{"id":1601,"date":"2021-04-02T00:49:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T00:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajaonline.org\/2021\/04\/02\/4281\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T03:45:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T03:45:56","slug":"4281","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/","title":{"rendered":"Shedding Light on the Kothon: Vases with Inward Downturned Rims Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A particular type of ancient Greek vessel has a distinctive inward and downturned rim that forms an interior hollow ring. Because of the unique rim formation, various proposals have been suggested as to the purpose and name of this vessel, including a cup (<em>kothon<\/em>), an incense burner (<em>thymiaterion<\/em>), an ointment box (<em>smegmatotheke<\/em>), a ritual vase for the Eleusinian Mysteries (<em>plemochoe<\/em>), a floating-wick lamp (<em>stilbe<\/em>), and the currently prevailing identification as a perfume pot (<em>exaleiptron<\/em>). It is my opinion that only the identification of the shape as a lamp fully explains the strongly inturned rim. In this contribution, I revisit the material record, addressing issues of form, function, and decoration, as well as relevant representations in vase painting, in an effort to better understand the use of this particular vessel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A particular type of ancient Greek vessel has a distinctive inward and downturned rim that forms an interior hollow ring. Because of the unique rim formation, various proposals have been suggested as to the purpose and name of this vessel, including a cup (kothon), an incense burner (thymiaterion), an ointment box (smegmatotheke), a ritual vase [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[904],"tags":[2,5,23,53],"issues":[783],"region":[802],"class_list":["post-1601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-pottery","tag-iconography","tag-classicalperiod","tag-lamps","issues-783","region-greece"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shedding Light on the Kothon: Vases with Inward Downturned Rims Revisited | April 2021 (125.2) | American Journal of Archaeology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shedding Light on the Kothon: Vases with Inward Downturned Rims Revisited | April 2021 (125.2) | American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A particular type of ancient Greek vessel has a distinctive inward and downturned rim that forms an interior hollow ring. Because of the unique rim formation, various proposals have been suggested as to the purpose and name of this vessel, including a cup (kothon), an incense burner (thymiaterion), an ointment box (smegmatotheke), a ritual vase [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aja.journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-02T00:49:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-13T03:45:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1265_Moullou.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"924\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"585\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"website\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"website\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"website\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f93c211048ad920b94c1e8abdb2053f0\"},\"headline\":\"Shedding Light on the Kothon: Vases with Inward Downturned Rims Revisited\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-02T00:49:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:45:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/\"},\"wordCount\":140,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1265_Moullou.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Pottery\",\"Iconography\",\"Classical Period\",\"Lamps\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Article\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/\",\"name\":\"Shedding Light on the Kothon: Vases with Inward Downturned Rims Revisited | April 2021 (125.2) | American Journal of Archaeology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1265_Moullou.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-02T00:49:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:45:56+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/4281\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1265_Moullou.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1265_Moullou.jpg\",\"width\":924,\"height\":585,\"caption\":\"\\\"Kothon, second half of the sixth century BCE, ht. 5.2 cm, diam. 15 cm. 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