Vessel with woman's head

Description: It is a jug in the form of a female head and neck, with a foot and high spout. A vertical handle consisting of two clay beads connects the back of the head with the mouth of the vessel below the ribbon-like widened lip of the vessel. The spout has the shape of a cylinder with a profiled rim at the top and bottom.
The head is slightly raised. The oval face with long, smooth cheeks ends in an accentuated chin. The bridge of the nose merges almost straight into the receding forehead. The eyes are set wide apart under arched brows and high orbitals. The upper lids are sharply contoured and overlap the lower lids, which blend softly into the cheek area. Full lips, of which the upper lip is a little wider than the lower, form a closed mouth.
In the hair is a wreath of ivy leaves and berries, held together above the forehead by a narrow band. Divided strands of hair swing loosely to the side; they increase a little in volume above the ears. Rounded curls stand out from the lowest strands. From there, thin, diagonally grooved beads run vertically downwards. They nestle close to the neck, which is adorned with a sculpted hoop.

Commentary: The hairstyle and neck jewellery prove the femininity of the head. The rounded formations next to the cheeks could represent ear ornaments, the vertical bulges their pendants. It is more likely, however, that the latter are corkscrew curls[1]. This is supported by the comparison with a parallel from Kerch, where the curls end as thin twisted strands[2]. The strict vertical strands of curls form a peculiar contrast to the loose duct of the forehead and temple hair, a hairstyle that appears at the end of the 5th century BC and spreads into the Hellenistic period[3]. The motif is found on Western Greek, especially Sicilian[4] shoulder busts, but is also encountered on Greek figural vases of the 4th century BC[5], an Attic creation that was imitated in other workshops. Figural pottery enjoyed great popularity in the Greek-populated areas on the northern edge of the Black Sea[6].               
In 1913, the Imperial Archaeological Commission Berlin had acquired the above-mentioned parallel specimen in Kerch[7], with which the Giessen woman's head vessel corresponds, apart from the two decorative elements of chain and ivy wreath, as well as a slight deviation in the hairstyle. As the sales catalogue written by J. Böhlau and Pharmakowsky's reports on the finds from southern Russia, which span many years, show, the northern Black Sea coast in particular was a focal point for sales and presumably also for the production of vessels in the form of human as well as animal heads[8]. It can be assumed that the Giessen head vessel, if not from Pantikapaion (Kerch) itself, also originates from the northern Black Sea region. The handwritten notes on the underside of the jug seem to indicate the word Gerson. It is possible that this refers to the town of Xerson[9] situated at the delta of the Dnieper estuary, a port that could have served as a collection site for the shipment of pottery; however, such considerations are speculative.  
The ivy wreath and also the vase type, a wine jug, allude to the area of Dionysus. Since the exact provenance of the Giessen vessel is unknown, it is impossible to say whether it was used in the cult of Dionysus or other gods, in the context of domestic cults or in funerary rites[10]. The figural vases that have been found on the northern coast of the Black Sea come for the most part from funerary contexts[11].
Stylistically, too, the two women's head vessels Giessen T III-1 and Kerch[12] are comparable to heads of figural pottery, starting with the contour line of the faces and the cut of the eyes to the smooth elongated cheek area and the full closed mouth[13]. There are similarities with other heads and busts from sites on the Black Sea, for example from Amisos[14], as well as a female head matrix from Ilion[15].