site.btaVarna Archaeologists Report Rare 5th Century BC Find

Varna Archaeologists Report Rare 5th Century BC Find
Varna Archaeologists Report Rare 5th Century BC Find
The 5th century BC askos recovered (Radio Varna Photo)

Archaeologists in Varna, on the Black Sea, found an extremely rare object during excavations of part of the sanctuary of ancient Odessos, Radio Varna reported.

What the experts found and put together were pieces of a red-figure pottery askos that allow its restoration and exhibition. The find is extremely rare and dates from the beginning of the 5th century BC. It may even have no analogue, in Bulgaria at least, Elina Mircheva, curator and archaeologist at the Archaeological Museum in the port city, told Radio Varna.

The only other such askos was found in Apollonia Pontica (present-day Sozopol, on the southern Black Sea coast) in the beginning of the 20th century and today is part of the Louvre collection.

An askos with a different form, but dating from the 3rd century BC, is kept at the Stara Zagora Regional History Museum.

The Athenian askos (pl. askoi) is a small, round vessel with a flat bottom and an over-arching handle that joins the obliquely-angled neck. There is little room for extensive decoration, and often a pair of figures suffices. The Greek word askos refers to the bags made of animal-skin that were used to carry wine; in Athenian red-figure scenes, they are often depicted in the arms of satyrs. Its modern application to this pottery-shape originates in the supposed similarity of some examples to animal-skins.

/MY/

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By 18:01 on 29.03.2024 Today`s news

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