Terracotta onos (leg guard used in carding wool)
On each side, women working wool
Producing cloth for garments and other fabrics needed in a household was a significant task for women. It required special equipment such as a loom and loomweights as well as this utensil, known as an onos or epinetron. It is a generally semicircular tile that is closed at one end. It was placed over the lower thigh and knee. Although its exact function is not clear, the roughened upper surface suggests that it served to prepare wool for spinning.
Producing cloth for garments and other fabrics needed in a household was a significant task for women. It required special equipment such as a loom and loomweights as well as this utensil, known as an onos or epinetron. It is a generally semicircular tile that is closed at one end. It was placed over the lower thigh and knee. Although its exact function is not clear, the roughened upper surface suggests that it served to prepare wool for spinning.
Artwork Details
- Title: Terracotta onos (leg guard used in carding wool)
- Artist: Akin to the Golonos Group
- Period: Archaic
- Date: ca. 510–500 BCE
- Culture: Greek, Attic
- Medium: Terracotta; black-figure
- Dimensions: length 10 1/2in. (26.7cm); greatest diameter 5 1/4in. (13.4cm)
- Classification: Vases
- Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1910
- Object Number: 10.210.13
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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4th century BCE
late 10th–early 9th century BCE
Attributed to a painter of the Princeton Group
ca. 540–530 BCE
4th quarter of the 6th century BCE
mid-6th century BCE
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