Beyond Room 1 we again reach the landing at the top of the north-west Staircase, and here we turn to the left to enter the rooms of the west wing containing the Smaller Greek and Roman Antiquities. The collection commences with the vases, once called 'Etruscan' as having been found first in Etruria, but which were of Greek work and were carried on trade routes all over the Mediterranean world.
The First Vase Room is devoted to prehistoric vases including Neolithic pottery, with simple geometrical patterns scratched on the clay, from the Greek islands; ware of the Bronze Age from Cyprus; vases and casts of steatite and other sculptures illustrating the recently discovered 'Minoan' civilization of Crete, which has been traced back to the Neolithic period (? 3000 B.C.) and was destroyed about 1000 B.C.; examples of the closely related but rather later 'Mycenï¾µan' art, so called from its first discovery at Mycenï¾µ by Schliemann, but of wide extent; pottery with geometrical patterns; early Attic 'Dipylon' ware, found near the Dipylon Gate at Athens; pottery from Kameiros in Rhodes, with patterns in relief as in Assyrian art, made (no doubt) by incised rollers; glazed ware of the early Greek colonizing period, showing Oriental influence.
Second Vase Room. Archaic Greek vases, of the 6th cent., mostly 'black-figured,' i.e. with the figures drawn in black silhouette, with incised interior lines, on the terracotta ground. Such vases were made in many places, but the Attic ware became predominant. Many of the finer specimens are signed by the artists.
Third Vase Room. Earlier (and best) Athenian 'redfigured ' vases, of the end of the 6th and of the 5th century. The method reverses that of the black-figured style, the figures being left in the body colour on a black-varnished ground. Here are also white Athenian vases with figures drawn in outline. The vases of the finest period are in the Table Cases and in Wall Cases 17-24 and 47-54, in the middle of the east and west walls. Many are signed and dedicated to a friend (e.g. the graceful and observant designs of Douris). Wall Cases 25 and 26. Polychrome ware. Table Cases H and J. White Athenian lekythi.
Fourth Vase Room, illustrating the spread and decline of the art (4th and 3rd centuries). The shapes become more diversified. A great number of the vases are from the Greek colonies in south Italy. Very few are signed. In Standard Cases B and D are eleven black-figured Panathenaic vases; each has a figure of Athene in the archaic traditional style, and the use of the black-figured technique is likewise archaistic. Standard Case F and adjoining Wall Cases: Terracotta lamps and other Roman wares (Roman ware found in Britain). Case G. 'Megarian' bowls and other vases with designs in relief. Among the large specimens in separate cases is the Orestes Vase (4th or 3rd century B.C.) from the Deepdene Collection (South end).
