General Information

Lydian Painted Ware - Patterned represents one of the earliest styles of Lydian decorated pottery. Painters applied geometric patterns - triangles, semi-circles, cross-hatching - with manganese paint, creating a dark-on-light style with black, brown, or purplish patterns on a plain light-colored surface. The decorative patterns, as well as some specific shapes, are very similar to those of Greek Protogeometric pottery; and in fact imports from both East Greece (Ionia) and Euboea found at Sardis suggest that these served as models and inspirations for local potters. In the later eighth century BCE, the shift from essentially monochromatic washes to the painted decoration that became such a hallmark of the Lydian ceramic tradition seems to have been spurred on by the elegant shapes and lively decorative schemes created by potters in Corinth, Euboea, and the islands, and which made their way to Sardis as models.

Sardis (Turkey/Aegean)