Terracotta skyphos (drinking cup with two handles)

The skyphos (drinking cup) 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 that resulted in the end of the formal precision of the Geometric style and the rise of the exuberant Protoattic style.


The skyphos is one of the earliest pieces of the group, as indicated by the strictly geometric painted decoration. The gadrooned decoration―with its oblong motifs rendered both by the painted pattern and the shallow relief impressed around the wall ―recalls more expensive prototypes in metal.