The Problems of Dating Non-Attic Classical Kantharoi

Abstract

The article is devoted to analyzing the problems of dating classical kantharoi produced in the workshops of Asia Minor, Macedonia, Thessaly, Thrace and other ancient centers of the last third of the 4th – the middle – end of the 2nd c. BC. These problems are closely related to the issues of identifying centers of their production. The formulation and resolution of these issues have aroused an increased interest recently. The article presents the main characteristics of classical kantharos forms depending on time and center of their manufacture. The paper collects information on published fragments and whole vessels and publishes for the first time five late non-attic kantharoi found on the territory of Panticapaeum and Tanais. Besides, it considers general trends and features in the development of such forms. The morphological comparison of non-attic kantharoi and their attic prototypes makes it possible to draw a conclusion on their synchronous development. The analysis of forms and proportions of two of the three main varieties of kantharoi, which belong to the Pontic Hellenistic ceramics group, as well as their contexts including sites in the North Pontic region, gives us the possibility to follow the form transformation in the direction of changing proportions, namely, their profile elongation and/or gradual body decrease in the third quarter of the 3rd – the beginning/middle of the 2nd c. BC. In addition, it allows to trace in the third variant the further development of the form to the complete body schematization, which appeared in the middle or the third quarter of the 2nd c. BC.