pithos

plural pithoi

1. historicalA large ceramic jar used by certain ancient civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean.

   Only two Hellenistic pithoi in use in the Hellenistic period have been found intact and in situ at the Agora, as far as I am aware.

   2006, Susan I. Rotroff, The Athenian Agora, Volume XXXIII: Hellenistic Pottery: The Plain Wares, ASCSA, page 98

   2 more examples

   Pithos grave. The body was laid out in three pithoi, the easternmost and smallest (diam. ·40 m.) containing the skull, the middle pithos (diam. ·50 m.) containing arm bones and ribs; and the westernmost and largest (diam. ·76 m., see pl. 1) the leg bones.

   1934, P. N. Ure, Reading University Studies: Aryballoi & Figurines from Rhitsona in Boeotia, Paperback edition, Cambridge University Press, page 10

   Xenophon, Plato's contemporary, remarks that he finds pitiable those persons who, according to tradition, pour water into a perforated pithos, since they labor in vain.

   2002, William F. Hansen, Ariadne's Thread, Cornell University Press, page 71