Agora Object: Agora XXX, no. 180
Chronology:   Ca. 470-460 B.C.
Deposit:   D 11:4
Published Number:   AV 30.180
References:   Object: P 6896
Wall fragment with turn of shoulder. Max. dim. 0.101.

Maenad (head with sakkos, upper torso, start of right arm outstretched) to left, wearing a chiton with a himation over it. In her left hand (now missing) she held a thyrsos (most of tip, part of shaft) and a sprig of ivy, which may have been coiled around the shaft of the thyrsos. Behind her is an unexplained curved object. Above, tongue pattern at the junction with the neck. Preliminary sketch. Relief contour: chin, neck, right arm. Dilute glaze: anatomy. Red: ivy.

The curved object has no relief contour, but the preliminary sketch makes clear that it tapers considerably. It looks a little like the frond of a palm branch, but if so one would expect to see part of a second. Yet compare a fragment from the Group of the Niobid Painter in the collection of Herbert Cahn, H.C. 166 (Prange, Niobidenmaler, p. 228, cat. no. GN 105, pl. 17).