Abstract
In 2016, during the excavations of the Roman citadel in Olbia, a large fragment of a fi gured red-glazed fl ask was found, representing the bust of a young African. The fl ask is probably dated to the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD. The center of its production is uncertain, but it is unlikely that it was made in an African workshop, especially considering the almost total absence of African ceramic imports in the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD in Olbia, Chersonesos and the Bosporus. Most likely, like most of the shaped vessels recorded in the Northern Black Sea region, the fl ask was made in one of the Asia Minor workshops. There is no reason to relate its fi nding with the presence of Roman troops in Olbia. It seems most likely, that this obviously imported fl ask arrived to the Bug River basin as a result of trade ties.
Keywords
Olbia Pontica, Roman pottery, fl asks, depictions of Africans
Beardsley, G.H. 1929: The Negro in Greek and Roman Civilization. A Study of the Ethiopian Type. Baltimore–London.
Biers, R. 1973: An Attic Head Vase. MVSE. Annual of the Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri-Columbia 7, 17–20.
Bilimovich, Z. 1967: Bronzovyy fi gurnyy sosud v vide golovy negra [Bronze plastic vessel in the form of Negro’s head]. Soobshcheniya Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha [Proceedings of the State Hermitage] XXVIII, 37–38.
Braithwaite, G. 1984: Romano-British Face Pots and Head Pots. Britannia. XV, 99–131.
Braithwaite: G. 2007: Faces from the Past: A Study of Roman Face Pots from Italy and the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire. (BAR IS 1651). Oxford.
Buyskikh, S.B. 1991: Fortifi katsiya ol’viyskogo gosudarstva (pervye veka nashey ery) [Fortifi cation of Olbian State (fi rst centuries AD)]. Kiev.
Buyskikh, S.B. 2006: Figurnye sosudy dionisiyskogo kruga iz Zolotogo Mysa [Plastic vessels of Dyonysian circle from Zolotoy Mys]. In: D.V. Zhuravlev (ed.), Severnoe Prichernomor’e v epokhu antichnosti i srednevekov’ya. Pamyati N.P. Sorokinoy [The Northern Black Sea Region in the Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In memory of N.P. Sorokina]. (Transactions of the State Historical Museum. 159). Moscow, 206–230.
Cat. Moscow. 2013 – D. Zhuravlev, K. Firsov (eds.), Frakiyskoe zoloto iz Bolgarii. Ozhivshie legendy. Katalog vystavki v Gosydarstvennom Istoricheskom muzee [Thracian Gold from Bulgaria. The Legends became alive. Exhibition Catalogue in the State Historical Museum]. Moscow.
Cat. Odessa 1983 – G.A. Dzis-Rayko (ed.), Odesskiy archaeologicheskiy muzei AN USSR [Odessa Archaeological Museum of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences]. Kiev.
Coarelli, F. 1961: Novi elementi per la cronologia di Begram: cinque recipient bronzei in forma di buste. Archaeologica Classica XIII, 168–179.
Cramer, M. 1908: Griechische Altertümer südrussischen Fundorts aus dem Besitze des Herrn A. Vogell, Karlsruhe. Kassel.
Croissante, F. 1973: Collection Paul Canellopoulos (IV). Vases plastiques attiques en forme de têtes humanines. BCH 97, 205–225.
Desanges, J. 1976: The Iconography of the Black in Ancient North Africa. In: J. Vercoutter, J. Leclant, F.M. Snowden, J. Desanges J. (eds.), The Image of the Black in Western Art. I. From the Pharaohs to the fall of the Roman Empire. Lausanne.
Ducat, J. 1966: Les vases plastiques rhodiens archaïques en terre cuite. Paris.
Dusenbery, E.B. 1998: Samothrace. The Necropolis. Catalogues of Objects by Categories. Princeton.
Farmakovskiy, B.V. 1908: Raskopki v Ol’vii [Excavations in Olbia]. Otchety Arkheologicheskoy Komissii za 1905 g. [Reports of the Archaeological Commission in 1905]. Saint Petersburg, 1–15.
Farmakovskiy, B.V. 1909: Raskopki v Ol’vii [Excavations in Olbia]. Otchety Arkheologicheskoy Komissii za 1906 g. [Reports of the Archaeological Commission in 1906]. Saint Petersburg, 1–50.
Farmakovskiy, B.V. 1916: Terrakotovyi sosud v forme golovy Gerakla iz Pantikapeya (Kerchi) [Terracotta vessel in the form of Heracles’ head from Pantikapaion (Kerch)]. In: Sbornik statey v chest’ grafi ni P.S. Uvarovoy [Collection of papers in honor of the Countess P.S. Uvarova]. Moscow, 311–327.
Farmakovskiy, B.V. 1926: Otchet o raskopkakh v Olvii v 1924 g. [Report on the excavations in Olbia in 1924]. Soobscheniya Gosudarstvennoy Akademii Istorii Material’noy Kul’tury [Proceedings of the State Academy for History of Material Culture]. Vol. 1, 143–163.
Fontana, S. 1995: Tradizione artigianale e raffi gurazione di tipi atnici nei balsamari confi gurati di produzione africana (III–IV sec. D.C.). Quaderni di archeologia della Libya. 17, 83–91.
Fremersdorf, F. 1961: Römisches Geformtes Glas in Köln (Die Denkmäler des römischen Köln. Bd. VI). Köln.
Gabler D., Márton A. 2008. Römische Kopfgefässe und eine Wienkanne mit Kopfmündung im Museum der Bildenden Künste von Budapest. RCRF Acta. 40. Bonn, 163–172.
Gertsiger, D.S. 1976: Chetyre fi gurnykh sosuda iz Ol’vii [Four plastic vessels from Olbia]. In: N.I. Sokolskiy et al. (eds.), Khudozhestvennaya kul’tura i arkheologiya antichnogo mira. Sbornik pamyati B.V. Farmakovskogo [Artistic culture and archaeology of the Classical world. Collection in memory of B.V. Farmakovskiy]. Moscow. 84–93
Gertsiger, D.S. 1981: Ob odnom fi gurnom sosude iz Pantikapeya [On one plastic vessel from Pantikapaion]. Soobshcheniya Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha [Proceedings of the State Hermitage] XLVI, 43–44.
Goessler, P. 1928: Antike Büstengefässe aus Metal. In: Antike Plastik. Walther Amelung zum Sechzigsten Geburtstag. Berlin–Leipzig, 75–86.
Gorbunova, K.S. 1960: Figurnyi kanfar vtoroy chetverti V v. do n.e. [Plastic kantharos of the second quarter of the 5th century BC]. Soobshcheniya Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha [Proceedings of the State Hermitage]. XVIII, 45–47.
Gorbunova, K.S. 1962: Atticheskie vasy v forme chelovecheskikh golov v sobranii Ermitazha [Attic vases in the form of human heads in the collection of the Hermitage]. Trudy Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha [Transactions of the State Hermitage] VII, 28–45.
Greifenhagen, A. 1967: Zwei Kopfgefäße: Odysseus und Achilleus. Gymnasium 4, 532–534.
Hausmann, U. 1962: Hellenistische Neger. AM 77, 255–281.
Herdejürgen, H. 1989: Ostgriechische Büstengefäße – Bemerkungen zur Chronologie. In: H.U. Cain, H. Gabelmann. D. Salzmann (Hrsg.), Festschrift für Nikolaus Himmelmann: Beiträge zur Ikonographie und Hermeneutik. Beihefte der Bonner Jahrbücher. Bd. 47. Mainz, 71–77.
Johnson, B.L. 1970: A Glazed Head of a Girl. MVSE. Annual of the Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri-Columbia 4, 39–42.
Karageorghis, V. 1988: Blacks in Ancient Cypriot Art. Houston.
Khmelevskiy, D.N. 2016: Issledovaniya severnoy oboronitel’noy linii Rimskoy tsitadeli Olvii v 2005–2015 gg. [Investigation of the northern defensive line of the Roman citadel of Olbia in 2005–2015]. Starodavne Prichernomor’e [The Ancient Black Sea Region]. Vol. ХI. Odessa, 555–561.
Klenina, E.Yu., Soznik, V.V. 2004: Keramicheskie sosudy II–III vv. n.e. iz usad’by “Bliznetsy” (Khora Khersonesa Tavricheskogo) [Ceramic vessels from the farm “Bliznetsy”] (Chora of Tauric Chersonesos). Poznań.
Kostromichev, D.A. 2011: Rimskoe voennoe prisutstvie v Khersonese v nachale 1 – pervoy polovine V vv. (po dannym arkheologii) [Roman military presence in Chersonesos in the early 1st – 5th century AD (on the archaeological data)]. Stratum plus 4, 15–164.
Kryzhitskiy, S.D. 1985: Ol’viya. Istoriografi cheskoe issledovanie architecturno-stroitel’nykh kompleksov [Olbia. Historiographic investigation of architecture-building contexts]. Kiev.
Kryzhitskiy, S.D., Khmelevskiy, D.N. 2008: K voprosy o komplekse krepostnykh vorot Rimskoi tsitadeli v Ol’vii [On the issue on fortress gate of the Roman citadel in Olbia]. In: V.N. Zinko (ed.), Bospor Kimmeriyskiy i varvarskiy mir v period antichnosti isrednevekov’ya. Militaria [The Cimmerian Bosporus and barbarian world in the Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Militaria]. (IX Bosporskie Chteniya [Bosporan Readings]). Kerch, 147–153.
Kryzhitskiy, S.D., Khmelevskiy D.N. 2013: Dosledovaniya severnoy oboronitel’noy linii Rimskoy tsitadeli Ol’vii v 2005–2011 (predvaritel’nye itogi) [Investigations of the northern defensive line of the Roman citadel in Olbia in 2005–2009]. In: Materiali III mizhnarodnoy naukovo-praktichnoy konferentsii “Arkasivs’ki chitannya”. [Proceedings of the III International theoretical and practical conference “Arkasiv Readings”. Sukhomlinsky Nikolayev National University]. Nikolayev, 56–60.
Kunina, N. 1997: Ancient Glass in the Hermitage Collection. Saint Petersburg.
Kuzmanov. G. 1992: Antichny lampi. Kollektsiya na Natsionalny archeologicheski muzey [Ancient Lamps. Collection of the National Archaeological Museum]. Sofi a.
La Baume, P., Salomonson, J.W. 1976: Römische Kleinkunst. Sammlung Karl Löffl er. (Wissenschaftliche Kataloge des Römisch-Germanischen Museums Köln. Bd. III). Köln.
Leclant, J. 1976: Egypt, Land of Africa, in the Greko-Roman Period. In: J. Vercoutter, J. Leclant, F.M. Snowden, J. Desanges, The Image of the Black in Western Art. I. From the Pharaohs to the fall of the Roman Empire. Lausanne, 269–285.
Majewski, K. 1963: Brazowe balsamaria antropomorfi czne w cesarstwie Rzymskim. Archeologia. XIV. Wrocław–Warszawa–Kraków, 95–126.
Mandel, U. 1988: Kleinasiatische reliefkeramik der mittleren Kaiserzeit: Die «Oinophorengruppe » und Verwandtes. (Pergamenische Forschungen. Bd. 5). Berlin–New York.
Marti, V. 1996: De l´usage des „balsamaries“ antropomorphes en bronze. MEFRA 108.2, 979– 1000.
Maximova, M.I. 1927: Les vases plastiques dens l´antiques (époque archaïque). Paris.
Mitova-Dzhonova, D. 1972: Glineny urny s izobrazheniem choveshko litse ot Mesia [Clay urns with a depiction of human face from Moesia]. Izvestiya na Archaeologicheskiya Institut XXXIII, 203–211.
Nenova-Merdzhanova, R. 1994: Sdove s formata na choveshki ili antropomorfen byust ot rimskite provintsii Miziya i Trakiya. Archaeologiya. Sofi a, 1–5.
Nicolić, S., Raičković, A. 2008: Prosopomorphic Vessels from Moesia Superior. Starinar. Nova serija. LVIII. Beograd [2009], 135–153.
Parlasca, K. 1986: Ein Büstengefäß in Damaskus. Zur kleinasiatischen Bleiglasurkeramik, in: E. Böhr, W. Martini (Hrsg.), Studien zur Mythologie und Vasenmalerei. Konrad Schauenburg zum 65. Geburtstag am 16 April 1986. Mainz, 209–212.
Price, J. 1974: A Roman mould-blown negro-head glass beaker from London. The Antiquaries Journal LIV, 291–292.
Puzdrovskiy, A.E. 2012: Pogrebenie s fi gurnym krasnolakovym sosudom iz Ust’-Al’minskogo nekropolya [Burial with a plastic red-glazed vessel from the Ust’-Alma necropolis]. In: D. Zhuavlev. K. Firsof (eds.), Evrasia v skifo-sarmatskoe vremya. Pamyati Iriny Ivanovny Guschinoy [Eurasia during the Scythian-Sarmatian time. In memory of Irina Ivanovna Gushchina]. (Transactions of the State Historical Museum. 191). Moscow, 201–207.
Reeder Williams, E. 1978: Figurine Vases from the Athenian Agora. Hesperia 47, 356–401.
Ricci, A. 1985: Ceramica a pareti sottili. In: Atlante delle forme ceramiche. II. Ceramica fi ne Romana nel Bacino Mediterraneo (tardo ellenismo e primo impero. (Enciclopedia dell’arte antica, classica e orientale). Roma, 231–356.
Richter, I. 1967: Das Kopfgefäss. Zur Typologie einer Gefäßform. Magister-Arbeit. Philosophische Fakultät der Universität zu Köln. Köln.
Salomonson, J.W. 1968: Études sur la céramique romaine D’Afrique. Sigillée claire et céramique commune de Henchir el Ouiba (Raqqada) en Tunisie Centrale. BABesch 43, 80–145.
Salomonson, J.W. 1979: Kleinasiatische Tonschalen mit Reliefverzierung. Bemerkungen zu einem Fragment der „Oinophorengattung“ in der Universitätssammlung in Utrecht. BABesch 54, 117–137.
Salomonson, J.W. 1980: Der Trunkenbold und die Trunkene Alte. Untersuchungen zur Herkunft, Bedeutung und Wanderung einigen plastischer Gefässtypen der römischen Kaiserzeit. BABesch 55.1, 65–135.
Schlotzhauer, U. 2006: Ostgriechische koroplastisch gestaltete Gesichts- und Kopfgefäße aus milesischen Werkstätten. In: R. Biering, V. Brinkmann, U. Schlotzhauer, B.F. Weber (Hrsg.), Maiandros. Festschrift für Volkmar von Graeve. München, 229–256.
Snowden, F.M. 1976: Iconographical Evidence on the Black Populations in the Greco-Roman Antiquity. In: J. Vercoutter, J. Leclant, F.M. Snowden, J. Desanges. The Image of the Black in Western Art. I. From the Pharaohs to the fall of the Roman Empire. Lausanne, 133–245.
Sorokina, N.P. 1968: Steklyannyy fi gurnyy sosud iz Kep [Glass plastic vessel from Kepoi]. Sovetskaya arkheologiya [Soviet Archaeology] 4, 181–189.
Sorokina, N.P. 1997: Religiya i koroplastika v antichnosti (fi gurnye sosudy iz sobraniya GIM) [Religion and terracotta in antiquity (plastic vessels in the State Historical Museum)]. (Transactions of the State Historical Museum. 91). Moscow.
Swan, V. G. 1992: Legio VI and its Men: African Legionaries in Britain. Journal of Roman Pottery Studies 5, 1–33.
Vocano, von, O. 1976: Zur Chronologie der rhodischen Büstenvasen. Bonner Jahrbücher. 1976, 33–43.
Walter-Karydi, E. 1985: Die Themen des ostionischen fi gürlichen Salbgefässe. Münchener Jahrbuch der bildenen Kunst. XXXVI. München, 7–16.
Yon, M. 1985: Portraits Lagides a Chypre. Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus. Nicosia, 242–247.
Zhuravlev, D.V. 2017: Knidskiy import rel’efnoy keramiki v Severnoe Prichernomor’e v rimskoe vremya [Cnidian import of Relief Ware in the Northern Black Sea Region in the Roman period]. In: V.N. Zinko, E.A. Zinko (eds.), Bospor Kimmeriyskiy i varvarskiy mir v period antichnostii srednevekov’ya. Torgovlya: puti–tovary–otnosheniya: materialy mezhdunarodnoy nauchnoy konferentsii. (XVIII Bosporskie chteniya [Bosporan Readings]). Simferopol–Kerch, 116–126.
Zhuravlev, D.V., Bykovskaya, N.V., Zheltikova, A.L. Svetil’niki vtoroy poloviny III v. do n.e. – IV v. n.e.: importnye ellinisticheskie svetil’niki. Bosporskie svetil’niki ellinisticheskogo i rimskogo vremeni [Lamps of the second half of the 3rd century BC – 4th century AD.: Imported Hellenistic Lamps. Bosporan Lamps of the Hellenistic and Roman Period]. (Iz sobraniya Kerchenskogo istorico-kul’turnogo zapovednika. Kollektsia svetil’nikov) [From the Collection of Kerch History and Culture Preserve. Collection of Lamps. Vol. II]. Kiev.