• Jug with relief and painted Marine Style decoration



Jug with relief and painted Marine Style decoration
Jug with relief and painted Marine Style decoration

Jug with relief and painted Marine Style decoration

Π2661
Clay
Mended and restored.
Maximum height: 26.2 cm. Rim diameter 11.6 cm.
Poros
Cave tomb 1986-87
Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period, Late Minoan ΙB period.:
1500-1450 BC:
Gallery:
IX
Case:
96
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Final Palatial period (1450-1300 BC). The Knossos monopalatial system
Cemeteries
Description
Clay jug with relief and painted decoration from the Neopalatial cemetery of rock-cut cave tombs excavated south of the port settlement at Poros, Heraklion. Although all the tombs were partially looted, hundreds of vessels remained, mainly jugs and cups containing liquid offerings to the dead, and many grave goods such as gold signet rings, seals and necklace beads of various materials. This ewer, together with a gold signet ring and other jewellery, accompanied a high-status burial. It is the work of a Knossian workshop producing pottery in the Special Palatial Tradition, with impressive decorative compositions covering the whole surface. The main decorative theme is the nautilus, repeated fifteen times, singly or in pairs, in a seascape indicated by dotted scale patterns and enriched with rocks, corals, seaweed and sea urchins. Relief tricurved motifs with seashells on the body and shells on the neck and handle repeat the shape of the corresponding painted motifs. The decoration of the secondary zones of the vessel is strikingly complemented by a trefoil mouth with relief arches and by relief rings on the neck and base. The ewer is similar to two vessels, one from the palace of Zakros and the other in the Mus?e Borely in Marseilles. Its uniqueness, however, lies in the use of all the styles of the late Neopalatial period: the Marine Style, alternating themes, the abstract and the geometric style.
Bibliography:
Dimopoulou, Ν. "Ανασκαφικές εργασίες. Επαρχία Τεμένους. Πόρος", Αρχαιολογικόν Δελτίον 42 (1987), Χρονικά: 528-529. Dimopoulou, Ν. "Πρόχους του θαλάσσιου ρυθμού". In Karetsou, A., M. Andreadaki-Vlazaki and N. Papadakis (eds), Κρήτη-Αίγυπτος. Πολιτισμικοί δεσμοί τριών χιλιετιών, Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ηρακλείου, 21 Νοεμβρίου 1999-21 Σεπτεμβρίου 2000, Heraklion, 2000, 142-144. Dimopoulou, N. “The Neopalatial cemetery of the Knossian harbour-town at Poros: mortuary behaviour and social ranking”. In Eliten in der Bronzezeit: Ergebnisse Zweier Kolloquien in Mainz und Athen, Mainz-Bonn, 1999, 27-36.
Author:
G. F.


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