Sub Category


Funeral Dancers Amphora

Proto-Attic Greek (Geometric Style)

replica: from World Treasures, California

date of the original: c. 750-725 BC 

provenance of the original: now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens

description: Proto-Attic amphora with extended neck and side handles. Geometric figures around top of neck and top of body. Three wide black bands around bottom of body. This pottery replica is a composite of originals found in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Height 32.5 cm, diameter 18.5 cm.

The earliest Athenian pottery was decorated with hand-painted stripes of various types. With the invention of the pottery wheel, stripes could be made more uniform and more numerous. Early Athenian Geometric pottery presented an intricate and sophisticated interplay of bands which completely covered the pot. In the Proto-Attic period, archetypal figures of warriors, charioteers, rowers, dancers, mourners were tucked in between these linear bands. The presence of both bands and figures also marks a transitional period between the emergence of Geometric and Red-Figure pottery types. On this piece are displayed male and female dancers at a funeral.

(See also: Small Black Figure Amphora; Storage Amphora.)