On the other hand one may assume origin on Etruscan soil for another class of East Ionic style, only known from Etruria, called ‘Pontic,’ as having been wrongly localized on the Black Sea. The Asiatic-Ionian origin of the style is based on the vase shapes as on the choice, technique, types and application of the ornamental and animal decoration; and also the figures, the lines of Tritons and Nereids, riders and Scythians, heralds and Centaurs, and the legendary scenes, which are often under ornamental influence (Figs. 82 and 83) in execution and application, point to the same source. The ‘Pontic’ painters actually enrich our knowledge of East Ionic decorative motives by a series of combined lotus, palmettes, volutes, maeanders, by net patterns, leaf-friezes, etc., by a plentiful selection of animals, which includes the marine Centaur, with the Asiatic man-bull, and is fond of lines of guinea-fowls. But on the whole the class is very provincial and cannot be regarded as a clear source of evidence. It is questionable, whether obstinate persistence in stripe decoration, only reluctantly giving way to the picture field, would have been possible in the mother-country well on in the 6th century. The style is visibly departing further from its Greek starting point. Vases which represent Lanuvian Juno (B.M. Cat. II. p. 66) or Etruscan winged demons, show in subject what the style of itself betrays. Two classes with scanty decoration, fixed as East Greek by many finds, can only be named for completeness sake; one, the ‘Bucchero’ ware long known in Etruria, which perhaps originated in Aeolis and which owes its black lustre not to glaze colour but to impregnation with charcoal and to polishing; the other, the ware with a great extension in South Asia Minor and Italy, either unadorned, or only decorated with stripes, which give important conclusions as to the development of vase-shapes. The East Greek manner took the place of the Corinthian in Italy at the beginning of the 7th century. This revolution is less connected with importation than with the immigration of Ionic artists. But even the new current is more and more open to the influence of the ever-spreading Attic importation, which in the East and West not merely captures the market but also forces production under its spell. Before we pass to this victorious fabric, we must once more return to Peloponnesus, to a fabric standing in isolation and of marked peculiarity, the Spartan. Excavations at Sparta show the transition to the black-figured style, such as took place elsewhere about the end of the 7th century. Corinth seems to have set the example for this transition; [Illustration: PLATE XLIV. Figs. 82 & 83. PARIS AND HIS HERD; PRIAM AND HERMES LEAD HERA, ATHENA AND APHRODITE BEFORE PARIS: FROM A PONTIC AMPHORA. _From Furtwängler-Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei._]