WHAT IS THE MEGARIAN BOWL?

A handleless hemispherical Greek drinking cup made in molds and often decorated in relief and finished in the black glossed technique. Widespread in the Hellenistic period from the 3rd century bc, they developed into the red-glossed Arrentine wares. The type was first recognized at Megara and they were made until the 1st century ad. They were imitations of gold and silver vessels and served as the first form of book illustration. They often bear on their exteriors scenes in relief from literary texts that are sometimes accompanied by Greek quotations. They likely served as models for Roman artists who created the first true book illustrations.

WHAT IS THE LARNAX?

1. A Minoan-Mycenaean clay or terra cotta coffin. This kind of coffin, resembling a rectangular wooden chest, enjoyed a brief popularity in the eastern Greek region c. 530-460 bc. The sarcophagus was often crudely painted on the sides with funerary or religious scenes. “Clazomenian” examples were painted in imitation of contemporary vase styles. 2. The term was also used for a closed box, seen in a royal tomb at Vergina, and in art. 3. A bathtub made of a fabric containing straw.

WHAT IS THE KYLIX?

A Greek stemmed drinking cup or chalice, usually made of clay or metal. The term was originally used for a cup of any form, but modern scholars restrict it to shallow two-handed stemmed forms. This wide-bowled drinking cup with horizontal handles was one of the most popular pottery forms from Mycenaean times through the Classical Athenian period. There was usually a painted frieze around the outer surface, depicting a subject from mythology or everyday life, and on the bottom of the inside a painting often depicting a dancing or drinking scene.

WHAT IS THE KRATER?

Ancient Greek vessel used for diluting wine with water. It usually stood on a tripod in the dining room, where wine was mixed. Kraters were made of metal or pottery and were often painted or elaborately ornamented. In Homer’s Iliad the prize offered by Achilles for the foot race at Patroclus’ funeral games was a silver krater. The Greek historian Herodotus describes many enormous and costly kraters dedicated at temples or used in religious ceremonies. Kraters are large, with a broad body and base and usually a wide mouth. They may have horizontal handles placed near the base, or vertical handles rising from the shoulder. Among the many variations are: the bell krater, confined to red-figure pottery, shaped like an inverted bell, with loop handles and a disk foot; the volute krater, with an egg-shaped body and handles that rise from the shoulder and curl in a volute (scrollshaped form) well above the rim; the calyx krater, the shape of which spreads out like the cup or calyx of a flower; and the column krater, with columnar handles rising from the shoulder to a flat, projecting lip rim. Some were fitted with a strainer.

WHAT IS THE KOUROS?

A Greek statue of a youth or a standing nude male youth, of the Archaic period. The large stone figures began to appear in Greece about 615–590 bc. They were funerary markers or dedications in sanctuaries. They were usually larger than life size, made of marble, bronze, or alabaster, and were sometimes painted. The kouros is thought to have been influenced by Egyptian sculpture; the first appearance of such monumental stone figures seems to coincide with the reopening of Greek trade with Egypt in c. 672 bc. The kouros remained a popular form of sculpture until about 460 bc. The female equivalent is called a kore.

WHAT IS THE KORE?

A type of freestanding statue of a maiden – the female counterpart of the kouros or standing youth – that appeared with the beginning of Greek monumental sculpture in about 660 bc and remained to the end of the Archaic period in about 500 bc. It evolved from a highly stylized form to a more naturalistic one. The statue was usually draped, carved from marble, and painted in its original form. They are often dedications in sanctuaries and some are found in funeral contexts. Important series were in the temple of Hera on Samos and on the Acropolis in Athens.

WHAT IS THE KLEROTERION?

An ancient machine used to decide who would serve on a jury in courts of law. There are surviving examples, such as the one from the Agora at Athens. Different colored balls would drop when tickets were inserted; the color determined acceptance or rejection.

WHAT IS THE KERNOS?

Greek cult vessel – dish, bowl, or jar – made of terra cotta or stucco-covered, sun-baked brick and used for the offering of first fruits. The jar held small cups around its lip and examples are found from the Bronze Age onwards.

WHAT IS THE KANTHAROS?

In Greek antiquity, a large, two-handled drinking cup. This type of pottery cup was made in Greek-speaking areas and in Etruria between the 8th and the 1st centuries bc; it had a deep bowl, a foot, and pair of high vertical handles. It was often consecrated to personifications of Bacchus. Early examples are often stemmed. In the 4th and 3rd centuries bc, it became one of the most popular types of drinking vessel in the Greek world.

WHAT IS THE HYDRIA?

A form of Greek water pot; a large jar or pitcher for carrying water with two or three handles. The body was bulbous, the neck round. It was wider and usually lower than the amphora and it had a welldefined foot and neck. There were two horizontal loop handles on the body for carrying and one vertical handle from the rim to the shoulder for pouring.

WHAT IS THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD?

Period of the widest Greek influence, the era between the death of Alexander the Great (323 bc) and the rise of the Roman Empire (27/30 bc), when a single, uniform civilization, based on Greek traditions, prevailed all over the ancient world, from India in the east, to Spain in the west. During these three centuries, Greek culture crossed many political frontiers and spread through many cities founded at that time, especially the new capitals of Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamum. A common civilization became established throughout the known world for the first time, one which integrated the cultural heritage of each region and subsequently left a deep impression on the institutions, thought, religions, and art of the Roman, Parthian, and Kushan Empires. The Hellenistic cultural influence continued to be a powerful force in the Roman and Parthian Empires during the early centuries ad.

WHAT IS THE CYLINDRICAL TRIPOD VASE ?

CYLINDRICAL TRIPOD VASE: A ceramic form popular in the Early Classic period in Mesoamerica and an important artifact of the Teotihuacán. It is cylindrical in shape and stands on three slab or cylindrical legs and frequently has a knobbed lid. [cylindrical vase]

WHAT IS THE CRATER ?

CRATER: A large, wide-mouthed, two-handled Greek or Roman bowl or vase, usually made of pottery or metal. It is characteristic of Greece in the Mycenaean and Classical periods. They were used to serve wine, mixed with water in varying proportions, into individual drinking cups, and handed out at banquets and sacrifices. The word is Greek for “mixing bowl.” There is a classification of four types: column crater, volute crater, calyx crater, and bell crater, which take their names from the characteristic shape either of the handle or of the body of the vase.

WHAT IS THE CORINTHIAN POTTERY ?

CORINTHIAN POTTERY: A widely distributed pottery made at Corinth and found throughout the Mediterranean, from the late 7th century bc until the mid 6th century bc. This important stage of vase painting included “naturalistic” designs of animals, maenads, and satyrs and the invention of the black-figure technique and some new shapes, such as the aryballos and alabastron. Proto-Corinthian pottery, most of which is miniature in size, was the first to be decorated in the black-figure painting technique – figure silhouettes drawn in black and filled in with incised details.

WHAT IS THE CONG ?

CONG: A tubular, jade object, circular on the inside and enclosed in a rectangular body, made in various sizes and used for ritual purposes in ancient China. Cong were described in ancient Chinese texts as symbols of rank and were used as ritual objects primarily in the Shang (18th to 12th century bc) and Zhou/Chou (1111–255 bc) dynasties. They have been found in graves, arranged with bidisks around the corpses of the elite. The cong is thought to have symbolized Earth or possibly to have been an astronomical                                                                                         instrument. [ts’ung]

WHAT IS THE COMB ?

COMB: A toothed object of wood, bone, horn, metal, etc. with a number of uses – for hair dressing, carding wool, currying horses, compacting the weft in weaving, for decorating pottery, or as an ornament to keep the hair in place. As used for combing the hair, but not wearing, combs were found in Pompeian and Egyptian tombs and in early British, Roman, and Saxon barrows.

WHAT IS THE COLOR COATED WARE ?

COLOR COATED WARE: A way of referring to many kinds of pottery in the Greek and Roman periods that were given an extra surface coating, usually slightly glossy and most often red. Research suggests that the coating was made from fine clay particles suspended in water with a peptizing agent added.

WHAT IS THE COIN ?

COIN: A piece of metal or, rarely, of some other material (such as leather or porcelain) certified by a mark or marks upon it as being of a specific value. Coinage is considered to be any standardized series of metal tokens, their specific weights representing specific values, and usually stamped with designs and inscriptions. Coins or coinlike objects were first issued by the Lydians of Anatolia in the late 7th century bc, made of the gold–silver alloy electrum. Their use was then adopted in the Far East, then around the Mediterranean, and has since spread throughout the world. Early coins were used for specialized, prestigious purposes and not for everyday exchange. The early Greek coins were also made of electrum, silver, or gold; the first Roman coins were produced in the early 3rd century bc and were also made of precious metals. Later in that century the first bronze coin was introduced. These material remains are self-dating, though they do not always date the materials they are found with as they may have been traded, handed down through generations, or displaced in the stratigraphy

of a site.

WHAT IS THE COARSEWARE ?

COARSEWARE: A classification of sandy, rough pottery including Castor ware, New Forest ware, and Rustic ware. [coarse pottery, coarse ware]

WHAT IS THE CLASSİCAL ?

CLASSICAL: A general term referring to the period of time when a culture or civilization reaches its highest point of complexity and achievement. In a broader sense, the term often describes the whole period of Greek and Roman antiquity with the following breakdown: Early Classical 500–450 bc, High Classical 450–400 bc, and Late Classical 400–323 bc. Specifically, the term describes, in New World chronology, the period between the Formative (Pre-Classic) and the Post-Classic, which was characterized by the emergence of city states. During the Classic stage, civilized life in pre-Columbian America reached its fullest flowering, with large temple centers, advanced art styles, writing, etc. It was originally coined for the Maya civilization, initially defined by the earliest and most recent long count dates found on Maya stelae, ad 300–900. A division between Early and Late Classic was arbitrarily set at ad 600, since in some areas, e.g., Teotihuacán, great civilizations had already collapsed; some scholars regard this date as marking the end of the Classic period. By extension, the word came to be used for other Mexican cultures with a similar level of excellence (Teotihuacán, Monte Albán, El Tajín). In these areas the cultural climax was roughly contemporary with that of the Maya, and the term Classic took on a chronological meaning as well. The full Maya artistic, architectural, and calendric-hieroglyphic traditions took place during the Early Classic. Tikal, Uaxactún, and Copán all attained their glory then. In the Late Classic, between ad 600 and 900, ceremonial centers in the Maya lowlands grew in number, as did the making of the inscribed, dated stelae and monuments. The breakdown of the Classic period civilizations began with the destruction of the city of Teotihuacán in about ad 700. Some date the Classic period to ad 300–900. [classic, Classic]