Megarian mug
Megarian cups are a class of Hellenistic fine ceramics. The production of ceramics began in the second half of the 3rd century. v. In Athens , but soon expanded to several centers in Greece, the Aegean Sea and western Asia Minor and lasted until the 1st century BC. Chr.
The Megarian cups are not disk-turned ceramics, but matrix-shaped relief ceramics. The clay blank is pressed into a shaped bowl in which all the ornaments that appear on the finished vessel as raised relief on the outside are prefabricated as negative relief. This technique was mainly used for the production of hemispherical cups, the so-called Megarian cups, but other forms of vessel were rarely produced (e.g. jug). The relief decoration of the Megarian cups has a wide range of variations. Various floral ornaments form the main motif. A central rosette can usually be seen on the floor. The color and density of the coating also varies greatly from black, brown, red and glossy to matte.
The modern archaeological name refers to the erroneous assumption of early research that this type of ceramic was made in the port city of Megara , as it was first discovered there on a larger scale. Megarian cups can be found in many parts of the Mediterranean world and were obviously a popular export item.
Megarian cups are considered to be the forerunners of the Eastern Sigillata and the Terra Sigillata . T. were also produced in shaped bowls, but their coating is shiny red to orange.
literature
- Theodor Kraus : Megarian cups in the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum zu Mainz ( catalogs. Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum zu Mainz 14), Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz 1951.
- Susan I. Rotroff: The Athenian Agora XXII, Hellenistic pottery. Athenian and imported mold-made bowls , Princeton 1982.
- Anne-Ulrike Kossatz: The Megarian cups. (= Miletus 5, 1). de Gruyter, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-11-010899-2 .
- Norbert Kramer: Megarien Becher , In: Ümit Serdaroğlu , Reinhard Stupperich (Ed.): Excavations in Assos 1992. (= Asia Minor Studies 21), Habelt, Bonn 1996, pp. 71-98
- Susanna Künzl: A complex of shaped bowls for Megarian cups. The "Mainz workshop". (= Catalogs of prehistoric antiquities 32). Publishing house of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-88467-070-0 .
