A miniature Attic red-figured oinochoe (inv. P.1904.5) now held by the State Hermitage Museum originates from the 1904 excavations in the Pantikapaion necropolis near Kertch, then conducted and supervised by Władisław Škorpil. Apart from the oinochoe, two squat net lekythoi, a terracotta flask, and a black-glazed lekythos decorated with a palmette were found in the same tomb.

From the times of the first Greek colonies settled in the North Pontic region the Cimmerian Bosporus was tightly connected with Greece via economic contacts. The latter increased sharply in the 4th century BC to make pottery of Attic production imported to Bosporus and other North Pontic areas especially abundant. This is proved by numerous finds of exquisite Attic vessels in the necropolises of various Greek colonies in the northern Black Sea littoral.

The red-figured oinochoe under consideration is polychrome, i.e. painted with added colours applied to its surface after firing. The vessel’s body bears an image of a seated woman dressed in a light-blue chiton, a bunch of grapes in her right hand, and bread in her left one, with a hydria standing beside. From the right side a dog is running up to the woman, while from below the entire scene is framed with a strip of ionica ornament.

Compared to similar vessels, as well as the manner of painting and the subject of its image being analysed, the oinochoe presenting a woman with a dog should be dated back to the mid-4th century BC, while the semantics of the scene is clearly Dionysian, and it is very likely that the vessel was part of a traditional set of funeral offerings.