THE POTTERY

From the graves, thirty-three pots; from the general cemetery fill a dozen more, undoubtedly thrown out from geometric graves which had been destroyed by later burials. The progression in the filling up of the cemetery area with graves, from Group A through B to E, F, and G, and the evolution from the simple earth burial to the slab-built sarcophagus and finally (a single example, Grave 47) to the sarcophagus hollowed from a single block, indicate a development over the years which should be reflected also in the pottery found in the graves. If, then, we consider the vases by shapes on the order suggested, starting from what are ostensibly the earlier graves and proceeding to the later, we may see if the pottery follows the development anticipated. There are not enough pots from the North Cemetery, in point of fact, to build up any very complete sequence for any particular shape; but the groups from Corinth itself and its neighborhood published by Weinberg give an adequate framework of "Early" and "Late"

Geometric into which the North Cemetery vessels may be fitted; and Weinberg's groups are supplemented by later finds from Corinth itself as well as by the pottery from the two sanctu- aries at Perachora, the earlier temple of Hera Akraia, and the later of Hera Limenia.1

SKYPHOI (Pls. 6-8)

Six skyphoi were found altogether, all of the Geometric shape with rounded shoulder and short offset rim. There were no cups of the Protocorinthian "kotyle" shape.

Of the cups from the North Cemetery three, 14-2, 16-2, and 17-4, are entirely covered with black varnish save for the bottom, the panels under the handles, and reserved lines on the inside and the outside of the rim. The type finds its parallel among Weinberg's Early Geometric vases in his No. 68 (pl. 11), a vase for which he suggests a date in the second half of the ninth century.2 These three cups are from the two earlier (we take it) burials of Group A and from the first grave of Group B. These should be, then, from the latter part of the Early Geometric period, perhaps the end of the ninth century. Characteristic of these earlier skyphoi are the rather shallow shape, the relatively high shoulder, and the very short offset rim. Two other cups, 16-10 and 18-7, have decoration in the handle zone, in each case a column of chevrons running horizontally, with plain verticals at each end of the panel. Both are probably later than the three preceding, and although this might suggest that Grave 17 is earlier than 16, there must have been a considerable overlap in the types.3 Which of the two decorated skyphoi is the earlier it would be difficult to say; between them they illustrate different phases in the

1 Perachora, I.

2 Weinberg, p. 19, fig. 6. Another similar skyphos was found in a Corinth well whose contents are dated by Broneer from the end of the ninth to the end of the eighth century, Hesperia, XX, 1951, p. 293, pl. 89, d, top right.

3 The same well at Corinth noted in the preceding footnote contained a skyphos with chevrons in the handle zone, loc. cit., pl. 89, d, top left.

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THE POTTERY 41 development of the form. 16-10 is wide and shallow in the earlier manner; 18-7 is deeper and more pointed in the later, but 16-10 has a higher rim. Both find a parallel in a Late Geometric cup published by Weinberg; his No. 75 (pl. 12) is very close in shape and decoration to our 16-10.4 Another skyphos, from the Geometric deposit of the Hera Akraia sanctuary at Pera- chora,5 may be somewhat earlier because it has no vertical lines to stop the ends of the decoration in the handle zone. Our sixth skyphos, 20-2, may be slightly later, with decoration of vertical zigzags in the handle zone. All three decorated skyphoi, however, belong to the Late Geometric style of the first half of the eighth century. Thus, of the six skyphoi from the graves of the North Cemetery, three belong at the end of the Early Geometric style (with two examples from Group A and one from Group B), and three to the beginning of the Late Geometric style (with one example from Group A and two from Group B). The skyphoi therefore suggest an overlap between the two groups and place them at the time of the change-over from the Early to the Late Geometric style at the turn of the ninth to the eighth century.

HYDRIAI (Pls. 6-8)

Each of the six skyphoi discussed above was found covering the mouth of a coarse hydria placed as an outside offering close to a grave and at a higher level. It has been suggested above that these vessels had been used in the funerary ritual and then placed outside the graves after they had been closed. Other examples of coarse hydriai outside graves at Corinth have been cited above, p. 18. Two more, found in the North Cemetery among the sporadic contents of the cemetery earth, should be mentioned here, although they are not published since they vary not a bit from the vessels illustrated. Without a doubt these too once stood outside graves which had been disturbed in later times. The type is found in both Early and Late Geometric environment, but these coarse handmade vessels seem to show no consistent development, though the later examples are apt to be less globular and more pointed toward the bottom than the earlier.6 It seems likely that the coarse handmade fabric at Corinth as at Athens was manufactured for particular uses. The heavy core of sand and grit in the biscuit seems to have afforded porosity and to have enabled the pottery to withstand heat. Thus at Athens from the early seventh century onward lamps and braziers, which were required to withstand fire, were handmade in a rather coarse sandy fabric, while vessels for the cooling (rather than for the storing) of liquid-hydriai, trefoil jugs, small amphoras-were made of the same fabric. The Corinthian hydriai, then, though most of the examples known have been found in connection with graves,7 were probably the common water jars of the time, used to draw water at the fountain and probably to keep it cool after drawing. The breast-like pellets at the front of the shoulder which appear on every example probably had no particular ritual or funerary signifi- cance. They can be traced back in Greece to the Middle Bronze Age, and by the Early Iron Age their original significance may well have been lost. The building of coarse pots by hand may well have been a craft handed down through the centuries in particular groups or families, a craft much more conservative than that of the potter who threw his vessels on the wheel and decorated them afterward; perhaps a true bauernstil.

4 Weinberg, pp. 25, 27, fig. 7.

5 Perachora, I, p. 58, pl. 12, 1.

6 Weinberg, No. 53, pl. 9, Early Geometric; No. 82, pl. 15, Late Geometric; see also ibid., p. 10.

7 Weinberg, p. 10 and p. 15, No. 53.

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OINOCHOAI (P1S. 6-8)

With Grave 17, the first of Group B, appears a third shape, the jug with trefoil mouth or oinochoe. Four painted examples were found, all from graves of Group B-two from Grave 17, one from Grave 18, and one from Grave 20. Three different types are represented: the tall jug with ovoid body (18-2), the round-bodied or globular jug (17-1), and the conical oinochoe (17-2 and 20-1).

Of the two from Grave 17 the globular jug is of a type well represented in the Early Geometric groups.8 Our 17-1, however, has a long narrow neck which is a later development for the shape;

further, the body is more truly globular in appearance than those of many of the Early Geometric examples because the level of the greatest diameter has moved downward.9 The off-center knobs on the shoulders remind us of those on the coarse hydriai. The decoration, however, is rather of the light later Geometric style than of the dark earlier. With the exception of a wide glazed zone above the foot, body and neck are banded in a manner which foreshadows the approaching Protocorinthian style. In its decoration, in fact, our jug shows closer affinities to Early Protocorinthianl' than to Early Geometric oinochoai, though the shape is hardly known in Protocorinthian. It is, in fact, a good example of what we should expect in Late Geometric at Corinth, transitional between the earlier and the later styles. The smaller jug from the same grave, 17-2, is likewise banded over-all with the exception of a narrow decorated zone at the top of the shoulder. This is of the conical shape which is unknown among the groups of Early Geometric at Corinth and which makes its first appearance (No. 76) in a grave group dated by Weinberg in the early eighth century."l Weinberg's No. 76 is perhaps closer in shape to our 17-2, not as flat and spreading at its base as 20-1, though its decoration with a zone of latticed triangles on the shoulder is closer to the latter. Weinberg's No. 76, in fact, may be somewhat earlier than either of the North Cemetery examples, with its wide glazed zone above the base and its glazed trefoil mouth. In succession would come our 17-2 with glazed mouth and less spreading body, then 20-1 with banding carried up to the lip and wider base. The shape is known in other Geometric fabrics,12 but at Corinth it appears, as it seems, only with the Late Geometric style in the early eighth century. At Corinth, however, it had a great future, becoming a favorite shape in the Protocorinthian and Corinthian repertory.

The fourth oinochoe, 18-2, tall, with ovoid body and long neck finds a parallel in the latest of Weinberg's Early Geometric groups, No. 70.13 Our 18-2 is somewhat taller and more slender, later and more developed. Its decoration is like that of many Early Geometric jugs: triple reserved bands around the body at equal intervals, and multiple zigzag, framed, in the front half of the neck. On the shoulder, however, below the level of the handle there is added a zone of decoration, a column of chevrons run horizontally, like the decoration of the skyphoi from the same grave (18-7) and from Grave 16 (16-10). The oinochoe should be contemporary and belong near the beginning of the Late Geometric style.

8 Weinberg, Nos. 64, 67, pl. 10.

9 The general development of shapes is almost always from the plump and squat to the long and pointed. The seeming contradiction to this general rule in the globular oinochoai, in which the earlier examples seem taller and more pointed toward the base, is probably due to a truncation

of the lower part in the later examples to attain a wider and more secure resting-base.

10 E.g., Johansen, pl. VII, 1-2.

11 Weinberg, No. 76, pp. 25f., pl. 12.

12 Cf. Johansen, p. 23, fig. 12; Weinberg, p. 27.

13 Weinberg, No. 70, pl. 11.

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