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Perfume bottle (aryballos)

Limiting the supply of oxygen in the kiln during firing has given this pot its shiny black surface. This bucchero technique was perfected by the Etruscans, and it is an Etruscan name, ‘Larthai’, perhaps the bottle’s owner, that is inscribed on the pot. But the shape is Greek, copying Corinthian pots of similar date like those in Case 2, and the letter forms derive from those used in early Greek writing. The vase is a good example of the way the Etruscans adopted elements of Greek culture and adapted them for their own use.

Production place: Etruria, Italy
Date: around  700–600 BC
Fired Clay, bucchero technique
Given by Lamb, Winifred

Object Number: GR.4.1929

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