Some ceramic vases that have been excavated in graves around Athens and are datable to the second half of the eighth century B.C. feature painted scenes of mourning over the dead; others, though made to serve as burial containers and tomb markers, do not bear any explicitly funerary imagery. In line with the dominant artistic style of the so-called Geometric period, a painter decorated this amphora in a highly orderly yet dynamic style, covering most of the surface with small, neatly drawn patterns such as the elaborate, hatched versions of the meander, or "Greek key," motif running around the midsection. Figural decoration is limited to animals: a parade of ducks encircles the belly (along with rows of dotted "birdseed," after which the painter is named), and grazing horses standing over birds ring the shoulder. The duplication of forms makes even the animal figures take on an ornamental aspect similar to the purely abstract designs, while also hinting at the abundance of nature and, in the case of the horses, at aristocratic wealth and prestige. Sculpted snakes glide up the handles; a common addition to this type of vase, they may have an implicit funerary connotation as creatures associated with the earth and the Underworld. Some vases of this type have been found with intact lids and sculpted animal figures as finials.

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