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Clay sistrum model

Π27695
Clay
Restored in a few places. The small horizontal wooden rods on which the discs are threaded are a modern restoration.
Height: 18 cm. Dimensions of body: 10 x 7.6 cm. Length of handle: 6.9 cm.
Phourni
Phourni, Tomb Building 9
Middle Bronze Age. Protopalatial period, Middle Minoan I period.:
2000 - 1800 BC:
Gallery:
II
Case:
17
Exhibition thematic unit:
Middle Bronze Age - Late Prepalatial-Protopalatial period (2200-1700 BC). From small communities to towns
The Archanes Cemetery
Description
Clay model of a sistrum, a musical instrument, from Tomb Building 9 of the cemetery of Archanes Phourni. It was found next to a child burial. Most of the oval body and the hollow handle is preserved, together with three clay discs which were originally threaded onto horizontal wooden rods affixed to the band of the instrument. The discs rattled when the sistrum was shaken. Traces of brownish red paint are preserved. This was the first three-dimensional sistrum to be found in an excavation; until its discovery, the existence of such instruments in Crete was only known from the scene on the stone Harvester Vase. To date, more clay sistra have come to light in the burial cave of Agios Charalambos in Lasithi, while bronze examples have been found in Late Minoan houses. The Minoan sistra are believed to have been inspired by Egyptian ones, since the sistrum was a ceremonial musical instrument in pharaonic Egypt long before it appeared in Crete.
Bibliography:
Karetsou, A. M. Andreadaki-Vlazaki and N. Papadakis (eds). Κρήτη - Αίγυπτος. Πολιτισμικοί Δεσμοί Τριών Χιλιετιών. Κατάλογος Έκθεσης στο Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ηρακλείου, 21 Νοεμβρίου 1999 - 21 Σεπτεμβρίου 2000. Heraklion, 2000, 267, no. 265. Sakellarakis, Y. and Ε. Sapouna-Sakellaraki. Αρχάνες. Μια νέα ματιά στη Μινωική Κρήτη. Vol. 1. Athens, 1997, 211-212, 351-356, fig. 321-324.
Author:
E. S.


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