Hâdra vases
The modern technical term Hâdra vases refers to a group of Hellenistic painted hydrates . In addition to the late Panathenaic price amphorae of the black-figure style , the Centuripe genus and the western slope and Gnathia ceramics , it is the only larger group of figuratively or ornamentally painted vases from the 3rd century BC. Chr.
The vase genus got its modern name after one of the main find places, a cemetery in Hâdra near Alexandria . Today about 300 copies are known. They arose from white-ground hydrates, which were previously also included in this genus. The painting was done with a dark varnish, in the early days some vases were painted polychrome (multi-colored). It was initially assumed that the vases were a product of Graeco-Egyptian potters, but recent scientific studies have shown that the origin of the hydrians was central Crete . This is where most of the preserved pieces were made. Research today distinguishes four main groups among the Hâdra vases: the laurel group , which has been best researched and to which 14 vase painters can be assigned, the dolphin group with eight well-known painters, the simple group and the group with the branchless laurel leaves , in which one can distinguish two painters so far. The simple group is now considered the oldest representative of the ceramic genre, it is so named because its painting was particularly undemanding. The group with the twigless bay leaves is the only group of producers from Alexandria, it is to be scheduled late.
Hādra vases were not only found in Egypt . A not inconsiderable number of these vases was also found on Crete, which were mainly used in the household sector. In Alexandria, where the majority of the vases were exported, the hydrians were mainly used as ash urns in the cult of the dead. More precise information on the deceased such as name, rank and origin as well as the name of the official who was entrusted with the burial and the burial date were found on around 30 vases, sometimes up to the exact date of death or burial. These were envoys and mercenary leaders who died in Alexandria and were given a state funeral. The inscriptions made it possible to date some of the vases exactly, even if the lack of the name of the current ruling Ptolemaic , after whose reign was dated, led to isolated controversies in research. Research assumes that the first inscribed vases around the year 260 BC. The last decorated vases are in the first years of the 2nd century BC. Undecorated Hâdra vases were used until the first century BC. Manufactured. Apart from Egypt and Crete, Hâdra vases were also found in Eretria , Attica , Rhodes , Cilicia , Cyrene , Cyprus and what is now Russia.
The hydrians of this time were narrower than those of earlier times, when the shape especially in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Was in use. The decorations can be reminiscent of the geometric ceramics . The coloring with dark varnish painting is also reminiscent of geometrical and archaic times. Even the arrangement of the decoration is reminiscent of the sub-geometric ceramics of Eastern Greek workshops. It can be assumed that this vase shape was introduced in Egypt in order to be able to carry out burials based on the Greek model. It is also possible that the potters and vase painters were based on Graeco-Egyptian models, in which the ancient Greek tradition of ornamentation was preserved. Therefore it was also possible that the vase shape could survive here, although it had meanwhile been abandoned in motherland Greece. The above all Greek names of the buried underpin this.
literature
- Lucia Guerrini: Vasi di Hadra. Tentativo di sistemazione cronologica di una class ceramica. L'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome 1964.
- Arnold Enklaar: Chronology et peintres des hydries de Hadra. In: Bulletin antieke beschaving 60, 1985, pp. 106-146.
- Arnold Enklaar: Les hydries de Hadra, 2. Formes et ateliers. In: Bulletin antieke beschaving 61, 1986, pp. 41-65.
- Norbert Kunisch : Explanations on Greek vase painting. 50 main works of the collection of antique vases in the Ruhr University Bochum. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1996, ISBN 3-412-03996-9 , pp. 233-236.
- Roald Fritjof Docter: Hâdra vases. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 5, Metzler, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-476-01475-4 , column 53 f.
