A Greek Vase from the Thames

Abstract

The Attic red-figure kylix (Figs. 1–2) which is the subject ο this note was acquired by the Reading Museum prior to 1896. It is mentioned in Stevens, Descriptive Catalogue of Reading Museum, 1896, p. 41, as having been dredged from the Thames. Closer provenance is not recorded, but the vessel was most probably found near Reading.The kylix, which measures 5·95 in. across the rim, bears a fairly heavy deposit of lime, a feature characteristic of many river finds. The lime has been removed in order to expose the painting, which is a figure in the coarsest style of the ‘Pithos’ painter (Beazley, ARV, pp. 116–17, 952), representing a reclining, naked youth wearing a tiara, seen from behind. Typical of kylikes with decoration of this type is the large drinking-horn splashed across the lower part of the figure. Close parallels to the painting occurred at Al Mina (Beazley, JHS LIX, 1939, pp. 2–3, nos. 6–14) and are ascribed to the late sixth century B.C.