Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Clay objects : Clay bathtub larnax with painted decoration [Π9499]

Clay bathtub larnax with painted decoration

Π9499

Clay

Intact

Length: 122 cm. Width: 54 cm. Height: 48 cm.

Pacheia Ammos Ierapetra

Alatsomouri site

Late Bronze Age. Final Palatial period, Late Minoan ΙΙΙΑ2 period.:

1370-1300 BC:

Gallery:

XII

Case:

Not in case

Exhibition thematic unit:

Late Bronze Age - Postpalatial period (1300-1100 BC). The larnakes. The world of the dead

The larnakes: The world of the dead

Description

Clay bathtub larnax with painted decoration. It was found in a rock-cut chamber tomb containing three larnakes of the same shape. The outside is decorated in panels divided by groups of vertical lines and containing an octopus, papyrus flowers and geometric motifs (running spiral, wavy lines, scale pattern). On the interior, along one long side, are three fish under a horizontal band which probably symbolises the surface of the sea. Themes from the marine world are often found in the iconography of the Minoan larnakes. They may be an abstract reference to the Minoan belief in the world of the dead across the sea.

Bibliography:

Alexiou, S. "Υστερομινωικός Τάφος Παχυάμμου." Κρητικά Χρονικά Η΄ (1954): 399-412. Merousis, Ν. Ι. Οι εικονογραφικοί κύκλοι των ΥΜ ΙΙΙ λαρνάκων. Οι διαστάσεις της εικονογραφίας στα πλαίσια των ταφικών πρακτικών. PhD Diss., Thessaloniki, 2000, 172-73.

Author:

D. M.

Photographs' metadata