Ancient Xenon Pottery Vessel, Apulia (1368)

Description

This 4th century Xenon ware vessel is from Apulia, Magna Graecia, the Roman name for the South Italy coastal area first named by the Roman poet Ovid in his poem Fasti. . Colonized by the Greeks in the 6th century B.C.E. Greek settlers arrived with their Hellenic culture intact and greatly influenced Italian civilization.

The shape may be  derived from Greek olpe, a pottery vase with a rim and no spout, making it more useful for drinking than for pouring.  Xenon ware is characterized by matte pale orange-red and salmon decoration over a rich black glazed terracotta body fired from red clay.

This elegant wheel-thrown diminutive vessel is decorated with a painted geometric meander across the body, a band of tapering vertical lines on the shoulder and a thin line below. With a widened body and flared rim it sits on a flat short ring foot with an applied handle. Some suggest these small vessels made them easy for children to handle, while others believe they were used for votive purposes.

As usual with such pieces that are more than two millennia old, there is some fading of the painted decoration and small chips, which reveal the color of the red clay body. However, this piece is in remarkably good condition for its age. For another 4^th century piece from Apulia, see item3247.