1. Introduction

The mass production of relief pottery with the use of moulds is a novelty of the Hellenistic period, when vase-painting had already declined and metal vases were the standard. Apart from relief skyphoi, which were widely spread all over the Mediterranean, another two original types of relief pottery appeared in Asia Minor, whose main centres of production were Pergamon, Ephesus, Tarsus and Smyrna. It is the pottery with applied reliefs and the glazed relief pottery.

2. Relief Skyphoi

The so-called “Megarian” or relief –as they should be called– skyphoi are the most typical examples of Hellenistic vases. The ancient Greeks called them ‘hemitomoi’. They were black-glazed hemispherical cups, with or without a low ring-shaped base; they had relief decoration covering the entire exterior of the vase except for the lip and ranging from abstract and floral ornaments to animals and human figures, usually symmetrically arranged. Those table vases of daily use were massively produced with the help of moulds, where the decorative motifs had been previously imprinted, most of which were inspired from models of metal vases in gold or silver.

It was formerly believed that the sole centre of production was Megara, thus they were called Megarian skyphoi. But today it is known that there were several similar centres for the production of relief skyphoi, each with its own particular characteristics. Their production probably was an Athenian novelty of the years shortly after the mid-3rd c. BC (circa 240-220 BC). The new style was soon adopted by other cities as well: by Corinth and Argos in the last quarter of the 3rd c. BC and soon after that by other Peloponnesian centres (Sparta) and Boeotia, while they also appeared in Delos in 166-69 BC.

After mainland Greece, western Asia Minor, whose main representatives were Pergamon, Ephesus and Miletus, was the first region where vases of this type were produced. Their manufacture was almost simultaneously spread to all the known centres of the Hellenistic Asia Minor, as evidenced by the large quantities of relief skyphoi and moulds found in all excavations.

The production of relief skyphoi in Asia Minor started circa the early 2nd c. BC, although the production in Pergamon and probably Tarsus must have started a little earlier (late 3rd c. BC). Later on, from the 1st c. BC onwards, this pottery was gradually replaced by the eastern red-glazed pottery (eastern sigillata). From early on, the Asia Minor workshops of relief skyphoi followed their own path.¹ For example, in Asia Minor there were neither “Homeric” skyphoi, decorated with mythological motifs of the Homeric epics, nor the wide repertoire of iconographic scenes of Attic vases. Perhaps the Pergamene pottery with the applied reliefs tried to fill this empty space.

The Asia Minor relief skyphoi are generally smaller than their Attic counterparts and of different shape; the Attic skyphoi have a deep body and an outwards projecting lip. The body of the Asia Minor skyphoi is shallower and the lip projects inwards, while they are decorated with an amazing variety of iconographic, floral and other motifs. Thanks to recent studies, the importance of the workshops of Ephesus, Miletus, Pergamon, Priene, Myrina, and Cyme and to a lesser extent of Tarsus and Cnidus has been emphasised.² Several other smaller, yet equally important, workshops have been identified in Ionia. The Pontus has not been systematically investigated until now, but it is possible that the region, probably Sinope, had workshops producing relief pottery.

Asia Minor pottery workshops share a lot of characteristics, as regards the clay and the technique as well as the shapes and the decoration, but each workshop stands out for its singular decorative motifs or for other features. For example, the relief skyphoi of the Ionic workshops are shallower and wider, with their sizes becoming gradually smaller in the course of time. However, it has not been possible to identify the rest of Asia Minor workshops only according to the shape of the vases. That means it is not easy, for example, to distinguish between a Pergamene and a Milesian skyphos.

The fact that the decorative motifs of the Hellenistic relief pottery are quite similar to each other and come from a common source does not help the identification of workshops. However, the individual depiction of the details of a widely spread motif may help the identification of a workshop. Ideal examples are the signed vases, according to which any unsigned items may be classified into groups and workshops. Unfortunately, apart from the finds of Delos, such vases are very rare, while in some places –such as Miletus– they simply do not exist. Finally, a criterion for identifying a workshop is the way the stamps with the decorative motifs are combined. The knowledge acquired so far does not provide the answers to all the questions about the way the production of relief skyphoi in Asia Minor was organised. There are several pending issues, such as the importance of the workshops of Cnidus or Sardis or those in NW Asia Minor, which possibly were organised around Cyme.

It was previously believed that the centre of this production was Delos.³ However, today we know that the workshops were mainly in western Asia Minor and the so-called “Delian pottery” was actually produced in Asia Minor workshops before it was transferred to the island, from where it was exported. But the large number of Asia Minor relief skyphoi found in Delos provides rich material for comparison and helps the identification of workshops according to both signed items and decorative motifs. The comparison with items, mainly moulds, found in Ephesus showed that one of the basic production centres of the “Ionic skyphoi” of Delos was Ephesus. Other workshops represented in Delos were those of Miletus, Didyma, Labranda, Cnidus, Iassos, Smyrna, Teos, Notium, Priene, Myrina and Pergamon. The same workshops also produced lamps and middle-sized and large vases (oinochoe, lagynoi, philtra, amphoras, kraters, rhyta, etc.).

In terms of commerce, the relief skyphoi were the most successful Greek vases with relief decoration; they were spread over time and place in the greatest part of the Hellenistic world. In the 2nd c. BC the relief skyphos was the main drinking vase all over the Mediterranean. The production of relief skyphoi in Asia Minor was particularly favoured by the economic decline of Athens and its absence from the Mediterranean markets in the early 2nd c. BC. As a result, the Asia Minor relief skyphoi started to be exported to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, while they soon outsold the Attic relief skyphoi.

As regards mainland Asia Minor, commercial relations were established in the south and the southeast. Large-scale trade was conducted only in the case of the relief skyphoi manufactured at the workshops of Ionia-Ephesus, with the Roman tradesmen and buyers being the main participants through the free port of Delos. Miletus exported mainly to the east and maintained close relations with the centres of Tarsus, Antioch and Samaria. Pergamon influenced mainly the neighbouring workshops and, more specifically, those to the east. In general, the importance of the Pergamene production lies in the similarities or influences on other regions rather than in exports. Other centres maintained close relations with western Mediterranean and the Black Sea (Crimea, Olbia), where the relief skyphoi of south and central Ionia dominated.

2.1. Ephesus

Recent excavations have shown that Ephesus was one of the most important centres of production for relief skyphoi in Asia Minor.⁴ The material found fully corresponds, as regards shape, clay and decorative motifs, to the relief skyphoi of “Ionic workshops” found in Delos and dating from 166-69 BC. In order of frequency, the clay may be red-yellow, red, dark grey, grey, maroon, yellow-red, light brown or brown. The paint may be glossy or matt and its colour ranges from red to dark grey, very dark grey, red-pale, dark red, maroon, dark brown and black.

The relief skyphoi of Ephesus-Ionia come in a quite typical shape. They are mainly hemispherical with a slightly inwards projecting or straight lip and a medal on their base, which is often surrounded by one or more plastic rings offering the vase increased stability. The diameter of the lip is generally 11-12 cm, although there is divergence (from 8.2 cm the smallest to 14.3 cm the largest). The vases are generally 6-7 cm deep, but there are also deeper ones (10.4 cm the deepest) as well as shallower (4.8 cm the shallowest). The decorative motifs include floral (mainly long-stemmed flowers, vine branches, roses, lotus or acanthus leaves) and iconographic themes, where mythological representations or figures (Cupids, Victories, Dionysiac scenes), successive small leaves or stripes, big leaves, “Macedonian shields” and a net ornament dominate.

There are two Ephesian potters whose workshops stand out: Apollonius and the “Potter with the Monogram”, whose workshop must have been one of the most important workshops producing relief skyphoi in the wider Aegean towards the late 2nd c. BC. The production of that workshop is described by stereotypical floral motifs and eclecticism in the repertoire of the ornaments. Menemachus’ workshop offered the best quality. A great part of its production was found in Delos. Other less important workshops were the “Beautiful Medusas”, the workshop of the “Comedian with the Stick”, a highly original workshop, where square roses also found in Miletus are quite frequent, the workshop of the “Small Spiral Rose”, the “Grey Vases”, Athenaeus’ workshop, with a lot of surviving signed lamps of the so-called “Ephesian type”. Furthermore, the workshop (or workshops) of Philon, Ra-, My(ron?) and their imitators, which has bequeathed –along with Menemachus’ workshop– most of the signed items, with those with relief successive small leaves or stripes holding a dominant position.

The production of relief skyphoi in Ephesus increased particularly in the second half of the 2nd c. BC. It seems that Ephesus replaced Pergamon and southern Ionia-Caria in pottery production after the battle of Pydna, in 168 BC, and the ensuing redistribution of power: the old commercial power of Rhodes, which had dominated Caria, declined considerably, while Delos, as a free harbour, Athens and Rome took over. Those changes may have significantly contributed to the fact that the production of the Ephesian potters won a major part in the market.

2.2. Miletus and Didyma

The production of Miletus started in the early 2nd c. BC, but the largest quantities were manufactured in the late 2nd c. BC as well as the 1st c. BC.⁵ It is divided into nine separate groups, according to decoration, among which are the “Group of Little Eros”, the “Group of the Cane”, the “Group of the Spiral Acanthus” and the “Group of the Eleven-leaf Rose”. It seems that Miletus had workshops of both high and poor quality. Relief decoration in some of them follows a particularly individual style, which may be scarcely found in other workshops. Apart from those original Milesian works, the Syrian production, particularly of Antioch, plays a significant role. The influence of the latter on Milesian potters must have been quite strong in the course of time, as it happened with the influence from Pergamon. It is possible that the influence became apparent mainly in the production of the first half of the 2nd c. BC, when the relations between those two kingdoms were particularly close: both Eumenes II Soter (197-160/159 BC) and Antiochus II Epiphanes (175-164 BC) appear as benefactors of Miletus.

In general, it is quite difficult to distinguish between local examples, which look rather similar to Syrian or Pergamene pieces, and imports from those two centres. On the other hand, this is quite easy in the case of Ionic-Ephesian examples, whose appearance is very distinct and they clearly differ from their Milesian versions. Apart from Pergamon and Antioch of Syria, Miletus also imported relief skyphoi from Athens, while a large part of the relief skyphoi found in the city comes from the workshops of Ephesus-Ionia. Miletus also maintained commercial relations with the Black Sea. Strangely enough, the finds from the sanctuary at Didyma do not have anything in common with the production of Miletus; they do not present any internal uniformity either.

2.3. Priene

The production of Priene is absolutely harmonized as regards technique and the singular shape of the skyphoi.⁶ The decoration is arranged in successive zones divided by plastic rings, while the height of the zones increases from top to bottom. The themes of the decorative motifs are similar to the themes of other areas, such as Ephesus. The upper zones are decorated with eggs, roses and stars, pearls and small coins, palmettes, clusters of leaves, helixes and putti on chariots, dragons and dolphins. The lower part of the vase is decorated with acanthus leaves, leaves with rounded lobes, Ionic kymatia and palm leaves. Some vases are totally covered with droplets, successive semicircles and dots or a scale ornament. The only motifs not found elsewhere are a characteristic type of palmette and the sea griffins.

2.4. Myrina

The relief skyphoi of Myrina are also a completely harmonized group.⁷ As regards technique, due to a distinctive feature they have, they differ from the rest of the Asia Minor relief skyphoi: the uniform colour of the surface has been replaced by a white chalk-like slip, with noticeably applied brown bands. The clay is reddish, soft and thin. There are skyphoi in various shapes. As regards the decorative motifs, although they come from the common repertoire of the pottery of this type, their form and arrangement in the vases of Myrina are different: lacy leaves on garlands, roses scattered among the decorative themes, loutrophoroi, boukrania with ribbons, small spirals under palm leaves, Dionysiac kraters, arabesques and guilloches, dolphins and birds in the upper zone and masks at the bottom. This production is directly connected with the famous coroplastic production of the area and dates to the 2nd c. BC.

2.5. Cyme

The relief skyphoi form the biggest category of Hellenistic vases from Cyme and are a special group among Asia Minor workshops.⁸ It is an important and high standard production that played a key role in northern Ionia. Although it has several characteristics in common with the production of Myrina (birds and dolphins in the upper decorative zone, masks at the bottom and scattered roses among the decorative themes, loutrophoroi and boukrania), it is a distinct group, contrary to what has been previously supported. However, some of these characteristics can be found in other workshops as well, while the slightly outwards projecting lip is typical of most of Asia Minor centres that produced relief skyphoi except Ephesus. Additionally, there are lots of characteristics shared with the Pergamene workshops and fewer with the Ephesian or other Asia Minor workshops, such as the Milesian.

A typical characteristic of Cyme's production is the preference for birds and some floral motifs. Although this production has not been systematically studied yet, it seems that during the greatest part of the 2nd c. BC the potters of Cyme developed their own particular style of decorating relief skyphoi, which has some characteristics in common with other neighbouring Asia Minor workshops, but actually follows its own path. There are hardly any characteristics shared with other centres outside Asia Minor (Syria, Black Sea, Attica, etc.) and a lot of them may have been transferred through other, more important Asia Minor centres of production.

Cyme did not play a leading role in the production of relief skyphoi in Asia Minor, while large-scale production seems to have started later than in Pergamon. Circa 200 BC there were still some relief skyphoi in Cyme, mainly imports rather than local products. Things changed in the second quarter of the 2nd c. BC, when production reached high quality standards. According to stylistic similarities with the Pergamene production, some workshops date back to the late 2nd c. BC. The end of the production remains unknown, although it must have happened soon.

Research has identified 14 local workshops producing relief skyphoi. The clay is usually roseate to maroon, soft and thin, containing a low content of mica. The paint is quite different among workshops ranging from black to brown, red and grey of different gloss. The general shape of the vases is closer to the Pergamene rather than the Ephesian skyphoi, with the characteristic inwards projecting lip, which is extremely rare in Cyme. The mean diameter of Cyme's vases is 13-14 cm. The skyphoi with a base are common, though those without base prevail.

There are four categories of relief skyphoi: those with horizontal decorative zones, with most representative workshops being that of Paniskos, the “Schafer Workshop”, the “Workshop of Cupids”, the “Workshop of the Little Eagles” and the “Group of the Boukrania”, the skyphoi with leaves and long petals, represented by the “Workshop of Long Petals and Flowers”, the skyphoi with “Macedonian Shields” and the skyphoi of the “Workshop of Birds and the Scale Ornament”. In the first group, the composition of the rather big stamps with the decorative themes is simple and clear, while the stamps are more or less classicistic. Especially the workshop of Paniskos is strictly classicistic in style. The quality of manufacture is usually very good and that was the best period of the production of Cyme. The most typical late workshop of the particular group is that of the “Little Eagles”. Its style is micrographic and uses a lot of arbitrary synthetic motifs, while its floral motifs are rather geometrical. The “Workshop of the Long Petals and Flowers” is better and uses exquisite baroque acanthus leaves, which contradict the geometrical parts of the decoration.

Another important workshop is that of the “Birds and the Scale Ornament”. The main floral ornaments in all groups are acanthus leaves, palm leaves, long petals, acanthus palmettes, flowers of various plants and simple successive palmettes. Roses are the most usual decoration of the bottom. The middle decorative zone includes roses, vine leaves, palmettes, leaves and a scale ornament, saplings and spirals. Among the iconographic motifs the most common are the birds (mainly eagles). Dolphins are also common. Human figures are rare (Hermes, Satyrs, dancing women, Cupids). There are also various types of vases as decorative motifs as well as columns, steles, lyres, ships, boukrania, ribbons and clothes. There are no iconographic scenes at all.

2.6. Pergamon

The relief skyphoi of Pergamon differ considerably from the production of other regions, in and outside Asia Minor.⁹ The decorative motifs are arranged again in successive separate zones, while there are ornaments also found in other regions (eggs, roses, guilloches and spirals in upper zones, palm leaves, ivy, olive leaves, dolphins, masks, garlands and Putti in the intermediate zones, acanthus and lotus leaves, wide leaves, palmettes and Ionic kymatia in the lower zone, roses and masks at the bottom, etc.). On the other hand, there are also unknown motifs from other regions or known motifs in a different form: spearheads, palmettes, roses, musical instruments, masks, specially shaped kraters, skulls, altars, boars, lions, sea horses, centaurs playing the flute and dancing women. The decoration is arranged in a different way, with the lower zone of the vase being decorated with iconographic rather than floral motifs, as the case is in other regions.

Broadly speaking, this pottery is of a lower quality: the faces are tall and thin clumsy silhouettes like children’s paintings, the floral motifs are weak and skinny, far from their natural form, full of lines and dots. Already since circa 200 BC, the black-glazed relief pottery gave place to the red-glazed pottery in Pergamon, which was increasingly used and dominated until the end of the third quarter of the 2nd c. BC.

2.7. Tarsus

Relief skyphoi form only a small percentage of the Hellenistic pottery found in Tarsus.¹⁰ They are closer to the types of Antioch and Samaria rather than those of Athens, although the comparison with the material from Syrian and Palestinian sites reveals several local peculiarities and preferences. There is no evidence of a local production –no moulds have been found– and it is likely that Tarsus imported most of its relief skyphoi from neighbouring areas, while some items must have been imported from Athens. The clay of sherds from Tarsus is very thin and contains some mica. The colour ranges from dull yellow to red-yellow and orange-red. Sometimes it is grey. The paint, dark or somewhat glossy, ranges from black (rarely of good quality) to maroon and red. The shape of the vases is almost hemispherical and the lip projects outwards most of the times. The decoration usually consists of a rose at the bottom, on a main decorative zone of the vase’s body, and a narrow zone of eggs or buds under the undecorated lip. The lower part of the body’s decoration includes a cluster of leaves of different heights. Sometimes there are interposing scratches, which may form a separate frieze above, while a floral motif may replace the iconographic zone. However, there are also slight variations of this decorative pattern.

2.8. Labranda

The relief skyphoi manufactured at Labranda, with representative examples also found in Delos, are usually decorated with a calyx of leaves starting radially from a central rose at the bottom, while under the lip one or more horizontal zones of decorative motifs are separated by relief lines. Sometimes a Gorgon’s head replaces the central rose at the bottom or else the bottom remains unadorned. These vases date from the second half of the 2nd and the first half of the 1st c. BC.¹¹

3. Pottery with Applied Reliefs

The term “pottery with applied reliefs” was invented by contemporary research to describe a special production of vases with plastic decoration developed in Pergamon between 150 and 50 BC. This type of pottery is not as much widespread as relief skyphoi, but its originality is important and allows to a certain degree the restoration of metal vases of outstanding beauty, while it seems to be closely related to the arrhetine pottery. Unlike the relief skyphoi manufactured in moulds, the vases of this category were made in the potter’s wheel and were decorated with applied relief representations. The decorative motifs were actually plaques of clay made in a mould and glued on the vase with liquid clay. Similar plaques were put either inside kylikes or on the external surface of other types of vases. The outline of the decorative plaque is either continuous or interrupted following the outline of the representation. A plaque may include more than one decorative figures, although sometimes more than one decorative relief plaque is used. The technique of the mould allowed the ceaseless reproduction of the ornaments as well as various combinations of them. It is worth mentioning that the same motif could be reproduced in different sizes. The secondary ornaments were usually carved on the clay or the glaze. Apart from Pergamon, this special category of pottery appears in Ephesus.

3.1. Pergamon

The production of pottery with applied reliefs starts in Pergamon in the mid-2nd c. BC and thrives between 125 and 75 BC; it continues in the 60s BC before it stops in the early years of Augustus’ reign. This pottery is exported in low numbers to Delos between 110 and 69 BC, as well as to Candarli, Yortan Kelembe, Laodicea, Olbia, Kerch, Priene, Siphnos, Orchomenos of Arcadia, Palatiano of Macedonia and Myrmekeion. Most of the material comes from Delos and Pergamon. Although this production represents a very low percentage of the Hellenistic pottery found in Pergamon (approximately 1.33%), the rare shapes of the vases as well as the various colours of the decoration make it distinct.¹²

The majority of these vases is characterised by a pink, soft clay and a red-coral or brown, smooth and glossy paint, unlike the white-ivory and hard clay with the red-mauve paint of the so-called “Pergamene pottery”. The decorative motifs are glued quite carefully and solidly. In human and animal figures the technique of the applied relief is exclusively used, while the friezes and the ivy garlands may also be accompanied by engravings. The most common shape is the skyphos, with or without handles, in several versions and with a straight, outwards projecting oblate lip.

The tall and wide proportions of these skyphoi develop evenly and are divided into three basic types; the first two follow the Boeotian and the Attic model respectively, while the third is a local invention typical of this pottery. The height of the skyphoi ranges from 7.5 to 15 cm. Other larger shapes, common in Hellenistic pottery, are adopted later: amphoras, lagynoi, hydriai, oinochoai, jugs with relief busts on the handles, big pyxis without lids, rhyta, philtra, askoi, kraters with vertical inwards or a hollow outwards projecting lip, basins, kylikes with angular profiles, calyces, cups with flat bases, small open vases with arched bottoms standing on three applied relief shells, lamps and stands.

3.2. Decoration

Relief decoration is divided into four basic categories:

a) Floral Decoration. It included plain floral ornaments consisting of three or five leaf-shaped elements, which formed a stylised floral motif before they were combined as separate stamps. They can be clusters of ivy, vine, palm, myrtle or oak leaves. They form a frontal decoration consisting of separate identical decorative elements placed next to each other, which may look like a wreath hanging between the handles of the vase or a garland wrapped around the vase with a suspending central decorative element. Ivy dominates, rarely in combination with other plants or human figures, and forms friezes or garlands of bunches consisting of alternate leaves and corymbs of ivy, a motif typical of Pergamon, since it appears in lamps as well as in sculpture.

b) Compositions combining figures and floral motifs. Mainly a young winged Love holding a garland.

c) Motifs-symbols either arranged in large numbers at regular intervals around the vase or, as separate busts, stressing some important functional points of the vase, such as the beginning of the handles. They are mainly masks of Silinoi, phalli or other emblems. A similar decoration traditionally appears in all vases with handles as well as in lamps, though never in skyphoi. It is the most enduring type of relief decoration and is quite an assortment because it is influenced by several regions outside Pergamon, such as Attica, as well as by other kinds of art, such as toreutics. In the three other categories of relief decoration there are sporadic loans from toreutics, contrary to the established view that this type of pottery as well as relief skyphoi imitated metal vases.

d) Iconographic Themes. They are scenes including one, two or more different figures depicted in various activities or positions in a specific or completely imaginary environment. A special set includes love groups, which are the only iconographic themes combined with each other and depicting the major role of love in the symposion. There are also bacchic crews (Maenads and Bacchants, Satyrs and Silinoi) and scenes of Dionysus’ life (drunken Dionysus, sleeping Ariadne), Cupids, grotesque figures, comedians and musicians, erect Priapus, naked Hermaphrodites, Centaurs, battles, Muses and female figures in various positions, female and male deities (Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite, Hera, Apollo, Ares, Poseidon and Pan), heroes and heroines (Ganymedes, Boreas and Oreithyia, Niobids, tyrannicides), scenes of worship, warriors and sea crews.

The repertoire of the iconographic motifs includes both loans from earlier classic art and several iconographic themes unique at the time, which served as a canon for the subsequent Roman imperial iconography, the neo-Attic reliefs and the archaistic and classicistic sculpture, while it also reflects the intellectual concerns of the time. The relief ornaments display their own monumental quality, which is not to be compared with anything in pottery or coroplastic of that time, but is comparable only with the large plastic art, whose main representative in the Hellenistic period was the School of Pergamon. There are mainly Dionysiac themes, which must have had a symbolic meaning for vase users. The iconographic scenes generally belong to large thematic cycles with gods, cult rites, mythical crews and heroes, mortals, love scenes, historical events, actors and bucolic scenes. The key to their interpretation is the Dionysiac iconography.

3.3. Chronology and Use

There are three main phases in the production of this pottery: a) the birth and prime of the production (around 170-130 BC), directly connected with the sculpted decoration of the great Altar of Pergamon; it displayed an increasing variety of decorative themes and their combinations on skyphoi, b) the popularisation of production (around 130-20 BC), when the decoration was standardised and used in vases of other shapes and c) the modification of production from the years of Augustus onwards with the appearance of other pottery types, in which the reduced relief ornaments had a symbolic use.

The commencement of production coincides with the end of King Eumenes II’s reign and the beginning of Attalus II’s reign. Both kings promoted strongly the cult of Dionysus in Pergamon. Attalus II participated in Dionysus’ cult as a living hero at the side of Eumenes, who was deified as Dionysus. The building dedicated to Attalus’ cult, the Attaleion, was opposite the temple of Dionysus. The Attalists, a club intended for holding processions, mysteries and symposia in honour of the king, included 100-150 members and was also responsible for the cult of Dionysus Kathegemon. Along with other objects of ritual and practical use there are also references to skyphoi used during libations and symposia. In Pergamon there were several houses where the club members gathered. A reservoir full of items of the specific pottery production was found in one of those houses.

As soon as the Attalid dynasty declined, the production of this pottery stopped being a privilege of the courtiers and embraced the wider public. It is the period when royal workshops closed down. In the second quarter of the 1st c. BC large-scale popular festivals including the revival of the king’s cult were held at the city’s theatre. This pottery must have been used by the religious club of the Attalists for devotional reasons in honour of the royal house of the Attalids and the gods of Pergamon. The iconographic themes specially selected from the repertoire of the Hellenistic art developed in the Mediterranean served this purpose. In fact they were vases used in ceremonial libations and symposia honoring the living or deceased king. The sacred cult of the latter had the form of mystic ceremonies incorporated into the official cult of Dionysus. Relevant information is also provided by written sources. Consequently, the emphasis iconography gives on afterlife is of particular importance.

Regardless of the use of those vases, which certainly influenced the selection of decorative motifs, iconography had also a moral importance at several levels, which are not easy to identify accurately. The relief ornaments provide examples of life, love and salvation in order to depict the fine reputation of the royal house. They reflect works of art whose originals or copies were in Pergamon and are reminiscent of mythological events connected with the history of the city. However, everything is at the service of the gods who take part in these scenes. The citizens, dressed as Maenads and Satyrs, participate in these crews as well as in the ceremonial and devotional procedures.

Until the Imperial years the various religious clubs of the city held wine festivals in which, apart from the fact that the participants were disguised, everybody, whether rich or poor, young or old, participated for several days. Those festivals are reflected in the relief decorative themes as well as in the vases with the particular representations manufactured in order to be used during the festivals by the religious clubs.

3.4. Ephesus

A particularly interesting category of pottery with applied reliefs includes the kylikes with relief internal medals, which, judging from the clay, must have been manufactured in Ephesus.¹³ The relief decorative heads of Satyrs or Maenads or the figures of Cupids belong to the Dionysiac cycle and indicate that the kylikes were used in festivals honouring Dionysus. Similar decorative motifs can be found in the Hellenistic and Roman period on numerous items. Apart from the kylikes with internal relief decoration, there were also oinochoe or situlae whose vertical handles were decorated with applied relief figures.

The production of vases with relief decoration, mainly kylikes, in Ephesus is also evidenced by the excavated moulds used for the manufacture of relief decorative motifs, such as animal heads decorating handles or female busts on compass covers. A category of vases with external relief decoration was imported from Pergamon, although it might have been imitated by Ephesus. There were also vases with a flask shaped like a lion’s head as well as black glossy kylikes with legs shaped like shells – a category of vases also manufactured in Ephesus, as evidenced by the clay and the form of the shells.

4. Relief Glazed Pottery

The relief glazed (with the use of lead) pottery started to be produced in the mid-1st c. BC at least at two Asia Minor workshops in Tarsus and possibly in Smyrna.¹⁴ Shortly later, towards the late 1st c. BC, the production was continued by a third workshop, probably in SW Asia Minor. Perhaps there were more workshops not identified yet. The first examples of relief, glazed pottery imitate faithfully silver vases (skyphoi, kantharoi and jugs). Later on, the particularities of pottery production were established, while there are a lot of similarities with categories of the late Hellenistic Asia Minor pottery, such as the Pergamene pottery with applied reliefs and various groups of relief skyphoi.

Decoration includes floral, iconographic and abstract motifs. What is more, the iconographic themes follow the standards of Late Hellenistic-Early Imperial items made from clay and metal, glass and semi-precious stones. As regards abstract motifs, there is adherence to the Hellenistic relief skyphoi, while floral themes rather follow the standards of metal vases.

The most important centre of production for this pottery was Tarsus. The production continued there until the late 1st c. AD, but its main phase was the first half of the century. The earliest examples, dating even from the 1st c. BC, are of high quality and must have been manufactured by separate creators. The quite complicated and often colourful decoration is applied before the glaze. The iconographic representations are closely related with each other and spread uniformly all over the external surface of the vase. Later on the decoration was made using a mould and very often was interrupted by the bottom ring, the lip and the handles. As a final point, the iconographic representations lost their cohesion.

The earliest examples are sold mostly in the eastern Mediterranean, while the latest are exported to both the eastern and the western Mediterranean as far as the Atlantic, the Alps and the Low Rhine. In the first half of the 1st c. AD the mass production of Tarsus was imitated in northern Italy. As it happened in Tarsus, the top quality early products of Smyrna were succeeded by other, less carefully manufactured items. As regards the shapes and decoration, the early examples are closely related to the Pergamene items with applied reliefs. The relief parts of the later examples are manufactured in moulds, on which additional reliefs of different colour are applied.

Smyrna exports its products throughout the production, that is, from the mid-1st c. BC to the years of Tiberius and Claudius, to mainland Greece, sporadically to the eastern Mediterranean and mainly to the Black Sea, as the only workshop of glazed relief pottery. The third centre of production, known as the “workshop of western Asia Minor”, has not been identified yet, but it must have been closely connected to that of Smyrna. Its production starts towards the late 1st c or the early 1st c. AD. The quality of the vases is poorer than those of other workshops, while they are all decorated in a mould. They are mainly decorated with scale ornaments or lotus and acanthus leaves, in line with relief skyphoi, or with branches of various plants. Iconographic themes are very rare. These vases probably were not exported outside Asia Minor.