Vase (amphora)

This amphora marks the tomb of an important woman in the ancient city. The body shows a ‘prothesis’ scene: the body of the deceased is displayed, surrounded by men and women holding their hands to their heads in mourning. In a style invented by the painter known as the ‘Dipylon Master’, the figures are characterised by a geometric aesthetic: circular head, nose drawn with a line, triangular bust, and trapezoidal arms extending from a triangular body. This amphora is part of a group of funerary vases discovered in Athens in the 19th century and dated to the second half of the 8th century BCE. They were used to mark out burial sites: amphorae for women, kraters for men. They revive complex scenes that had disappeared following the fall of the Mycenaean kingdoms, around 1200 BCE.