Mysterious names of ancient ceramics

As I study ancient history I am always intrigued by the names that have been given to various ceramic vessels that have been recovered from archaeological sites.  Sometimes, the names of objects can be found in ancient sources.  Sometimes the names are given to objects by archaeologists because they resemble other fixtures that have been previously named.  In my translation of the Pompeianarum Antiquitatum Historia I have been a bit flustered by some of the names given objects by 18th and 19th century archaeologists because these names have not carried through to the 21st century or the objects have acquired a more common name since then. So, without accompanying illustrations, I have no idea what the artifacts actually look like. I've purchased texts purporting to be dictionaries of ancient ceramics but even they do not contain the terms I have found.

Anyway, although I have photographed hundreds of Greek ceramics in museums around the world, this morning while searching the Royal Ontario Museum's online database, I encountered the name exaleiptron for the first time. 

According to the Getty Museum, an exaleiptron, takes its name from the Greek word meaning "to anoint." The vase once held scented oil, and a sharply inward-curving lip prevented the precious liquid from spilling. Containers of this type were typically made of clay, but some examples were carved from marble as luxury items for wealthy women. They were used in the home and also deposited in graves.

An Oxford description explains that other names such as kothon or plemochoe are also used to describe these vessels. When I looked up "kothon" I discovered in antiquity it refered to an artificially created harbor basin, especially the circular port facilities of Carthage. During the Third Punic War, a decisive tactic used by the Romans included the sealing off of the "Kothon" with an underwater dam.

I also learned that in the sixth century BCE some exaleiptra (plural) had three feet which may explain why I had never seen the word before as I have actually photographed such vessels but they were referred to by the museums as tripods.  Later examples were designed with a high splaying foot.  Oxford scholars point out that these vessels are often depicted on white-ground lekythoi being carried by women approaching a grave.

This example of an exaleiptron I found at the Royal Ontario Museum is a 6th century BCE Etrusco-Corinthian black-figured wheel-thrown earthenware vessel decorated with a frieze of birds from the Archaic Etruscan period dated to between 600-580 BCE.  It has a subtle "foot" and appears to have been suspended, as indicated by the perforations of the three scroll-like attachments.

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The worship of Roma and the Imperial cult

In ancient Roman religion, Roma was a female deity who personified the city of Rome and more broadly, the Roman state. She embodied Rome in complex ways and symbolized the ideal woman in society. Roman political and religious ideas were portrayed through Roma in different forms of media such as coins, sculptures and designs on architecture. In Roman art and coinage, she was usually depicted with a military helmet, and often other military equipment, although in the Greek-speaking east she more often wore a mural crown, signifying Rome's status as a loyal protector of Hellenic city-states.  

After the assassination of Julius Caesar, his deification, and the development of the imperial cult, worship of such an individual posed a conflict with Republican values, so deified persons were worshiped jointly with Roma. In provincial Africa, temples to Roma and Augustus have been found at Leptis Magna and Mactar.  Tiberius built a temple to Roma and Augustus in Ostia. A total of six such temples have been documented on the Italian peninsula. 

In Lucan's poem, Pharsalia, the poet identifies Roma and the Res Publica with the revered Roman matrona who Julius Caesar repudiates, ending with his embrace of a mistress in Egypt.

Image: Goddess Roma depicted with crested helmet, marble, from Italy 2nd century CE at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto courtesy of the museum.

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