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Aineta aryballos
The Aineta aryballos is an ancient Greek aryballos (a small, spherical flask or vase), made between approximately 625 and 570 BCE in the city of Corinth in southern Greece. Approximately 6.35 centimetres (2.50 in) in both height and diameter, it was intended to contain perfumed oil or unguent, and is likely to have been owned by a high-class courtesan (hetaira) by the name of Aineta, who may be portrayed in a drawing on its handle. The vase's illegal sale to the British Museum in 1865 led to the prosecution of its seller, the Athenian professor and art dealer Athanasios Rhousopoulos, and exposed his widespread involvement in antiquities crime.
The vase is inscribed with a portrait, generally agreed to be that of a woman and probably that of Aineta, who is named in the inscription on the vase. Below the portrait are the names of nine men, usually taken to be Aineta's admirers or lovers. The Aineta aryballos is likely to have been found in a grave, probably that of Aineta. According to Rhousopoulos, it was discovered in Corinth around 1852. In 1877, Panagiotis Efstratiadis, the Ephor General of Antiquities in charge of the Greek Archaeological Service, had Rhousopoulos fined for selling the vase in contravention of Greek law. Writing in 2012 for the Center for Hellenic Studies, Yannis Galanakis called the case "a milestone in the trafficking of Greek antiquities", in that it represented a relatively rare successful use of state power against the illegal trade in ancient Greek artefacts.
The Aineta aryballos is made from yellowish clay. It is a small vase, with a spherical body and a disc-shaped neck, connected by a handle. The entire aryballos is approximately 6.35 centimetres (2.50 in) in height and diameter. Its base is flat, allowing it to stand on its own. The opening of the jar is approximately 8 millimetres (0.31 in) in diameter, within a mouth approximately 4.2–4.8 centimetres (1.7–1.9 in) in diameter. The handle is 3.0 centimetres (1.2 in) wide and 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) tall, and tapers slightly towards the bottom. The vase itself was made on a potter's wheel in two pieces – the globular body and the disc-shaped neck – which were subsequently joined to each other and to the handle.
The Athenian art dealer Athanasios Rhousopoulos, a professor at the University of Athens, made the first scholarly publication of the aryballos in 1862, in which he described it as "rather rough, but diligently cleaned". In his initial publication, Rhousopoulos said that it resembled a quince; later, he would describe it as "the size of an apple".
Aryballoi were small, spherical flasks or vases, typically used to store small amounts of perfumed oil or unguent. Rhousopoulos believed that the vase may have been a gift from her lovers to a high-class courtesan (hetaira) named Aineta, or perhaps deposited as a grave good in her tomb. In support of this latter hypothesis, Rhousopoulos suggested that the vase's excellent state of preservation, as well as the lack of any post-manufacture inscriptions (such as the kalos inscription common on Attic vases) indicated that it had never been used. Matthias Steinhart and Eckhard Wirbelauer wrote in 2000 that it is universally considered to have been a gift of some nature; Rudolf Wachter concurred in 2001 with Rhousopoulos's assessment that the vase was probably a "love-gift".
The body and mouth of the vase are decorated with rosettes. Rhousopoulos considered the mouth, with its flower-like motif centred on the opening, as the finest part of the vase, writing "here we trace a fully Greek taste". He contrasted this with the decoration of the vase body, where, he judged, "we immediately find ourselves in unknown regions of Asia: magnificent, ... but strange and exotic".
The vase was made in the city of Corinth, in southern Greece. On the basis of its decoration, Rhousopoulos dated the vase to the 30th Olympiad (660–656 BCE), which would have made the Aineta aryballos the oldest-known inscribed Corinthian vase, and place it in the ceramic period known as Middle Protocorinthian II. Its date has since been disputed: in his 1931 work on Corinthian pottery, Humfry Payne dated it to approximately 625 BCE on the basis of the letter-forms used in the inscription, an assessment endorsed by Lilian Hamilton Jeffery in 1961. In 1979, Fritz Lorber argued that Payne's date was too early: he discussed the vase among those of the Early Corinthian period (620/615–595/590 BCE), and wrote that the letter-forms show features, such as the serpentine form of the letter iota, characteristic of sixth-century inscriptions. Darrell A. Amyx suggested in 1988 that it most likely dates to the Middle Corinthian period (595/590–570 BCE), a view upheld by Wachter.
The handle of the vase is inscribed with a drawing of the head of a woman, with a list of nine men's names on the vase body below it, separated from each other and the portrait by three dividing lines. Similar female portraits are common on other Corinthian vases of the type. All of the names, as well as the drawing, were inscribed at the time of the vase's manufacture. The writing uses the Corinthian alphabet.
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Aineta aryballos
The Aineta aryballos is an ancient Greek aryballos (a small, spherical flask or vase), made between approximately 625 and 570 BCE in the city of Corinth in southern Greece. Approximately 6.35 centimetres (2.50 in) in both height and diameter, it was intended to contain perfumed oil or unguent, and is likely to have been owned by a high-class courtesan (hetaira) by the name of Aineta, who may be portrayed in a drawing on its handle. The vase's illegal sale to the British Museum in 1865 led to the prosecution of its seller, the Athenian professor and art dealer Athanasios Rhousopoulos, and exposed his widespread involvement in antiquities crime.
The vase is inscribed with a portrait, generally agreed to be that of a woman and probably that of Aineta, who is named in the inscription on the vase. Below the portrait are the names of nine men, usually taken to be Aineta's admirers or lovers. The Aineta aryballos is likely to have been found in a grave, probably that of Aineta. According to Rhousopoulos, it was discovered in Corinth around 1852. In 1877, Panagiotis Efstratiadis, the Ephor General of Antiquities in charge of the Greek Archaeological Service, had Rhousopoulos fined for selling the vase in contravention of Greek law. Writing in 2012 for the Center for Hellenic Studies, Yannis Galanakis called the case "a milestone in the trafficking of Greek antiquities", in that it represented a relatively rare successful use of state power against the illegal trade in ancient Greek artefacts.
The Aineta aryballos is made from yellowish clay. It is a small vase, with a spherical body and a disc-shaped neck, connected by a handle. The entire aryballos is approximately 6.35 centimetres (2.50 in) in height and diameter. Its base is flat, allowing it to stand on its own. The opening of the jar is approximately 8 millimetres (0.31 in) in diameter, within a mouth approximately 4.2–4.8 centimetres (1.7–1.9 in) in diameter. The handle is 3.0 centimetres (1.2 in) wide and 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) tall, and tapers slightly towards the bottom. The vase itself was made on a potter's wheel in two pieces – the globular body and the disc-shaped neck – which were subsequently joined to each other and to the handle.
The Athenian art dealer Athanasios Rhousopoulos, a professor at the University of Athens, made the first scholarly publication of the aryballos in 1862, in which he described it as "rather rough, but diligently cleaned". In his initial publication, Rhousopoulos said that it resembled a quince; later, he would describe it as "the size of an apple".
Aryballoi were small, spherical flasks or vases, typically used to store small amounts of perfumed oil or unguent. Rhousopoulos believed that the vase may have been a gift from her lovers to a high-class courtesan (hetaira) named Aineta, or perhaps deposited as a grave good in her tomb. In support of this latter hypothesis, Rhousopoulos suggested that the vase's excellent state of preservation, as well as the lack of any post-manufacture inscriptions (such as the kalos inscription common on Attic vases) indicated that it had never been used. Matthias Steinhart and Eckhard Wirbelauer wrote in 2000 that it is universally considered to have been a gift of some nature; Rudolf Wachter concurred in 2001 with Rhousopoulos's assessment that the vase was probably a "love-gift".
The body and mouth of the vase are decorated with rosettes. Rhousopoulos considered the mouth, with its flower-like motif centred on the opening, as the finest part of the vase, writing "here we trace a fully Greek taste". He contrasted this with the decoration of the vase body, where, he judged, "we immediately find ourselves in unknown regions of Asia: magnificent, ... but strange and exotic".
The vase was made in the city of Corinth, in southern Greece. On the basis of its decoration, Rhousopoulos dated the vase to the 30th Olympiad (660–656 BCE), which would have made the Aineta aryballos the oldest-known inscribed Corinthian vase, and place it in the ceramic period known as Middle Protocorinthian II. Its date has since been disputed: in his 1931 work on Corinthian pottery, Humfry Payne dated it to approximately 625 BCE on the basis of the letter-forms used in the inscription, an assessment endorsed by Lilian Hamilton Jeffery in 1961. In 1979, Fritz Lorber argued that Payne's date was too early: he discussed the vase among those of the Early Corinthian period (620/615–595/590 BCE), and wrote that the letter-forms show features, such as the serpentine form of the letter iota, characteristic of sixth-century inscriptions. Darrell A. Amyx suggested in 1988 that it most likely dates to the Middle Corinthian period (595/590–570 BCE), a view upheld by Wachter.
The handle of the vase is inscribed with a drawing of the head of a woman, with a list of nine men's names on the vase body below it, separated from each other and the portrait by three dividing lines. Similar female portraits are common on other Corinthian vases of the type. All of the names, as well as the drawing, were inscribed at the time of the vase's manufacture. The writing uses the Corinthian alphabet.