This volume of the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (CVA) series, published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, is dedicated to pottery vessels of the Cypriot Bronze and Iron Ages as well as to Attic Geometric and Proto-Attic ceramics in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna (KHM). The book is the sixth CVA volume of the KHM and the seventh in the Austrian CVA series. The scope of the volume is clearly presented in the introduction (pp. 7–10). At first sight, the combined presentation of Cypriot and Attic pottery may look like an awkward decision, but the careful treatment of the evidence, its impeccable arrangement and the quality of documentation show that this is not the case. The introduction is followed by an extensive list of bibliographic abbreviations that are regularly used in the book (pp. 11–17). Since this is a valuable research tool, it would have been useful to include a few more important publications that are relevant to the pottery discussed (e.g. A. Georgiadou, BCH 138 [2014], 361–85; V. Karageorghis and E. Raptou, Necropoleis at Palaepaphos from the End of the Late Bronze Age to the Cypro-Archaic Period [2014]). Worthy of notice is the short chart of Cypriot absolute chronology (in German) followed by the cultural/stylistic phases of Cypriot (in English) and Attic pottery (in German), although the last two are not accompanied by their corresponding absolute chronologies (pp. 17–18). The final introductory pages (pp. 18–19) provide a full list of other abbreviations used, including Cypriot wares, findspots of the 1927–1931 Swedish Cyprus Expedition and museums cited for comparative material. All vases are documented through drawings based on 3D laser scanning and through colour photographs of excellent quality.
The two main groups of pottery, Cypriot and Attic, are clearly distinguished in the volume. Most space is devoted to the much larger Cypriot pottery collection (pls 1–79, figs 1–35, pp. 21–88) and less to the Attic vases (pls 80–117, figs 36–43, pp. 89–129). Worthy of notice is the authors’ decision to treat Cypriot Black-on-Red products, that comprise almost 25% of the total corpus, in a separate section (pls 60–76, figs 28–34, pp. 69–83), due to the homogeneous features of the group.
As is usually the norm for CVA publications, pottery is arranged chronologically, but also, especially in the case of Cypriot ceramics, stylistically, with products of the same ware grouped and discussed together. Each entry is followed by typological parallels, sought both in relevant bibliography (including other CVA volumes and museum catalogues) and in online museum databases, for example the Carlotta database of the Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm (http://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-mhm/web). An equally meticulous treatment with numerous comparanda, bibliographic references and extensive comments on stylistic and typological associations is used for Attic pottery, even though its typological and chronological range is more restricted. The discussion of Attic vessels is accompanied by a list of geometric and figurative decorative patterns (pp. 137–8, VII), and in one case by the association of an amphora fragment with the work of a specific vase-painter (p. 137, VI).
The volume is the continuation and completion of the KHM CVA vol. 4, which was published in 1984 by A. Bernhard-Walcher. The latter included the Cypriot Bronze Age pottery in the collections of the KHM, ranging from Early Cypriot II to Late Cypriot III, c. 2000–1050 bc. With the current volume, the KHM's Cypriot Iron Age pottery is presented in its entirety (pls 6–77, figs 4–34, pp. 27–85), alongside nine Bronze Age Cypriot vessels that were not included in KHM CVA 4 (pls 1–5, figs 1–3, pp. 21–6) and a cluster of seven vases dating from the Cypro-Classical to the Roman period (pls 78–9, fig. 35, pp. 86–8). Although the majority of the vases discussed are of Cypro-Geometric and Cypro-Archaic typology, the broad chronological spectrum of Cypriot pottery that ranges from Middle Cypriot III to the Roman era, c. from the seventeenth century bc to second–third century ad, provides a good overview of Cypriot pottery production. Even though not all types and periods are represented in equal numbers, when viewed alongside KHM CVA 4, the volume considered here is a valuable tool for anyone interested in the pottery of ancient Cyprus and confirms the importance of the Cypriot pottery collection of the KHM in Vienna. The latter also includes types that appear less frequently in the repertoire of museum collections, such as the Proto-White Painted askoi (pls 3–5, V 1077, V 1447, V 1448, IV 1536). Attic pottery on the other hand forms a more coherent group as it includes products of Sub-Protogeometric, Geometric and Proto-Attic styles, covering the period between the mid tenth and early seventh centuries bc.
The acquisition history of the KHM Cypriot collections, which was presented in the preface of the Bernhard-Walcher CVA volume and was discussed again in 2016 by Lang-Auinger (‘Die Sammlung eisenzeitlicher zyprischer Gefäße im Kunsthistorischen Museum in Wien’, in F.M. Müller [ed.], Graben, Entdecken, Sammeln. Laienforscher in der Geschichte der Archäologie Österreichs, pp. 205–16), is treated here anew (pp. 7–8). Although most Cypriot vases were purchased or acquired by the prehistoric collection of the ‘Naturhistorisches Museum’ and the ‘Österreichisches Museum’, today known as Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK), their origin is linked to some eminent figures associated with Cypriot antiquities, archaeologists, excavators and collectors, namely Luigi Palma di Cesnola, Georg von Millosicz, Max Ohnefalsch-Richter and Zeno Demetrios Pierides (Lang-Auinger 2016, p. 213; see also S. Rogge, ‘Die Entwicklung der archäologischen Erforschung Zyperns im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert’, in S.G. Schmid and S.G. Horacek [edd.], Max Ohnefalsch-Richter (1850–1917) und die Archäologie Zyperns [2018], pp. 3–29). The acquisition by the KHM of the Attic vases, on the other hand, is linked primarily to the presence in Attica in the 1870s of Alexander Conze, Professor of archaeology at the University of Vienna and a specialist on early Greek vase painting (pp. 7–8). Acquisitions of Attic pottery continued in the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, the most recent one among the vases published being a Proto-Attic stemmed vessel donated to the KHM by Gladys Friedinger-Prantner in 1969 (pls 116–17, figs 1–4, IV 4444). The complete list of antiquity dealers, collectors and intermediaries associated with the pottery presented in the volume (pp. 135–7) gives a concise overview of the acquisition biographies of most vases.
Like many other museum collections built over a long period of time, a large part of the vases in the volume is unprovenanced (pp. 136–7). Cypriot vessels display one main exception to this rule, as a substantial percentage originate at Idalion, where Luigi Palma di Cesnola had dug extensively. Some Cypriot vases, also from Idalion, were purchased by the KHM from the heirs of Georg von Millosicz, who had probably bought them directly from Cesnola (Lang-Auinger 2016, p. 210). Other findspots are less common, as in the case of a Middle Cypriot III zoomorphic askos from Ayia Paraskevi (pl. 1, figs 1–5, IV 4429), two Proto-White painted askoid vessels from Lapithos (pl. 3, figs 5–7, V 1447 and pl. 4, figs 1–6, V1448) and one Bichrome V juglet from Kition, which was purchased by Max Ohnefalsch-Richter (pl. 42, figs 1–9, IV 3873). Non-Cypriot findspots for the KHM Cypriot vessels are exceptional, for example a small Black-on-Red III (V) juglet from Ialysos on Rhodes (pl. 76, figs 5–8, IV 1656). Provenance is more straightforward in the case of Attic pottery, with the few provenanced examples coming from Plateia Eleutherias in the outer Kerameikos area (pl. 97, figs 1–3, pl. 100, figs 1–4, pls 109–10, figs 1–3, pl. 113, figs 1–6), where Ioannis Palaiologos, a Greek art dealer involved in the sale of antiquities, conducted private excavations in the early 1870s (Y. Galanakis, ABSA 106 [2011], 176–82). Also exceptional in terms of its provenance is a small Late Protogeometric lekythos from Troia, probably of east Greek origin (pl. 82, figs 1–6, IV 3451), which Karl von Scherzer, the Austrian explorer, diplomat and natural scientist, bought at Smyrna in 1874 (p. 8).
As usually happens with non-English publications of Cypriot pottery, the volume has to address the tricky conundrum of how to combine English terminology, that dominates the typological systems of Cypriot pottery, with local/non-English archaeological parlance. Although German terms are used for the names of Cypriot vases (e.g. ‘Schale’ for cup or bowl, ‘Krug’ or ‘Kanne’ for jug, ‘Kleeblattkanne’ for trefoil-lipped jug and ‘Kännchen’ for juglet), English terms are used in all cases for the assessment of pottery wares, although German is again used for chronological associations next to each type of ware (e.g. Bichrome I, Zyprisch-geometrisch I). This sensible way of dealing with the issue of terminology is explained in the introduction (p. 8). For Attic pottery the ‘classic’ terms are used instead, such as lekythos, oinochoe, kalathos etc.
Although aware of the chronological debate in which Greek Early Iron Age pottery is involved (p. 9, with extensive bibliographic references), the authors have wisely chosen to follow the ‘conventional’ chronology for Attic Protogeometric and Geometric pottery, as established by V.R.d'A. Desborough (Protogeometric Pottery [1952]) and J.N. Coldstream (Greek Geometric Pottery [2nd ed. 2008]). The reliability of the current system of relative and absolute dates is fully acknowledged and is the one primarily used by experts on Greek geometric pottery, even when the latter comes from Levantine contexts (A. Mazar and N. Kourou, OpAthRom 12 [2019], 369–92).
Another noteworthy accomplishment of the volume is the XRF analysis of the slip and pigments of seven Cypriot vases of Black-on-Red and White Painted wares (pp. 138–9). The results contribute to recent discussions about the chemistry and distribution of Cypriot wares (E. Aloupi-Siotis and A. Lekka, ‘“Black”, a Tale of Two Pigments in Cyprus’, in V. Vlachou and A. Gadolou [edd.], Τέρψις [2017], pp. 121–44).
Overall, this is a volume of high academic and aesthetic standards that treats pottery thoroughly and meticulously and is fully aware of current scholarly discussions and new publications. The book provides a valuable study-tool for anyone interested in the study of Cypriot and Attic pottery.
