Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Clay objects : Single-handled cylindrical cup with concave walls [Π5800]

Single-handled cylindrical cup with concave walls

Π5800

Clay

Mended and restored.

Height: 6.5 cm. Rim diameter: 8 cm.

Phaistos

First Palace, Room XIII

Middle Bronze Age. Protopalatial period, Middle Minoan IIB period.:

1750-1700 BC:

Gallery:

III

Case:

Exhibition thematic unit:

Middle Bronze Age - Protopalatial period (1900-1700 BC). The First Palaces. The emergence of palatial societies

Palaces of Knossos and Phaistos. Kamares Ware

Description

This cup, of the cylindrical type with concave profile, is particularly elegant; this is due both to the details of its shape and to the Kamares Ware decoration. The concave profile, the fine walls and the strap handle, perhaps imitating those of metal cups (see the later gold cups from Vapheio in Laconia) are formal elements found in cups of these type, which were popular drinking vessels in the mature Protopalatial and the Neopalatial period. The decoration on this cup is a plain design in horizontal zones, the only ornament being repeated a flame-shaped motif in white and orange on a dark ground, on either side of a horizontal band. This gives the composition a sense of restraint, as opposed to the tendency towards expansive, whirling decoration typical of most Kamares Ware.

Bibliography:

Banti, L. "Cronologia e ceramica del Palazzo Minoico di Fest?s." ASAtene 17-18, 1939-40 (1942): fig. 25a. Betancourt, P.P. The History of Minoan Pottery. Princeton, 1985, pl. 10Γ.

Author:

I. N.

Photographs' metadata