THE TERRACOTTAS OF KALLATIS - THE MASTERPIECESOF THE HELLENISTIC COROPLASTERS

Abstract

This paper sets out to describe and characterize the terracotta production in the ancient Greek city of Kallatis located in the territory of modern Romania. Many of the figurines found here reflect the high level of the development of applied art, which was achieved by this Dorian colony in the second half of the 4th - early 3rd centuries B.C. The author summarizes and classifies almost all the finds of terracotta and also shows the role played by Kallatis in the production and distribution of these products typical of the ancient Greek world. The emergence of artistic workshops in the western Pontic cities was analyzed as a necessity for the newcomers to continue their traditional religious practices, to surround themselves with the faces of the gods that protected them, from birth to beyond the grave. The paper presented the synthesis and cultural osmosis processes, the interferences and the specific tastes of a province that had its own workshops and multiple clients, comparable to that of a metropolis. The conducted analysis confirmed that a large number of discovered terracotta, the remains of a ceramic furnace and other finds indicate the existence in the city of a wide local production of figurines, such as Tanagra - masterpieces of Hellenistic coroplasters.