[ΚΕΝΟ]



Rhtyon in the Marine Style of the Special Palatial Traditionς

Π3396
Clay
Incomplete, mended and restored.
Height: 30 cm. Diameter: 23 cm.
Palaikastro
Block Δ (Room 4)
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
This rhyton (a vessel for the decanting and offering of liquid goods) from Palaikastro is elaborately decorated in the Marine Style, with a masterly arrangement of themes (argonauts, rocks, tritons, seaweed) covering the entire neck and body. It was found together with another seventeen conical and ovoid rhyta, stored upside down next to each other with their mouths on the floor in a room of Block Δ at Palaikastro. The find conditions indicate that this was a storeroom for vessels for occasional use in ceremonies in which the rhyta were used to make offerings and libations. This ritual use is also attested by the particular symbolism of the decoration of the vases, and by iconographic evidence showing that rhyta were used in special ceremonies. It is particularly interesting to note that in the Palaikastro assemblage, as in other assemblages from Neopalatial settlements, some of the rhyta are matched pairs, their similar shape indicating that they were produced by the same workshop, and may have been used together in ceremonies. In the case of this particular rhyton, the typological features of the ovoid body and details such as the relief neck ring refer to the eclectic affinities of clay ovoid rhyta with similar vessels made of other materials such as stone. Excellent parallels of the type in stone have been found near Palaikastro, at the palace of Zakros, where the rhyta were also stored for occasional use in special secular or religious ceremonies.
Bibliography:
Bosanquet, R.C. and R.M. Dawkins. The Unpublished Objects from the Palaikastro Excavations: 1902-1906. The British School at Athens. Supplementary Papers 1. London, 1923, pl. XXI. Mountjoy, P.A. “The Marine Style Pottery of LM IB/LH IIA: Towards a Corpus”. Annual of the British School at Athens 79 (1984), 194, Palaikastro 39, pl. 24b (wrong no.). Betancourt, P.P. The History of Minoan Pottery. Princeton, 1985, pl. 20Γ. Koehl, R.B. Aegean Bronze Age Rhyta. INSTAP Prehistory Monographs 19. Philadelphia, Penn., 2006.
Author:
I. N.


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