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[German version] In Antiquity, manufacturers of simple utilitarian pottery generally met only the local demand of their region, while finer, decorated ceramics were also intended for the transregional market. However, the latter could also stimulate the export of poorer goods. The distribution of pottery finds in many cases indicates corresponding trade links, but there are also other factors to consider: the extended find radius of Mycenaean pottery is more a reflection of the presence of Mycenae…

[German version] (ἡ πυξίς; hē pyxís). Box, round container with a lid; the Hellenistic name is derived from πύξος/ pýxos (‘box tree wood’), from which pyxides were often fashioned; the older Attic name is probably κυλιχνίς/ kylichnís. Pyxides are predominantly preserved as ceramics, more rarely made of wood, alabaster, metal or ivory. Among other things, pyxides were used for storing cosmetics and jewellery, so they were part of the life of women, the preferred motive in the red-figured style being portrayals of women's rooms; the…

[German version] (ἡ κύλιξ; hē kýlix). General ancient term for a wine goblet; mentioned in inscriptions are both goblets and skyphoi as well as flat drinking bowls. As a technical term, kylix is today only used for the latter. As a bowl, made of clay, with high foot and two horizontal handles, the kylix originated in the 6th cent. BC, probably derived from Laconian examples. It could be handled particularly well when lying down; it is no coincidence that it follows Oriental banquet customs. Early forms from the 8th and 7th cents., with a low foot,…

[German version] (ὁ or τὸ κέρνος; ho or tò kérnos). According to Ath. 11,476f; 478d, a cult vessel with added kotyliskoi (drinking cups), which contained poppy seed, wheat, lentils, honey, oil, etc. (similar to panspermia). Kernoi were carried around in processions and their contents finally eaten by the bearers ( mystai). Kernoi with attached lights are also mentioned (sch. Nic. Alex. 217). Kernoi were used in cults of fertility and mother goddesses, especially in that of Rhea Cybele. Larger quantities of clay pots with wreaths of kotylai ( Vessels fig. E 15), which are assumed to be kerno…

[German version] Type three wine pitchers ( Pottery, shapes and types of;  Chuos), used in Athens in drinking competitions on the day of Choes during the  Anthesteria. Not firmly identified with clay pitchers of similar size painted with freely chosen motifs. More easily differentiated are the small CP (5-15 cm high) produced in great numbers c. 400 BC. These bore images of children, pointing to sources that suggest the Choes as marking an important transition point in children's lives (IG II/III2 13139, 1368 l. 127-131). Some feast scenes, moreover, point to rites involv…

(ἀστράγαλος; astrágalos). [German version] [1] see Ornaments see  Ornaments Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg) [German version] [2] Playing-piece Playing-piece ( talus). Knucklebones from calves and sheep/goats, also those made of gold, glass, marble, clay, metals and ivory, mentioned already in Hom. Il. 23,85-88 as playing-pieces. Astragaloi were used as counters for games of chance,  dice and throwing games, including the games ‘odd or even’ (Pl. Ly. 206e) or πεντάλιθα ( pentálitha,  Games of dexterity). In the astragalos game the individual sides had varying values: the co…

[German version] I. Celtic-Germanic civilizations The manufacture of pottery in the Celtic and Germanic world is characterized by two shaping processes: 1) freehand moulding without any technical aids and 2) shaping on the potter’s wheel. Until the early Celts adopted the high-speed wheel from the Mediterranean world, coiling pots by hand and other freehand shaping methods were the sole methods and remained in practice into the Middle Ages to varying degrees. In central Europe, pottery thrown on potters’ wheels in local shops from the early Celtic 'princely seats' …

[German version] Modern archaeological term for the coarser ceramics in everyday use, a definition blurred by the fact that black glaze ceramics,  terra sigillata, and sometimes even painted fine ceramics were put to everyday use. However, as a pottery product, everyday crockery is clearly distinguishable from the latter three. The handle, rim, and foot profiles are less clearly defined; the outside of vessels is mostly unslipped or only thinly glazed and perfunctorily decorated. In contrast with …

[German version] The Greek custom of publicly praising someone's beauty using the epithet kalós (καλός, masc. = ‘beautiful’), less commonly kalḗ (καλή, fem.) is particularly evident in Attic vase inscriptions - made before the firing of the vessels - from the 6th and 5th cents. [1; 5]. Spontaneous graffiti [3] on vases can also be found, as well as other public kalos inscriptions (KI) [4. 22, 46-65] (schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 98). They stem from an interest in beautiful youths, also expressed in early Greek lyric poetry, and in the pederastic conventions of the time, but also in the ideal of kalo…

[German version] (ἡ λουτροφόρος; hē loutrophóros). Container for, or carrier of, bathing water. Mentioned by Dem. Or. 44,18 as a structure on top of a tomb showing the unmarried status of the deceased. Only late ancient and Medieval authors go into details about the loutrophoros as a wedding vessel and about the antique custom of erecting a monument ( mnḗma) in the form of a loutrophoros for the unmarried deceased ( ágamoi). This was apparently intended as a symbolic reconstruction of the bridal bath and wedding ( Wedding customs and rituals). The loutrophoros is d…

[German version] (στάμνος/ stámnos). Storage jar for wine, oil, etc.; mercantile inscriptions point to the pelike (Pottery, shapes and types of, fig. A 8); today an archaeological term for a bulbous lidded vessel with a recessed neck and handles on the shoulders (Pottery, shapes and types of, fig. C 6). First instances in Laconia and Etruria in the Archaic Period, adopted in Athens around 530 BC, in the 5th cent. almost exclusively exported from there to Etruria. Depictions on red-figured stámnoi show it as a central wine vessel in a Dionysian women's festival, though th…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient Soon after clay appeared as a working material in the Near East at the end of the Pre-pottery Neolithic (PPNB, c. 7th millennium BC), pottery production began in the Pottery Neolithic (6th millennium BC). Previously, vessels had been made exclusively from organic materials (e.g., wood, leather) or stone. So-called 'white ware', of a naturally occurring lime and marl mixture that hardens by itself, can be considered a precursor of pottery. Pottery, at first exclusively and later also pa…