A Daunian pottery olpe. The vessel has a wide strap handle and is decorated with bands of black and umber, a central ladder-pattern band and a series of arcs towards the slightly rounded base.
 
South Italian Greek sub-geometric period: Circa 5th-4th Century B.C.
 
Very Fine condition overall: a chip to the edge of the rim made in antiquity.
Height 16.7 cms (6.6 ins)
 
Provenance: Kuizenga collection, the Netherlands; jar acquired in Dortmund 6th December 1986.
 
Compare: F. Tine Bertocchi: Le necropole daunie di Ascoli Satriano e Arpi (Genova 1985) p.140/8. 
 
The Daunians were a tribe inhabiting northern Apulia (in southern Italy) in classical antiquity. Wheel-thrown pottery was practiced in the Italian peninsula only in Apulia until the Greeks returned around 760 BC to reintroduce their pottery techniques to the rest of Italy. The Daunians were famed for their beautiful geometric pottery, which was decorated in both polychrome and bichrome palettes.