f - The American School of Classical Studies at Athens

362 MARIO IOZZO
Overhanging, thickened rim with horizontal top and
slightly slanting underside with an offset; rounded
corners. The nearly vertical rim side presents five
ridges alternately smooth and decorated with wavy,
oblique hatching made with a four-pointed punch.
The uppermost ridge is hatched in the opposite di-
rection from the others. A ribbon-lug handle with
residual traces of red is applied over the middle
ridges and is flanked by two pairs of opposing pal-
mettes. The palmettes are three- and five-petal
types, fan shaped around a triangular heart; they are
held by two tendrils joined by a ring, with a small
petal in the space under the volutes. The petal pro-
files and the tendril edges are in relief.
Findspot: Gymnasium.'0 The fragment was
found in a late 3rd-century B.C. context (Lot 4790),
to which it probably does not belong.
Anthemia of opposing palmettes, derived from in-
tricate Protocorinthian interlaces of palmettes and
volutes" and which are probably not to be consid-
ered as an element taken from the more common
chains of palmette pairs,'2 were rarely used as deco-
ration before the Early Corinthian period.'3 They
became more common in the Corinthian ornamental
repertoire at least as early as the first quarter of the
6th century B.C.; they are often found on plaques ap-
plied to the handles of column kraters'4 and on a
rather widespread type of fictile antefix especially
common at Corinth, where it is already present by
the second half of the 7th century B.C.,'5 as well as in
areas under the cultural influence of Corinth. 16
During the first half of the 6th century, floral inter-
laces became a favorite decorative motif, placed eith-
er at the top or bottom of vertical handles or at the
'?J. Wiseman, "Excavations in Corinth. The Gymnasium Area, 1967-1968," Hesperia 38, 1969 (pp. 64-
106), pp. 64-65.
" Necrocorinthia, p. 150.
12 P. G. Guzzo, "Lamina in argento ed oro da Sibari," BdA 48, 1973, p. 69. The documentation of the two
types does not indicate that they are coeval; the simple pair of palmettes seems to be much earlier: see Necrocorinthia,
pp. 151-156. It is more likely that the single element was created first, with its articulation into a
chain following, and not vice versa.
'3Necrocorinthia, p. 151, fig. 58, D, E.
I Necrocorinthia, p. 152; Corinth VII, i, no. 188, pp. 55-56, pl. 26; Corinth VII, ii: nos. 80, 81, p. 31, pl. 13.
15 H. S. Robinson, "Excavations at Corinth, 1959-1960," Hesperia 31, 1962 (pp. 95-133), p. 114, pl. 41:e;
Wiseman (footnote 10 above), p. 99, pl. 31 :e. The antefix from the Temple of Hera Limenia is datable to the
same period: H. Payne, Perachora I, Oxford 1940, pp. 113-115, pl. B:2. For a clarification of the development
of Corinthian tiles and their respective chronology, see C. K. Williams, II, "Demaratus and Early Corinthian
Roofs," IrvT 'kq. Todos' Els ',u N. KOVTOXf'OVTOs,, Athens 1980, pp. 345-350.
16 The following list does not pretend to be complete: it would be difficult to gather relevant data for the
diffusion of this antefix type without keeping in mind the many examples, mostly unpublished, which are
preserved in the many museums in the Peloponnesos, central Greece, Magna Graecia, and Sicily. Corinth:
Van Buren, no. 13, p. 147, fig. 71 and no. 18, p. 148, fig. 76; Corinth IV, i, pp. 12-14, figs. 2, 3; A 15, A 16, A
20, pp. 48, 49, pl. I; Necrocorinthia, pp. 235ff., fig. 109 B; see also footnote 15; Williams (footnote 15 above),
pl. 156. Athens: Van Buren, nos. 10,11, p. 146, figs. 22, 24 left; E. Buschor, Die Tondacher der Akropolis, II,
Stirnziegel, Berlin/Leipzig 1933, pp. 37-39, figs. 49-51, pp. 41-43, figs. 54-56; J. Travlos, Bildlexikon zur
Topographie des antiken Athen, Tubingen 1971, nos. 74-77, p. 62. Perachora: see footnote 15 above. Aigina:
Van Buren, no. 8, p. 130, fig. 5. Kalydon: K. A. Rhomaios, KEpaMoL -ris KaAv8ZWvog, Athens 1951, p. 18,
fig. 7, p. 22, fig. 8, pp. 32-33, figs. 17, 18. Nemea: Stephen G. Miller, "Excavations at Nemea, 1976," Hesperia
46, 1977 (pp. 1-26), p. 8, pl. 4:g. Kerkyra: Van Buren, no. 67, p. 158, fig. 67. Olympia: A. Mallwitz and
H.-V. Herrmann, Die Funde aus Olympia, Athens 1980, p. 149, pl. 102:1, no. 3. Delphi: C. Le Roy and
J. Ducat, FdD II, iii, Paris 1967, p. 46, A 23, pl. 7:5, p. 63, A 6 + 7, pl. 18:2. Ptoion: Ibid., pl. 17, bottom.
Assos in the Troad: A. Akerstrom, Die architektonischen Terrakotten Kleinasiens, Lund 1966, p. 18, pl. 5:1.
For the diffusion of the two opposing palmettes connected by curved elements in the western Greek colonies,
see E. Ghisellini, "II bassorilievo con sfingi da Monte San Mauro," Xenia 4, 1982, pp. 7-8.