ANC. THYRREION - 2012

Anc. Thyrreion (Gianisali). Ph. Zapheiropoulou publishes a cremation burial and a tile grave found 5-6m northwest of the city wall in 1974. The cremation was contained in a bronze oinochoe, together with the disc of a mirror. The tile grave contained two lamps, a terracotta pyxis and a bronze coin. The graves, which were 3-4m apart, formed part of a wider cemetery (noting the discovery in 1967 of two inscribed funerary stelai in the same area).

The bronze oinochoe is of a form found in small numbers in north and northwest Greece, mainly Macedonia and Epirus, in areas of Corinthian artistic influence. The forming technique (a relatively fragile bipartite construction from two sheets) is also rare: many such vessels were clearly made as cremation urns, but this is the only example yet found in use (many others were grave offerings). This is the largest example yet found: it is dated on the basis of parallels especially in the Iola Collection and from Votonosi to the third quarter of the 5th century BC. It is likely the product of a local Corinthianising workshop in Epirus. The mirror disc comes from a folding mirror of a type current from the late 5th-early 4th century onwards across the Greek world.

The tile grave is dated to the first half of the 2nd century BC by the two lamps of Broneer type X and XVII, in combination with the pyxis of a type which dates around 200BC, and a bronze coin of Oiniades struck between 219-211BC.