Πινάκια και κύπελλα
από το ναυάγιο των Αντικυθήρων
60 π.Χ.- 50 π.Χ.
από το ναυάγιο των Αντικυθήρων
60 π.Χ.- 50 π.Χ.
(Plates and cups from the Antikythera shipwreck)
quantity of fine tableware, mostly plates of various sizes and cups.
Their main characteristic is the bright red to orange slip and the
interior stamped decoration consisting of concentric notched homocentric
circles (the so-called "rouletting"), combined with palmettes.
This distinctive and highly standardized mass-production late Hellenistic pottery, known as "Eastern Sigillata A ware"
(ESA), emerged around the middle of the 2nd c. BC., and ceased to be
produced in 2nd c. AD. It reached the peak of its dissemination around
the mid-1st c. BC, at the time when the ship sank off the Antikythera
coast. This kind of red-slipped ceramic ware was produced in huge
quantities and was widely circulating particularly across the eastern
Mediterranean, mainly along the Syropalestinian coast, Cyprus, Asia
Minor, Cyclades, and in smaller numbers, in mainland Greece and Italian
peninsula. The red-slipped pottery from the Antikythera shipwreck is,
most probably, part of the output of a Syropalestinian workshop.
It has been suggested that these vases, decorated with the distinctive
combination of red-slipped coating and stamped decoration, emulate
tableware of precious metals, and that coincide with the "rhosica vasa" mentioned by the Roman orator and politician Cicero (1st c. BC) and the "rhosic crockery"
used by the queen Cleopatra of Egypt as stated by the alexandrian
grammaticus Athenaeus of Naucratis (2nd c. AD). They were given this
name after the city of Rhosus, a major export harbour for neighbouring
Antioch, situated on the south coast of the Gulf of Issus.
Sailing to Italy, the Antikythera ship, carried along with the rest of
its precious cargo and a load of pottery of this kind, most probably
destined for sale to the Roman aristocratic class (nobilitas), which was
inclined towards eastern luxury!
