Agora Object: A 957
Inventory Number:   A 957
Section Number:   ΟΑ 692
Title:   Well Head
Category:   Architecture Terracotta
Description:   Parts of rim and nearly a quarter of wall missing; restored in plaster.
A cylindrical drum, tapering around top. Heavy rim, flat on top and sharply profiled; lower wall thickened to form heavy collar. Two holes pierced before baking, just below rim. Below these the wall is girdled by three high sharp ridges.
Hard clean pinkish buff clay; black glaze on ridges and on collar at bottom.
ADDENDA
Fuller description of A 957 and A 958, with references. (By A.W. Parsons ?).
"During the mending of the pottery from one of the many wells (Well 8) on the N.W. slope of the Acropolis, two rare if not unique objects came to light. The well is one of the group which seems to have been filled up close to the end of the 6th century B.C. The objects are a wellhead (A 957) and what is apparently a chimney-pot (A 958).
The wellhead is a terracotta drum tapering a little toward the top. At the top it has a heavy rim, flattened above; the base of the wall is thickened to form a broad collar. Just below the rim the wall is pierced by two circular holes (ca. 0.05m. in diameter) opposite each other; below these again the drum is girdled by three sharply profiled ribs. Bands of thick black glaze cover the rim, the ribs, and the reinforcing collar at the bottom. The drum is 0.44m. high and 0.615m. in diameter. At the inner edge of the rim there are some traces of rope wear.
The function of the two holes beneath the rim is not certain; probably since the well would have been covered they are ventilators. Contemporary vase-paintings show similar openings beneath the rims of the pithos-like wellheads, which were more common than drums like ours. It has not I think been previously noted that in the vase-painting the presence of these holes seems to distinguish a well from a pithos.
Cf. literature: Dict. des. Ant., s.v. Putens; RM (1923-1924), p. 84 f.; RA (1933), I, p. 154 ff.; RA (1935) I, p. 200 ff."
For the description of the chimney-pot, see A 958.
Context:   Well 8.
Negatives:   Leica, 88-459
Dimensions:   H. 0.44; Diam. 0.615, (holes below rim) 0.05
Material:   Terracotta
Date:   28 May-16 June 1938
Section:   ΟΑ
Elevation:   -14.8--14.8m.
Deposit:   T 24:3
Bibliography:   Guide (1976), p. 279.
    Guide (1962), p. 188.
    AgoraPicBk 1 (1958), fig. 29.
    Hesperia 27 (1958), p. 172, n. 31.
    Hesperia 18 (1949), pp. 118, 123, 126, no. 10, figs. 3.10, 6, pl. 7.10.
    Agora XII, p. 194, n. 11.
Is Similar To:   Agora:Object:Dict. des. Ant., s.v. Putens.
    Agora:Object:RM (1923-1924), p. 84-85.
    Agora:Object:RA (1933), I, p. 154 ff.
    Agora:Object:RA (1935), I, p. 200 ff.
References:   Publications (4)
Publication Page: Agora 12.2, s. 46, p. 419
Image: 2000.06.0091 (88-459)
Image: 2000.06.0092
Image: 2012.59.0440 (88-459)
Deposit: T 24:3
Card: A 957