Moldmade Bowls from Adana Museum

Abstract

Commonly knowns as the Megarian bowls are the Hellenistic, hemispherical, mouldmade bowls without handles and foot. They are standart drinking vessels from the 3rd century to Is' century B.C. Their relief designs and the sheen of glaze have resemblances ancient precious metal bowls. It's believed that the mouldmade bowls were originated in Ptolemaic Alexandria and the ceramic ones were the invention of Athenian potters. Soon the local imitations sprang up on many sites on Aegean and Mediterranean world. They were used from 224/223 B.C. until the 1st century B.C. As well as in ancient Greece, there were important local production centers in Anatolia which attract attention like Pergamon, Ephesos, Tarsus and Antiokhia. But we can found them all over the Hellenistic settlements. The purpose of this article is to determine the typology, chronology and the production features of mouldmade bowls in Adana Museum and to compare this material with productions of other centers. Since they were made in the molds and reproduced mechanically, it's not possible to assign exact dates. Shape, decoration and glaze cannot be used as a criterion of date. To establish a chronology the most important information is the context which it was found. There's no context or stratigraphic evidences for the material of Adana museum. In the assessment of our material, first the ancient cities of Rough Kilikia have been taken into consideration but the other centers in Anatolia were not neglected. There are intact thirty one bowls and are brought to the museum by buying system. Moldmade bowls are arranged in the catalogue according to their decoration scheme: Net pattern bowls, imbricate bowls, figured bowls, floral bowls and long petal bowls. The decoration of one bowl consist of imbricate small leaves. Nineteen bowls have floral decoration consisting of scattered small leaves. This feature usually can be seen on the later Antiokhian bowls. Six bowls have figured scenes like lions, gods, warriors, kenthauros, mascs and symposiums. One bowl have net pattern resembling the large petals. Four bowls with long petal decoration. Large leaves with convex profiles and thin long petals with dots can be seen. The mouldmade bowls in Adana Museum have varieties of clay, slip and decorations. The bowls usually have orange micaceous clay and are covered with orange, orange-red, dark brown-black matt glaze. Their rim diameter are between 11,8-15,2 cm, and their high are between 5,2-9 cm. Generally, thin and malt glaze are the characteristics of later bowls. But the colour of clay and slip varies according to their origins. Clay and glaze colours may be different even in one center, consequently it can't be determined where they come from. It's known that the earlier bowls have black glaze but later the colours gradually turns to brown, red and orange. Thick glaze occurs on Athenian bowls of the 3rd and 2nd century B.C. and from second quarter of 2nd century B.C. the glaze is thin and matt. Waage pointed that the same characteristics could be seen on the moldmade bowls of Orontes Valley. The moldmade bowls in Adana Museum show similar properties but they have different workmanship features from Ionian bowls. Conic, hemispherical and parabolic profiles can be seen in the moldmade bowls of Adana Museum. There are deep and shallow bowls with flaring and straight lip. Some bowls have large rim borders or have no decorations. Although jumping goats between plants occur on the body, rarely can be seen on the rim border lines. Frequently Ionian kymations, rosettes, large heart shaped leaves, pearl bead lines are used. The medallions consisting six or eight petals are large and have no decorations. Instead of relief rings sometimes relief dots encircle the medallions. Some bowls bear stamped H and C monograms. These features are different from Athenian bowls and can be find closest paralelles in Antiokhia and Tarsus. jones published the Megarian bowls of Tarsus in 1950 and drawn attention to the bowls of Tarsus "Pergamene". There were powerful relationship between Tarsus and Pergamon in Hellenistic period and therefore some of the moldmade bowls of Tarsus were made in Pergamon. Kilikia Region was changed hands frequently between Seleukos and Ptolemaios Kingdoms. But chiefly Seleukos Kingdom was dominant. Many cities were founded and flourished in Kilikia region in Hellenistic times. Strabon mentioned some of the Kilikian cities like Antiokhia, Tarsos, Anazarbos, Arsinoe, Nagidos, Soli, Issos, Seleukeia. It's known these cities had close relationships between Pergamon. Particularly pottery production of Kilikian cities was consistent from 3rd to Is" century B.C. Most of our bowls have resemblances with Antiokhia and Tarsus bowls and must have been produced in workshops of Antiokhia and Tarsus or near elsewhere in the 2nd-1st century B.C.