Archaeology

The excavations carried out at the necropolis of Thymbra/Akça Köy by Frank Calvert in 1853 yielded a small assemblage of black and red figure vases dating to the Archaic and Classical periods. This essay examines a red figure Nolan amphora from this assemblage recovered from the necropolis of Thymbra. A winged Eos decorates one side of the amphora, while the other side depicts a young male. Form of the vase, using Eos as a motif, and the anatomical details of the young male all indicate that this vase must be a product of the Achilles painter. This vase, which could be one of the earlier works of the Achilles painter, could be dated to 460-450 BC.
Keywords: Achilles Painter, Thymbra, Çanakkale Archaeology Museum, Frank Calvert, Eos, Nolan Amphora, Troy.

During the summer of 1995 Turkish archaeologists discovered a unique Late Classical tomb in the Western Necropolis of Assos. A modestly designed cist grave, Tomb 4 surprised excavators with the richest cache of grave goods ever found at the ancient city. The 62 well-preserved artifacts, which date from the 4th century BCE, when Aristotle's school of philosophy was active at Assos, consist of terracotta figurines, gold and bronze jewelry, and vases. The variety of the coroplastic group is especially striking. The types include seated female musicians and a poet, an oklasma-dancer, comic actors, goddesses, a horse-rider, a warrior, female mask protomes, miniature furniture, various animals, and a fıgurine vase. The main purpose of this publication is to examine the finds from Tomb 4 and to shed light on characteristics of coroplastic produc-tion and socio-cultural life at Assos during its "Golden Age" through a contextual, typological, and iconographical analysis of the terracotta figurines. The variety of the figurines not only gives clues about the identity of the tomb-owners, but also hints at the many aspects of the "Golden Age" of Assos, such as the fertility cults active in the city, the increasing importance of the theatre, the place of women in socio-religious life, and the commercial and cultural relations of Assos with the neighbouring cities, especially Athens.

Cide, which is a coastal area attached to the Turkish Province of Kastamonu, is located at the nortwestern part of the province. According to Strabo the name of Cythorus originates from the son of Phrixus, whose name was “Cytisorus”. It is known that there were Greek colonies in the vicinity of Cythorus during the Archaic and Classical periods. The situation of historical developments in Paphlagonia not being fully known is also valid for the Hellenistic period of Cythorus. On the other hand, during the Roman Imperial period the town stayed as a part of Amastris. In 2009-2011, archaeological surveys were conducted at the districts of Cide and Şenpazar and few numbers of Hellenistic ceramics were found.