This paper examines certain aspects of ceramic production in Corinth during thc second half of the 5th and the 4th centuries BCE, mainly based upon the pottery found in a SI ngle deposit, Drain 197 1 -1. The introduction of the red-figure technique, and of shapes such as the stemless bell-krater and the krater of Falaieff type is considered; and the dl:velopment of the Corinth oinochoe briefly outlined. The rc-introduction of new decorative techniques and the dcvclopment of ncw shapes show the continuing invcntiveness of Corinthian potters in the Classical period, particularly with regard to utilitarian pottery. Changes in sympotic pottery and in drinking habits in the middle and third quarter of the 5th century, and again in the late 4th and early 3rd century, are suggested.

The four seasons of excavation conducted by D. M. Robinson at Olynthos between 1928 and 1938 produced a large quantity of red-figure pottery from settlement and cemetery. This material was published in volumes 5 and 13 of the final report. Robinson recognized that many of the red-figure fragments were of local Chalcidic fabric, and he tried to distinguish a few hands, but he made no detailed study. In ARV 1507–9 J. D. Beazley attributed a number of vases to a Painter of Olynthos 5.156 and a Group of Olynthos 5.141, and noted that they ‘might be local Olynthian’ but he ‘did not see that they differed from Attic in clay or technique’. More recently a few local red-figure vases, from private collections and rescue excavations, have been published, and others, still unpublished, are on display in the museums of Salonica and Polygiros. The excavations at Torone, still in progress, have also produced some fragments of non-Attic red-figure. On the basis of this material I have tried to distinguish more clearly some of the red-figure painters active in the Chalcidice in the fourth century; but I ought to emphasize that there are many vases and fragments not included here.

A new inquiry into the archaeology of north-eastern Anatolia was initiated in the summer of 1990 at Büyüktepe Höyük, alternatively called İkiztepe. Located about 1·8 km. north of the village of Çiftetaş, in the mountain-girdled Bayburt plain, some 1500 m. above the level of the Black Sea, the site comprises layers of human occupation stretched across two distinct natural hills joined by a saddle (Figs 1–3). Orientated along a northwest–southeast axis, Büyüktepe rises impressively some 20 m. above the floor of the Beşpınar valley. In a direct line from Bayburt, Büyüktepe is only 30 km. to the southwest, although, if one follows the Bayburt to Demirözü road, the distance is increased to about 35 km. From the village of Çiftetaş, a track leads to Büyüktepe and bifurcates roughly 350 m. from its southern end. One branch skirts its eastern base on its way to Çayıryolu; the other runs toward the spurs of Baltakaya Tepesi which were also settled in antiquity.

Red-figure pottery of Laconian manufacture was found in the excavations of the British School at Sparta in 1906–10 (Artemis Orthia, Acropolis) and 1924–8 (Acropolis), in particular the Roman theatre. This is entirely fragmentary, and is here published with full catalogue. Stratigraphical information is slight. Most fragments are from the Acropolis, particularly the area between the south wall of the shrine of Athena Chalkioikos and the retaining wall from the cavea of the Roman theatre. The most common shape is the large one-handled mug, which had a brief vogue in the last quarter of the fifth and first quarter of the fourth century. Other open shapes are craters, cups, plates. Closed shapes are far fewer, and exact forms not easy to determine: possibly pelikai and hydriai. There is a general stylistic connection with Attic red-figure of the last fifteen years of the fifth century and the first decade of the fourth.

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