Terracotta tankard

This tankard (used as a pitcher) belongs to a group of eight terracotta vases (10.210.1-.8) that are said to be from Athens. Despite the absence of archaeological record, they were probably found together in a tomb. Such groups are well attested in excavated burials. Moreover, the iconography of the two neck-amphorae, particularly the one with the mourning women on the neck, is appropriate for a funerary purpose. The group displays stylistic changes that occurred from about 730-700 BCE, a time of artistic innovation.


Tankards are typically decorated with painted metope (square panel) frieze. Here, the metopes are decorated with quatrefoils, svastikas and birds. The lively and fluid ornamentation is typical of the end of the Late Geometric and the successive Protoattic styles, freed from the rigidity of earlier phases.