Komast cups from the excavations on berezan island: the distribution of attic pottery in the northern black sea area

Drinking vessels of almost all the existing groups form an essential part of the attic black-figure pottery yielded by the excavations on berezan island. Seventeen fragments, found at different times (from the excavation by e. Schtern in 1909 to those of s. Soloviev in 1990), are of komast cups, one of the earliest groups of attic drinking cups with sufficient corinthian influence. Except for these, the only fragment of a komast cup in northern black sea area was found at panticapaeum – very small, rather later, and attributed to the falmouth painter.

Siana cups occur in other parts of the area more frequently, though still rarer than on berezan: several fragments were found in olbia, panticapaeum and nymphaeum. At the time of excavation, only one of the 17 fragments was identified as a komast cup and published with attribution. Following the classification of komast cups and their shapes and painters which h.a.g. Brijder developed, we can attribute four of the 17 to the painter of copenhagen 103, two to the painter of new york 22.139.22, ten to the ky painter, and one to the falmouth painter, shedding more light on the distribution of komast cups in the 6th century bc with this data from the northern black sea.

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