The Apulian red-figured Amphora

In the collections, there is a large and colourful ancient vase. Recently we decided to take this vase out of the store and put it on display in the Collectors Gallery. You may remember a blog from a few months ago, The Volunteers biggest nightmare? written by Derek Niemann.

Once the vase was safely locked in the case we stood back and began to ponder what story was being told with the two beautifully painted scenes on each side of the vase.

Other questions flooded in such as: How old is the vase? Where was it made? Who owned it?

The answers as it turns out were more exciting and complex than we thought.

The vessel is actually a wheel-made red-figured amphora (a jug with two handles and a narrow neck) and can be dated to 350 BCE.

Large painted vessels of this type are associated with Greek potters who moved from their homeland in the 8^th century BCE to set up their own specialist pottery workshops in Apulia, specifically in the town of Taras located in the “Heel” of southern Italy. The settlement of Taras was a thriving port during the Greek and Roman empires, and still is today.

The painted scenes, one on each side of the amphora, illustrate two types of funeral. The scene on side 1 shows a grand temple-like structure with a woman walking into the tomb, carrying a wreath, a white sash and a box. The woman is symbolically painted in white to tell us that she has died and is crossing from our world into the next. She has two female mourners outside, holding ritual bucket-like vessels and torches, who watch over her final journey.

The scene on the other side shows a more simple style of funeral ceremony. Two male mourners face each other across a simple box-shaped tomb. The tomb has a zigzag decoration at the top with a black sash tied around the middle.

The one answer we will never know is who owned this ancient amphora. Nevertheless, we now know far more about this wonderful pottery vessel than we did before.

The Higgins Bedford thanks Alan Johnston, Emeritus Reader in Classical Archaeology at University College London, for his identification and generous advice on the story behind this Apulian red figure amphora. 

Written by Liz Pieksma, Keeper of Archaeology