Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Clay objects : Pyxis with birds, flowers and horns of consecration [Π9501]

Pyxis with birds, flowers and horns of consecration

Π9501

Clay

Intact

Height: 10.5 cm. (with lid). Base diameter: 16.5 cm.

Pacheia Ammos Ierapetra

Alatsomouri site

Late Bronze Age. Final Palatial period, Late Minoan IIIΑ2 period.:

1375 - 1300 BC:

Gallery:

Case:

122

Exhibition thematic unit:

Late Bronze Age - Postpalatial period (1300-1100 BC). Settlements. Sanctuaries. Tombs

Cemeteries

Description

Wide-mouthed, handleless cylindrical vessel with a lid. The lid was secured in place by a rope or cord running through the four holes in the body and one in the centre of the lid. The pyxis is exceptionally well made and richly decorated. It may have been produced by a Knossian pottery workshop. Birds with flowers, and birds perched on horns of consecration, are popular pictorial themes of the Late Minoan II-IIIA period. Pyxides with similar decoration are often found in cemeteries and also in settlements, where they were used to store small objects. This pyxis from Pacheia Ammos was found on the floor of a chamber tomb and contained many beads of different shapes, made of semiprecious stones, glass paste and gold, two gold rings and a glass paste hair pin. The jewellery was mixed with sherds of bone, indicating that the pyxis and its contents were part of an earlier inhumation, removed when a new body was buried in the tomb.

Bibliography:

Alexiou, S. "Υστερομινωικός Τάφος Παχυάμμου." Κρητικά Χρονικά Η' (1954): 399-412. Crouwel, J.L. and C.E. Morris "Pictorial Pottery of Late Minoan II-IIIA2 Early from Knossos." Annual of the British School at Athens 90 (1995): 157-182. Kanta, A. The Late Minoan III Period in Crete. A Survey of Sites, Pottery and their Distribution. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology Volume LVIII. G?teborg, 1980, 143-144, 281-283.

Author:

E. S.

Photographs' metadata