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Marine Style stirrup jar

Π2783
Clay
Intact, mended.
Height: 19.8 cm. Mouth diameter: 4.5 cm. Base diameter: 9 cm.
Gournia
House Cc, Room 15
Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period, Late Minoan ΙB period.:
1500-1450 BC:
Gallery:
V
Case:
47
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). The New Palaces. The zenith of Minoan civilisation
Settlements of East Crete
Description
Stirrup jars feature a hollow cylindrical neck known as a false spout which was sealed when they were made. It was used to make the vessel easier to handle and transport, in conjunction with the handles. The functional spout is also narrow and was easily sealed by attaching a stopper of perishable material (cloth, wood or leather). The liquid content could thus be transported in relative safety on journeys by land and sea. This amphora from Gournia is strikingly decorated in the Marine Style. The style is reminiscent of the monumental fresco paintings and gives a clear sense of horror vacui or “fear of empty space”, meaning that the whole surface is filled with the main themes. These are two large octopuses swimming diagonally, and a wealth of supplementary marine motifs such as stylised rocks, sea urchins, corals and argonauts. The stylistic and thematic similarities of this jar from Gournia to vessels from Palaikastro and Zakros has led to the suggestion that they were produced by the same workshop, and perhaps even the same vase-painter.
Bibliography:
Boyd-Hawes, H., B.E. Williams, R.B. Seager, E.H. Hall. Gournia, Vasiliki and other prehistoric sites on the isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete. Excavations of the Wells-Houston-Cramp Expeditions, 1901, 1903, 1904. Philadelphia, 1908, pl. H. Evans, A.J. The Palace of Minos: A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos. Vol. II,1, London, 1928, fig. 312c. Mountjoy, P.A. “The Marine Style Pottery of LM IB/LH IIA: Towards a Corpus”. Annual of the British School at Athens 79 (1984): 170 (Gournia 1), pl. 25c.
Author:
I. N.


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