PATTERN DECORATION 101 lently descriptive of many late sixth and fifth century designs, would not apply to the simpler

patterns such as dots, zigzags, and bands, and which was in any case not intended to cover the elaborately decorated small vases of the seventh and earlier sixth century.25

Almost every shape of vase represented in the grave groups is found with patterns. Skyphoi are the most common at all times (pp. 105, 123). Pyxides are nearly as numerous, since, with very few exceptions, these depend exclusively on patterns for their decoration. All amphoriskoi and almost all of the miniatures of standard vases, e.g., the hydriai, also appear with patterns.

Oinochoai in this style are much less common, and there is one krater, 153-2 (PI. 20). In general the shapes which are found with all three kinds of decoration tend to be much smaller when decorated with patterns.

The selection of designs found on the pattern vases from the Cemetery is not large. By far the most popular, particularly in the first half of the sixth century, is the dotted band, which is used for almost all shapes. The dots fill wide areas of the vase (141-3, P1. 19; 169-8, P1. 24) or are confined to a narrow space between broad glazed lines; most often there are two rows only, with the dots staggered in position.26 As common as the dots are the vertical zigzags which occur chiefly on skyphoi, where the pattern is usually subordinated to other types of decoration, and on powder pyxides, where the pattern is the main decoration. The horizontal zigzag appears on a few small sixth century skyphoi, kalathoi, various pyxides, and miniature phialai.

Of other designs, the Z-pattern is found on the pyxides 166-10 (PI. 20) and 159-11 (P1. 24), and an elaboration of it on the rims of several kraters. The cone pattern appears rarely in this period (200-1, PI. 31, and D 6-a). Isolated occurrences are the four-barred sigma on D 43-a (PI. 25) and the herringbone, D 44-j (PI. 30). All the patterns thus far montioned occur also on figured vases which, in addition to their friezes, have a wide range of patterns (see above).

A number of small vases are decorated only with horizontal bands of glaze and added red.

Most of these are careless miniature versions of shapes which are more elaborately decorated when of normal size. Among the larger vases one finds horizontal banding on three tripod pyxides (163-1, PI. 88; 173-3, PI. 27; 186-3, PI. 28), the special powder pyxides (128-h, PI. 18;

268-4, P1. 34), a small hydria (160-9, P1. 24), the early kalathoi (128-f, P1. 18; 167-b), the one-handled cup (143-1, P1. 20), and the aryballos (147-18, P1. 21).

A related system of decoration appears on the vases in the so-called white style, which con- sists of wide reserved areas punctuated only here and there by narrow bands of patterns.

In the more elaborate examples, which date chiefly from the Late Corinthian period, the patterns are often rather complex with many touches of added red, but the style is represented in the Cemetery only by a few vases decorated simply with glazed and double-dotted bands.

These few, the two oinochoai, 180-4 (P1. 27) and 188-4 (P1. 29), and the bottle, 167-i (P1. 23), date from the late MC or the beginning of the LC period; the oinochoe, 237-1 (P1. 32), with simple bands, is much later. The representation is no larger because the shapes which most often appear with this kind of decoration were not regularly deposited as grave offerings.27

25 A.J.A., XXXV, 1931, p. 16. There seems no justification for segregating here the later vases with floral designs from other pattern vases, since floral motifs are very infrequent among the Cemetery finds, and the more numerous vases with simpler patterns appear to form a continuous series throughout the sixth and most of the fifth centuries.

26 The band of alternately spaced dots (called in the catalogue "double-dotted band") may be a careless version

of the checker pattern, which in its true form is found only on 194-3 and D 44-f. The crosshatching of 135-1 and 157-u may be an even more debased form.

27 I.e., the kothons and pyxides with upright handles. For the skyphoi and the trefoil oinochoai with narrow foot, two other shapes commonly found with white-style decoration, black glaze was preferred for funeral vases. For the white style in general, see Weinberg, Corinth, VII, i, pp. 81-83.

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Floral patterns are found on comparatively few vases of the sixth century. The one common motif is the quatrefoil, which appears on eleven aryballoi and three alabastra.28 The inter- locking lotus and bud pattern is used for three quite similar large vases, two oinochoai (224-4 and D 46-a, P1. 33) and a hydria (D 46-b, P1. 33). Other than these, the only examples with floral designs are one amphoriskos with reversing lotuses, D 44-i (P1. 30), a single pyxis lid (235-1) with a similar but debased pattern, and a late lekanis with lotus and leaf (257-8, P1. 34).

The ovoid marks on the rim of 257-5 (P1. 34) may well be a degeneration of the connected bud pattern.29

BLACK-GLAZE DECORATION

Although the group of black-glazed vases is the second largest in the sixth century, only slightly less numerically than that of the pattern vases, the style of decoration is confined, with very few exceptions,30 to skyphoi and oinochoai. Some of the vases are black all over;

others have a reserved area above the foot, usually with pointed rays; and a few, all pitchers, have incised tongues at the shoulder. Almost all have the additional decoration of narrow red, or red and white lines. The group of oinochoai with incised and colored tongues on the shoulder, and, strictly speaking, all pots with red and white lines, belong to Payne's black- polychrome style, but since the same shapes occur with both simple black glaze and with polychromy, it does not seem advisable to separate the vases having the two systems of decora- tion. The skyphoi with multicolored bands have been segregated, however (p. 106, group i), but mainly because the shape differs from that of the skyphoi with red lines only. Shoulder tongues appear on several tall trefoil oinochoai with narrow foot (p. 109) and on two sixth cen- tury globular oinochoai (161-3, P1. 20; 264-3, P1. 37). The use of incised shoulder tongues and of red and white lines on black is carried into the fifth century by the large trefoil oinochoai;

and the round-mouthed oinochoai (pp. 134-137) continue the custom of colored lines down through the third quarter of the century.

UNGLAZED WARES

A small number of pots found in the seventh and early sixth centuries are completely undec- orated. These comprise the large coarse kitchen vessels used for pot burials and the group of round-bodied trefoil oinochoai. With very few exceptions both kinds are handmade and show clear traces of paring marks. Unlike the fifth century unglazed vases, which were sophisticated pieces turned out by potters who had the decorative effects of the clay well in mind, the sixth century unglazed wares seem to be survivals of an earlier and comparatively crude tradition of pot-making.31

CHRONOLOGY

The problem of establishing a chronology for the graves of the late seventh century and the first half of the sixth concerns in large part the character of the grave groups. For this period three main kinds of groups may be differentiated: the relatively few wealthy graves with

28 There are no examples of the later derivations of this pattern, the cinque- and sixfoils; but see the octofoils on the krater handles, 153-2 (P1. 20).

29 As on the large skyphoi, e.g., Necrocorinthia, p. 334, fig. 180, a type which does not appear in the Cemetery.

30 Exceptions: concave-sided pyxis, 128-g (polychrome), tripod pyxis, 188-6, aryballos, D 44h, the kraters, X-135, X-136. See also 141-7 and 142-e.

31 See p. 111 for the oinochoai; the lack of decoration on the cooking pots has of course a practical purpose.

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CHRONOLOGY 103 figured vases of good quality; the children's graves, often very well furnished, but with special small pots; and the large series of burials which contain only a skyphos and an oinochoe, both black-glazed. The figured vases can be dated according to Payne's chronology, and the groups in which they occur seem to be, with very few exceptions,32 consistent within themselves.

The children's graves can often be related to these through the aryballoi which occur also in the richer graves. The third series, however, the graves with just two large black pots, stands almost completely independent of the others. The only areas of contact are, in the Cemetery, a few skyphoi and one oinochoe.33 With these fixed points, it should be possible to place a typological sequence of the black-glazed oinochoai and skyphoi in accurate relation to the better dated pieces. The consensus is, however, that the skyphoi are almost hopeless for chron- ological purposes34 and this is in large part true. A similar complexity is found among the oinochoai. For this reason many of the skyphos-oinochoe graves have been given very tentative dates. A rough sequence of development has, however, been determined for about half the graves in this third series (see summaries below, pp. 106-108, 110-111).

The sequence of the graves thus established does not conflict with the development of the few other kinds of vases found in the burials. Most of these are vases with pattern decoration, and among them the skyphoi and pyxides are most numerous. In regard to relative dating, the tripod pyxis offers welcome corroboration throughout the series, but the powder pyxis and the patterned skyphos do not show any obvious regular development (see pp. 105, 116).

The aryballoi also fit well into the sequence. For the positive chronology, the aryballoi at first glance seem to present difficulties, but if the dating established by the Ures for the Rhitsona graves is followed, the aryballoi prove to be consistent with the other vases.35 Other shapes, such as the bowls and phialai, which are almost always small, poor, and few, are of no signifi- cance for the chronology.

A few graves of the first half of the sixth century contain Attic vases, and these groups, if any, should offer either confirmation or contradiction of the established chronology. The fact is, however, that they give only limited help. In several cases (171, 212, 213), the Attic vase is a normal black-glazed skyphos, and the dating for this shape in Athens is no more accurately defined than for the same shape in Corinth. For the two skyphoi with red bands, see the discussion under 155. The series of banded kylikes of komast shape is also at present not sufficiently well dated to help in more than a general way. Of the five little master cups two (173-4 and 246-2) occur in very modest groups which are difficult to relate to the major sequences; the other three (202-3, 219-3, and 220-4) come from richer graves and are, at the least, not inconsistent with the Corinthian series (see catalogue, especially under 218-2, 219-1).

The chief benefit gained from the presence of most of the imports is that enough examples of the Attic skyphoi and cups exist to permit one to observe a limited sequence of development among them.

32 The three groups (147, 157, 172) which include pots covering more than a decade are all graves with an unusually large number of offerings, and of these some are household objects which were not new when deposited. Probably more serious is the apparent gap between the two vases in 264.

See also 272-6, 333-1, and 402-2 from the fifth century.

33 See p. 110. Not much more can be found in other studies. Even so splendid a survey as Necrocorinthia leaves certain areas almost untouched and cannot include the great number of variant forms that inevitably occur in excavated

material. One reason is Payne's necessary reliance on the material from the colonies, to which, apparently, only standard forms rather than funeral vases were sent, and on museum collections which contain much typical grave furniture but from dispersed groups. Weinberg's weighing of the evidence in Corinth, VII, i is invaluable so far as it is applicable, but see p. 98 and note 20.

4 Hopper, p. 218.

35 See pp. 113-114 below.

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With the chronology thus worked out, it appears that in the late seventh century very few burials were made in the area36 and that the children's graves among them contained small but good groups of offerings. In the early sixth century many more interments were made and they were often very richly furnished, containing a number of excellent figured vases.37 Several good groups exist which are transitional between MC and LC I, and these too have many figured vases, though of poor quality. Thereafter figured vases all but disappear, and in their stead one finds many imports, chiefly cups of the shallow banded type and a few little masters. In the second quarter of the century Corinthian vases are almost completely limited to skyphoi and globular oinochoai, with the addition of pyxides for the children's groups.

In this accounting of the pottery of the first half of the century, two points of interest appear:

first, that aryballoi, so long-lived at other sites,38 are found no later than the middle of the second quarter of the sixth century. Second, other figured vases disappear at the same time.39 In view of the discussion prevalent concerning Payne's date for the end of the figured vases, it would be gratifying if one could consider the evidence from the Cemetery final and incontrovertible.

However, because of the limitations in the choice of shape and decoration imposed by funeral customs and the more or less accidental distribution of the graves throughout the various periods, one cannot expect the history of Corinthian ceramics to be adequately illustrated by the finds in the Cemetery.

In the second half of the sixth century, the smaller number of burials and the comparative poverty of the offerings permit a chronological arrangement less secure than that for the preceding period. Attic imports date a number of the graves. Other groups contain one or two survivals of earlier types of vases, the duration of which is difficult to estimate. The skyphos- oinochoe combination continues, often, fortunately, with a stabilized shape of skyphos, but with a series of pitchers no two of which are alike. Most are survivals of the globular oinochoe shape, and of these a few40 are near duplicates of earlier forms; the rest are late variations in which no unity or sequence can be observed. To attempt a summary of the development through this half-century would be unwise, but a few general statements may be made: there is no figured ware (except 222-1, P1. 32 and 253-3, P1. 35); pattern vases, including "con- ventionalizing" ware proper (see p. 101), continue in small numbers; and Attic vases are com- mon, appearing in about a third of the groups. Except for 250 (Pls. 35,79), the groups are all modest, though the Attic cups, 237-2 (PI. 32), 244-1 (PI. 32), 246-2 (PI. 34), which appear alone or with only a small oinochoe, could not have been inexpensive.

LISTS AND SUMMARIES

SKYPHOI WITH FIGURED DECORATION41

128-e (P1. 18) 147-2 (P1. 83) 163-1 (P1. 25) 180-2 (P1. 27) 182-3 (P1. 28) 141-2 (P1. 86) 167-a (P1. 83) 163-2 (P1. 25) 182-1 (P1. 28) X-121

142-a (P1. 19) 159-5 (P1. 83) 169-1 182-2 (P1. 28) 147-1 (P1. 83) 162-3 (P1. 83) 180-1 (P1. 27)

36 For the graves without offerings which may date from about this period, see p. 79.

37 Compare the distribution in Corinth, VII, i, in which only a very few pieces from this and the following period were published, in contrast to the mass of material from the EC period.

38 For example at Rhitsona (Ure, Aryballoi, pp. 43ff.).

The Corinthian potters must have continued making the aryballoi for provincial markets where the fashion survived

much longer than at home. A septafoil aryballos is the single late example in Corinth, VII, i (pl. 43, no. 364).

89 Excepting 222-1 and 253-3.

40 Notably 250-11, with which may be compared 162-4, for example. The persistance of the form is remarkable, and increases the likelihood (see p. 80) that this kind of vase was primarily a funeral object in that it reflects the strong con- servatism usually found in funerary customs.

41 Necrocorinthia, pp. 308f., 323f.: Hopper, pp. 218ff.

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SKYPHOI 105 The four skyphoi with normal figured decoration are all Middle Corinthian. No. 169-5, with its narrow foot, is a survival of an Early Corinthian type, and 167-a, comparatively low and broad, also carries on the earlier tradition. The two from 147 are very large vases of typical Middle Corinthian shape and with animals in the heavy style. The somewhat later 162-3 has a chain of dancing women.

The shapes of the skyphoi with silhouette decoration include the small, neat Early Corinthian 128-e and X-121, with running-dog frieze, the later development of the same shape (141-2, 163-1, and 163-2), and the contemporary shallow skyphoi which resemble in shape the black-glazed skyphoi of group i (169-, 180-2). No. 142-a has an offset rim, and the running- dog skyphoi of 182 are comparatively late miniatures. The styles of silhouette painting repre- sented are as varied as the shapes (see above, p. 100).

PATTERN SKYPHOI42

Description: small vases (between 3 and 5.5 cm. in height) with tapering walls and very small foot; vertical zigzags in handle zone, wide red and black bands below; other details as noted in catalogue.

136-1 (P1. 18) 172-c (P1. 26) 221-1 (P1. 33) D 4-a (P1. 24) 142-b (P1. 19) 172-d (P1. 26) 224-2 (P1. 33) D 4-b (P1. 24) 147-3 (P1. 21) 172-e (P1. 26) 226-1 D 4-c (P1. 24) 147-4 (P1. 21) 174-1 (P1. 28) 231-1 (P1. 32) D 4-d (P1. 24) 164-2 (P1. 18) 174-2 (P1. 28) 239-2 (P1. 32) D 4-e (P1. 24) 156-3 (P1. 20) 181-1 (P1. 28) 247-1 (P1. 35) D 6-a

163-a (P1. 25) 181-2 (P1. 28) 260-9 (P1. 35) D 43-a (P1. 25) 170-1 (P1. 27) 188-1 (P1. 29) 263-1 (P1. 35) D 43-b (P1. 25) 172-b (P1. 26) 200-1 (P1. 31) 257-5 (P1. 34) X-122

208-1 268-1 (P1. 34)

Small skyphoi with bright patterns are a typical Corinthian product through the sixth century and much of the fifth (for the latter, see p. 123). The distribution during this long period is about equal, except for the concentration in the middle of the first half of the sixth century, an incidence which seems to be fortuitous.43 Their basic decoration conforms in most cases to the description above, but many of them, as noted in the catalogue, have an additional dotted band at the middle of the wall. The few examples with rays at the base (those from graves 142, 172, 174) are no earlier than the first of the series with bands, e.g., 135-1 (see catalogue, however). Six of the skyphoi listed44 are taller than the others, i.e., over 5.5 cm.; their decoration is the same as on the smaller vases, but here the examples with rays (147-3, 147-4, X-122) are the earliest. For the miniatures, see below.

Although the system of vertical zigzags in the handle zone continues throughout the entire history of the group, the horizontal zigzag was introduced (the earliest, 231-1) in the second half of the sixth century, and eventually all but superseded the older motif. The cone pattern appears twice (200-1 and D 6-a), and buds are found on 258-1 and perhaps 267-5, but skyphoi decorated with elaborate patterns as Necrocorinthia no. 1516 do not exist in the Cemetery.

For skyphoi with decoration on the underside, see 174-1, 174-2.

42 Necrocorinthia, pp. 279f., 334f.; Hopper, pp. 218ff.

4 Note the large number of examples in grave 172 and Deposit 4.

44 Nos. 147-3, 147-4, 163-a, 221-1, 257-5, X-122.

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MINIATURE PATTERN SKYPHOI45

160-5 (P1. 24) 172-g (P1. 26) 186-1 (P1. 28) 228-1

166-c 180-3 (P1. 27) 194-1 249-3 (P1. 34) 172-f (P1. 26)

These small vases (all under 3 cm. in height) are usually broad and shallow, but a few are comparatively deep, as the pair from 172. All have vertical zigzags or lines above horizontal bands except 186-1. They date from the Middle Corinthian period down into the late third quarter of the sixth century.

BLACK-GLAZED SKYPHOI46 (Fig. 11, P1. 92)

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