Monash University
Browse

East Greek kothon

Download (59.33 kB)
educational resource
posted on 2022-08-09, 07:54 authored by Centre for Ancient Cultures MuseumCentre for Ancient Cultures Museum


East Greek ceramic kothon, also known as an exaleiptron, was used to hold cosmetics, oils, or perfumes. Exaleiptra take various forms, some with more pronounced feet and others without handles; they were commonly used in temple dedications or for personal use, and are often found in graves. The rim curves inward into a deep cylindrical slightly convex inner wall, mostly likely designed to help prevent liquids from spilling. Mainly produced in the Corinth region and exported throughout Greece. This example in light yellowish brown; with round shallow body and squat flaring foot with a horizontal looped strap handle.  Internally glazed, the small vessel was decorated with concentric red stripes and hatches in drop-shape, with a thick red band in glaze around the lower body, in the interior rim, encircling foot, and the external part of the handle. 

Date: Second half of the 6th century BCE

Parallels: Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum Y1933-15; Urbana, Spurlock Museum of World Cultures 1922.01.0119, 1922.01.0120; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 62.11.6; Palermo, Archaeological Museum NI 1637; Oxford, Ashmolean Museum AN1932.125; London, British Museum 1919,1119.71; Paris, Louvre CA 3352; Stockholm, Medelhavsmuseet NM Ant 1342; Prague, Kinský Palace NM-H10 1660; compare with Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 1600011610, 1600151080.

References: Picard, C., Gardner, E.A., Pryce, F. N., Cooksey, W., Woodward, A. M., Casson, S., Welch, F.B., Tod, M.N., “Macedonia”, The Annual of the British School at Athens, 23, 1918/1919, pp. 1-103; Payne, H., Necrocorinthia: a study of Corinthian art in the Archaic period, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931. p. 335, fig. 183; Martelli, M. C., Corpus Vasorum Antquorum, Gela 2, vol. 53, L'Erma di Bretschneider, 1973, pp. 19-20; Wisseman, S. U., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1989, p. 4, Plate 2, 7; Moullou, D., “Greece Shedding Light on the Kothon: Vases with Inward Downturned Rims Revisited”, American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 125, no. 2, April 2021, pp. 183–206.

Photo by Steve Morton

History