century destruction deposits.

Skyphos krater from HoB (P61.567)

Skyphos krater from HoB (P68.43)

Lydian Pottery 3 Skyphos. Round cup with conical foot, plain, sometimes slightly inturned rim, two horizontal handles. Mid-6th c BC examples slipped inside and out with streaky-glaze or dark slip, usually with reserved band at the handle zone where the potter, painting the cup as it turned on the wheel, would have had to lift the brush to avoid the handles. Often has narrow white bands. Thin-walled, often hard-red, clinky fabric is characteristic of these skyphoi. My impression is that 7th c skyphoi generally have wider proportions, have lower, broader feet, somewhat thicker walls and duller slip; the almost metallic lustrous slip seems more characteristic of the 6th c. Sometimes decorated with patterns such as pendant hooks, wavy lines, etc. Late Lydian skyphoi are very imperfectly known, and the shape may hardly change at all between the rst and second halves of the 6th c. By the 4th c, however, the skyphos may be much smaller, squatter, with a very low foot (illustrate P94.42-43 or P95.17-18).

Skyphoi from ritual puppy dinners, ca. 600-550 BC Skyphos from HoB, above oor outside bldg K, Lydian II? second half of 7th c BC? (P68.99)

Oinochoe. A number of different varieties in use simultaneously in the mid-sixth century. The most common has a taut, ovoid prole, a disk or (less often) ring foot, trefoil rim and upswung handle. Variations include more globular prole, round bottom, wider neck, round or only slightly trefoil rim, and handle which is not upswung but simply runs from rim to shoulder. Occasionally made with two handles - a table amphora. Decoration in 6th c commonly includes petals or tongues pendant on the shoulder and a streaky band around the lower body. Often embellished with rows of white and/or purple dots, lines, etc. Earlier (7th c) examples frequently decorated with pendant hooks, semicircles, etc. Smaller examples sometimes dipped in slip, leaving lower half unpainted. Like skyphoi, the changes to oinochoai in the Late Lydian period are not well understood. (insert exx. from HellPot?)
Oinochoai from MMSI, ca. 550 BC (P87.32, P84.101, P88.28)

Oinochoe/pitcher with round mouth from PN, probably before 213 BC (Rotroff no. 226)

Pitcher or amphora from PN, with Lydian inscription, 3d c?? Rotroff no. 231.

Table amphora from MMS-I, ca. 550 BC (P87.17)

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Stemmed dish (fruitstand) and plate. Rims of these two forms often identical. 6th c examples usually relatively shallow, with rounded lip. Stemmed dishes probably more frequent than plates. Interior painted with streaky or dark glaze, and groups of spirals in purplish slip. Underside of plate unslipped; stem often slipped. Look for incised grafti. Earlier (7th? early 6th? c) examples commonly (but not exclusively) deeper, with offset squared rim, decorated in bichrome, frequently with wavy line and bands on interior, occasionally more elaborately decorated (below). Late Lydian examples seem very similar; the shape may not change much.

Stemmed dish from MMSI, ca. 550 BC (P84.92)

Plate from HoB: date? (P61.358)

Stemmed dish from HoB: date? (P66.55; get better drawing (1994-15), or replace)

Stemmed dishes from ByzFort, ca. 650-600 BC Waveline amphora from MMS-I, mid-6th c. BC (P84.99)

Amphora and Hydria. Large, thick-walled, ovoid body, with narrow ring foot, slightly aring neck. May have two handles joining neck to shoulder (amphora) or two handles on shoulder and one from rim to shoulder (hydria). Typical examples of rst half of 6th c have rounded rim; earlier (early 6th? 7th?), may have rim with triangular prole, although rounded rim found as well. Wavy line on neck; shoulder decorated with curvilinear pattern in dark slip (often interesting and elaborate), lower body with a wide band(s) of streaky or dark slip. Late Lydian examples similar, but thin-walled, with projecting or everted rim, somewhat duller slip. In this period handles are often pierced, for uncertain reasons; to my knowledge this is unknown before Late Lydian period. Necks reused as pot stands, etc.; watch for signs of repair and reuse.

Waveline amphora from MMS/S, 2nd half of 4th c. BC (!) (P95.51)

Lydian Pottery 5 Lekythos. Similar to and probably based on Greek shapes of 6th c. Examples before 6th c rare. Mid-6th c examples frequently marbled. Apparently continues in 5th and 4th c with shapes similar to Greek. Later examples less nely painted, sometimes plain.

P66.191 Lekythos from tomb S of eytan Dere, similar to exx. ca. 550 BC

Lydion. Small wide-mouthed handleless container, usually with conical foot, wide aring neck, horizontal everted rim. 6th c. examples fat-bodied with thick walls, generally slipped dark or streaky, sometimes banded or marbled, sometimes horizontally ridged. Late examples (post-500 BC?) with vertical or near-vertical neck, small globular or spherical body, high vertical or near-vertical foot, often banded. Probably no earlier than ca. 600 BC.

Lydions: Fat-bodied (A, C: Pitane; B: Kk Hyk, Gordion; E: Sardis, grave exc. 1922), rst half of 6th c BC. Flat-bottomed (D, Sardis, with hoard of croeseids, mid-sixth c BC). Transitional (F, Old Smyrna). Late (G, Gordion)

Askos. First half of 6th c: form most commonly the doughnut-shaped ring askos with narrow neck, basket handle. Wide range of sizes. Late 6th/5th c forms? 4th c: similar to Greek, with lentoid body, narrow neck, basket handle.

P86.68, mid-6th c. BC

Lamp. Earlier (pre-547 destruction) examples are mostly of Broneer Type 12A with thick walls, outturned lip, central cone, painted with streaky glaze. Earlier open lamp types are rare: watch for these in early contexts. Lamps with open central tube rare or unknown? Probably no earlier than ca. 600 BC. Later (post-destruction) examples typically Broneer Type 21A, with thinner walls, inturned rim, unslipped or dipped in matt slip.

L84.11, mid-6th c. BC

Omphalos phiale. Shallow bowl with plain vertical or aring rim, central button or omphalos. More characteristic of earlier deposits, and in grayware. Achaemenid bowl. Ceramic imitation of Near Eastern metal shape. Flat disk base (occasional omphalos), carination at midbody, everted rim. Thin slip, sometimes very micaceous; never (to my knowledge) typical Lydian streaky glaze. Thin walls, slip, and esp. carination make even small sherds easily recognizable. First occur in deposits postdating the 547 BC destruction, so probably diagnostic of Persian era deposits. Sherds found in deposits dated as late as the destruction of 213 BC; but does this imply they were in use at that late date? Coarse bowl (yogurt bowl). Bowl of coarse fabric, often with large gritty inclusions. Stringcut base, some deeper with curving prole, others shallower with atter prole; plain rim. Often grossly misshapen. Unslipped or with only a simple micaceous wash. Pyxis. Not the small Greek container, but a larger, local shape. Ring foot, cylindrical body tapering at top and bottom; low vertical neck; often with raised horizontal ridges.

Omphalos phiale in the Kocaba collection.

Achaemenid Bowls from MMS-I, early 5th c BC

Coarse bowls, mid-6th c. BC

Pyxis from MMSI, mid-6th c. (P86.47)

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Cooking Wares
Generally in cooking fabric, but occasionally the cooking pot and stand shapes made in well-levigated micaceous table fabrics. Cooking fabric also used for other shapes, such as amphoras, although this is not common. Cooking Pot. Wide-mouthed chytra shape, with at bottom, high upswung strap handle. Mid-6th c examples have triangular thickened rim, with at upper resting surface and slight lip to hold lid. Mid-7th c examples from HoB can be very similar, but some earlier examples have plain, aring rim without lid device. Late Lydian development little known. Sometimes heavily worn on interior. Occasionally with micaceous slip. Cooking Stand. Tapering conical stand with ca. 1/4 of circumference cut away. Three triangular teeth to hold cooking pot. Thickened rim and strap handle not dissimilar to cooking pot and a possible source of confusion. Lid. Often with cutout from rim to accommodate cooking pot handle. Knob or basket handle. Breadtray. Very coarse fabric, with big chunks of mica and other inclusions. Thick tray (1 cm or more) with rough bottom side, smoothed or slipped upper surface, thickened edges. Probably often reused in smaller pieces.
Cooking pot from MMS-I, ca. 550 BC (P84.102) (Replace with better drawing)

Pithoi
A wide variety of fabrics are used for pithoi, ranging from very coarse to unexpectedly ne. Shapes generally uncertain in IA examples.

Hellenistic Developments
Lydian ceramic traditions carry on well into the Hellenistic period. Again, imported wares are your most closely datable objects, but a few new shapes in local wares are common enough to note here. For full discussion see Rotroff, Hellenistic Pottery from Sardis. Fishplate: very popular. Sloping oor with shallow central depresssion, sometimes surrounded by ridge or groove, and downturned or offset rim. Central depression sometimes almost entirely omitted, indicated only by groove. Most commonly partially slipped, i.e. casually dunked in red or brown slip.

Fishplate from HoB, Rotroff no. 54

Echinus Bowl: another very popular shape. Ring foot, inturned rim. Vary in size and prole. Usually partially slipped.

Echinus bowl from Hac Olan tomb 89.11, late 4th/3d c? Rotroff no. 32

Mold-Made Bowl: also very popular from the 2nd c. BC into the early Roman? period. Lower body molded, rim wheel-formed.

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Decorative Schemes
(By Andrew Ramage) The Lydians made use of a large number of decorative surface treatments for their pottery. The surface nish can vary from stick burnished, where one can still see the marks of the burnishing tool, to dipped, where there are no brush marks, and the application of several colors adds to the variety. The local clay is micaceous and contains a considerable amount of iron oxide, which is responsible for the reddish color of much of the pottery. The distinctive grayware is the same material red in a reducing, instead of an oxidizing atmosphere. Most frequent for body colors of the tableware are gray, light brown and red. These are often used in rened form as a ne slip for overall surface decoration. A more intense color is produced in this way but the identical nature of the surface and body is clear. Black and a purplish brown are commonly used for the more complicated decorative motifs; red and white are most often used as background or for simple bands and space llers. Essentially it is a dark on light system, although there is some use of added white as dots or bands at the end of the 7th or the beginning of the 6th century. Almost all Lydian pottery, except for very coarse ware and the bulk of the pithoi, was decorated in some way. Polishing and incision or stamping is normal for the monochrome ware, and geometric patterns put together with an essentially protogeometric syntax, are standard for the painted ware. An exception to this is the Lydians lively adaptation of the East Greek Wild Goat style in the second half of the 7th century; they altered the style to suit their own taste. Grayware. At its best it has a light, silvery gray, selfslipped and polished surface with a uniform gray body. It is important that it be reduced to gray throughout the body. It is closely related to what is generally referred to as Aeolic Bucchero, such as was found at Larisa on the Hermus, Bayrakli and at Thermi on Lesbos, but really to the Western Anatolian tradition rather than the Greek. Color variation in the form of red and buff monochrome can be found in earlier levels. This ware is not restricted to any one shape or size and overlaps considerably with painted shapes, although it is favored in those which seem to be closest to their metal equivalents. Thus, mesomphalic bowls and dishes with spool handles and sharp carinations are more often found in grayware. Incision in the form of shallow grooves around the pot is frequent and stamping with circular or triangular patterns is found. The ware is

common at all levels from the Late Bronze Age to the late Archaic period, when it peters out, but is particularly prevalent in the 8th and early 7th centuries. Black on Red. The relative popularity of the two distinct varieties of this ware changes over time and may some day become important for chronology, but at present the range is imprecise. a) The rst has a dull red clay surface with geometric designs in matte black paint. The description is also used for pieces that share the decorative scheme exactly but have a much yellower and browner cast to the decoration. It is probable that this is discoloration from the surrounding earth rather than a distinct variety. The most frequent patterns are concentric semi-circles (either standing or pendent), cross-hatched squares, meanders, diamonds and buttery or double axe patterns. Most of the elements of this ware go back to a Protogeometric origin, but they are commonly linked in Geometric arrangements, familiar from Rhodian or Attic schools of the late 8th century, that are much busier than the model. b) The second variety has an intense black on bright red, and is most frequently found on fruitstands, plates and shallow bowls with groups of concentric bands. There is a rather fussy, ne-lined variety of this style which often uses rows of boxes with dots, or false maeanders. This links it in some way to the manner of the Ephesian and Phrygianizing decoration described below. It is popular in the late 7th and early 6th centuries but, as suggested above, quite when it took over, or even if it is to be seen as a precise substitute, is uncertain. Lydian Geometric/Brown on Buff. This term is used to describe the use of dark purplish brown paint on buff fabric to make geometric pattern schemes very like those mentioned under the rst category of Black on Red. The variety, however, seems smaller; there is much use of sets of parallel wavy lines set radially between bands on fruitstands or dishes and, overall, the geometric arrangements seem much looser in organization. The execution is often more clumsy and not so neat, so that the whole

L Lydian Pottery 8 effect is less sophisticated. The later 8th century marks the heyday of this style; it goes out of fashion in the mid to late 7th century (by the beginning of Lydian I according to Swift). Bichrome. This term refers to Lydian wares which are decorated with two colors besides that of the body, which is reserved, (sometimes called polychrome in early eldbooks). Two varieties, red and white, were distinguished by Swift, according to the color which seems dominant. His impression was that the White was an earlier type than the Red, although there was considerable overlap in their popularity. Very frequently in White Bichrome the added white will have aked away from the red body and the traces are hard to make out in the photographs, giving the effect of Black on Red. This is not the case with the added red of Red Bichrome, which seems much more compatible with the clay body (usually pinkish). White bichrome is found in 8th century levels but is most popular in the 7th. It seems to be the Lydian version of what is called Brown on Buff at Gordion, and Alishar IV ware elsewhere. The Lydian variety is unlike the other two in that there are hardly any living creatures admitted to the repertoire until the later 7th century, when the orientalizing styles of East Greece have a powerful effect. Ephesian and Phrygianizing. Two particularly colorful and attractive wares are related in their color schemes to Lydian Bichrome, but use an all-over white slip with dark brown paint and added red. Ephesian is best known from the nds of the British Museum excavations at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and more has been found recently by the Austrian excavators in their reinvestigation of the site, especially near the Archaic altars in front of the temple. Some demonstrably real pieces of highest quality Ephesian have been found at Sardis, and a considerable number which imitate it, with varying degrees of success, and may even represent an early stage in its development. This has been admirably discussed by Crawford H. Greenewalt, jr. but he does not take a position on the ultimate source of the decorative scheme nor on the place of manufacture. In my opinion the evidence in his article and the results of further stratigraphical study, as set out below, make a very good case for an Anatolian origin for the style and Sardis as the main center of production. The ware is typied by its rich, dark brown decoration over bright pearly white slip, normally embellished with extra red. Narrow concentric brown bands broken up into white squares are common, as are dots within them. The style at its height can be included within the general category of East Greek orientalizing styles known as Wild Goat, because of the complete mastery of the idiom. It is given special mention here because it is less widely known than many Ionian styles and because it offers a transition between the Anatolian (Phrygian) tradition and the white slip ware of the East Greek cities. Phrygianizing is a catchall and usefully imprecise term used frequently by Swift to describe a miniaturist style of geometric designs, most commonly found on dishes, plates or fruitstands. The most distinctive trait is the use of very ne dividing lines to form small squares, which are then lled with oblique crosses (saltires) and dots. The slip is usually pale but not so white as that of the Ephesian group. For that reason, although the organization of the designs is much the same, two wares, or rather one ware and a grouping of others have been distinguished. Sometimes the term white-slipped has been used to avoid begging the question. A full study of the inter-relationships of Greek, Lydian, and Phrygian pottery has yet to be written and so the name should not be taken as an acceptance of Phrygian priority; it may, in fact, have arisen from insufcient acquaintance with the more geometric side of early East Greek pottery. There is still no reason to insist that this miniaturist style be Phrygian in origin, but continued study of white ground painted ware suggests that it is an indigenous Anatolian tradition. Sardis could well have served as an intermediary while having its own style and an imitation of Ephesian, a style which has still not found an agreed home. The same sort of dispute arises over nomenclature of neatly painted white slipped ware with non gural decoration from the early 7th century. Some see East Greek inuence and some see Phrygianizing. If the premise of movement of technical innovation and a tradition of certain decorative motifs from inland to the coast is admitted, the chronology of the introduction of white slipped pottery at Sardis can be loosened. One does not then have to wait for the emergence of the canonical Early Wild Goat style to give a date to what are essentially symmetrical, geometric decorations on white slipped vessels (especially plates), since we can see generalized prototypes in plates and jugs from inner Anatolia. Streaked and Banded. These categories are often put together because part of a pot may be streaked and part banded. Furthermore when Streaked is used it implies some intention on the part of the potter, but some rather thick bands have the same appearance as Streaked, and

Lydian Pottery 9 there are pots from earlier periods which might accurately be described as streaked but not Streaked. Associated with these types is the Waveline class of water-jars, because in many cases the lower bodies have identical decorative schemes. a) Streaked refers to the purposeful use of an overall color wash in which the variations produced by different consistencies of paint and loading of the brush are turned to advantage and sought after. The use of streaked paint for desirable effects is most common in the later 7th century and the 6th. A particularly attractive variation of the technique is found in Marbled ware, which varies the normally horizontal lines of standard Streaked to produce effects like the patterns in variegated stones. Marbled comes in coarser and ner varieties, but at its best the result is most elegant. The Streaked technique is most common on skyphoi (often those with a reserved band at the rim), small jugs (sometimes in combination with tongues which form a dependent ring around the shoulder), and column kraters. The decoration of the skyphoi and kraters is occasionally enlivened by the addition of white bands or rows of dots. There is a tendency for both red and black Streaked ware to be much shinier than usual and to have a rather metallic sheen. The body is also much harder; and both conditions result from ring at a higher temperature. b) Banded is a category like streaked, that sometimes can refer to the decoration of a whole pot but more often is used during the sorting process to describe smaller pieces which are not obviously from any of the clearly distinct categories. Thus, a piece with black bands might in fact come from a vessel with Bichrome decoration elsewhere, or it might be part of a Waveline hydria. In many cases the original decoration of the whole piece can be guessed, but there is no certainty and it has seemed wiser to register the fact that there were large quantities of tableware fragments, which could belong to a number of decorative schemes or surface treatments, rather than dividing the pieces up arbitrarily. Banded is not used for the distinct fabrics of Black on Red or Brown on Buff, even if the piece happens to have bands. c) Waveline: the Lydians had their own version of the popular decorative scheme widely used on East Greek pottery. It is particularly frequent for amphoras and hydriai, which are notoriously difcult to distinguish from their fragments, since the shapes preferred by the Lydians are the same except for the number and position of the handles. In essence it is a variation of a scheme using horizontal bands at intervals down the body of a pot. The rim has a broad band inside and out, and the neck a wavy line. The shoulder carries a pair of stripes set just below the band marking the articulation at the neck, which is treated like a crisscrossing festoon. More formally, and perhaps under stronger Greek inuence, two horizontal S loops are set tangentially and linked by an open triangle above. On occasion this is elaborated with a doubled palmette pattern reminiscent of the Star and Scroll motif on the architectural terracottas. This may be a later development in the early 6th century. The vertical handles between the neck and the shoulder are usually painted in an Xpattern; the horizontal handles on the belly are solid, and in both cases the line of the painting is often continued onto the body. The color of the paint is usually dark brown and somewhat streaked, although there is a considerable range towards red, and the body is usually yellowish brown. Since boldness rather than delicacy characterizes the Waveline class, the variety in the decoration may have arisen as easily from misjudgment as invention. The feet are usually of the simple ring variety, apparently narrow for the girth of the pot. There is a remarkable standardization of size and proportion in the shape, which is also found in grayware and other painted conventions, but not, apparently, in Black on Red or Bichrome. The prole is very angular at the neck, which was made separately as a cylinder and attached, often imperfectly, with the help of a coil on the underside. (NC) The fascinating variety of decorative motifs common in the seventh century is greatly simplied in the sixth century. Grayware, bichrome and the more elaborate black-on-red patterns are all but absent in the houses destroyed in the mid-sixth century.

Pottery terminology from Corinth Excavations:

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