Murray, A. S.; British Museum <London> [Editor]: Greek and Etruscan terracotta sarcophagi in the British Museum (London, 1898)

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So far as concerns the last-mentioned vase (pinax representing a Sphinx, now
in Brit. Mus., A. 745), it is obvious that the figure of the Sphinx has been executed
in exactly the same manner as the animals on the sarcophagus. And if we could
be sure that this vase had actually been found in a tomb with gold ornaments of
the time of Psammetichos, we should then have absolute certainty as to the date of
this particular method of painting on terra-cotta, instead of only an extreme degree
of probability such as is now generally accepted.

On the other hand, it appears from a consular note of Sir Charles Newton, of
the same year (1859), tnat he classified the vases found up to then by MM. Salzmann
and Biliotti as falling into four categories:—(1) Vases of the class brought by Lord
Elgin from Athens, and now known as of the geometric and Dipylon style. Of these
the Museum acquired several important specimens from Cameiros on that occasion.
(2) Vases with subjects painted in black and crimson, with incised lines on a cream-
coloured ground. The incised lines, like the "field seme with flowers" above quoted,
would, if taken literally, point to a stage of painting later than the sarcophagus and
its kindred vases. (3) Vases which he describes as of the style called "affected
Tyrrhenian," having black figures, with incised lines on a red ground. (4) Vases
in a conventional style, thought to be an imitation of the archaic. In this style
the figures are painted in black, with accessories in crimson and white with incised
lines. This class of vases we have never seen except from Italy, where they are
found in great abundance. The explanation of this difference between the consular
note and the letter may be this, that in the note the whole of the vases are classed
in these four categories, while in the letter only those are specified which were
found with the gold ornaments. On this view the pottery of the Dipylon style to
which he refers could be regarded as having come from older tombs, the vases of
the third and fourth categories from later tombs. That would be in harmony with
what is otherwise known of the development of vase painting. On the other hand,
there is always, and nowhere more so than at Cameiros, the possibility of an extensive
overlapping of different archaic styles of painting, and in particular the continuance
of a primitive style of pottery side by side with a more advanced style. It is
necessary to lay stress on this point, because in the Diary of Excavations of 1864
we find that on the site called Papas Loures by Biliotti, the results derived from the
sixteen tombs there opened point consistently to a late stage of the Dipylon period.
Yet from these tombs were obtained an oenochoe identical in technique with the sarcophagus
and a kylix (A. 698), with conventional faces of lions executed in the same manner. In
the tomb with the oenochoe (bands of goats and deer) nothing else survived. In the
tomb with the kylix the following objects:—(1) Part of a large vase painted with figures
of Centaurs and patterns of the Dipylon class (A. 439). (2) A fragmentary cup of red
ware with geometric patterns incised. (3) Part of a vase similar to last. (4) A number
of bronze fibulae of a geometric type (Catalogue of Bronzes, Figs. 7-9). (5) Glass beads.
(6) Rosettes of pale gold. From these circumstances it is reasonable to conclude that the
geometric and Dipylon systems of vase decoration, consisting in the main of patterns of a
geometric order, with animals and human figures in secondary parts, had in Rhodes
at least survived for a time side by side with the subsequent Asiatic system, in which
animals assume the leading parts, and patterns are relegated to secondary places.