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Chest-shaped pyxis with pictorial decoration

Π26914
Clay
Mended and restored in a few places.
Height: 21 cm. Length: 43.5 cm. Width: 25.5 cm.
Kastelli
Late Bronze Age. Postpalatial period, Late Minoan IIIC period.:
1200 - 1100 BC:
Gallery:
XI
Case:
112
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Postpalatial period (1300-1100 BC). Settlements. Sanctuaries. Tombs
Description
Large chest-shaped vessel with two vertical handles and two holes on each side to secure the lid, which is not preserved. It is decorated on the interior and exterior with geometrical and pictorial themes (wavy lines, concentric semicircles, rosettes, birds, fish and stylised octopuses). On one inner long side is a scene of a human figure and a dog hunting an agrimi (wild goat). Similar hunting scenes are found on burial larnakes, and are thought to refer to the animal’s ceremonial hunting and sacrifice. Indeed, in the scene on the vessel from Kastelli the rectangular structure under the agrimi has been interpreted as an altar, indicative of sacrifice. The vessel was found together with a piece of an offering table and bones of deer and agrimia in a house in the Minoan settlement of Kastelli, where they were presumably used in ritual acts.
Bibliography:
Rethemiotakis, G. "Κιβωτιόσχημη Πυξίδα". In Ν. Chr. Stampolidis and Α. Karetsou (eds), Ανατολική Μεσόγειος. Κύπρος - Δωδεκάνησα - Κρήτη. 16ος-6ος αι. π.Χ. Heraklion, 1998, 75. Rethemiotakis, G. "A Chest-Shaped Vessel and Other LM IIIC Pottery from Kastelli Pediada." In J. Driessen and A. Farnoux (eds), La Cr?te Myc?nienne. Actes de la Table Ronde Internationale organis?e par l'?cole Francaise d'Ath?nes, 26-28 Mars 1991. BCH Suppl?ment 30. Paris, 1997, 407-421.
Author:
E. S.


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