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Plaque with agrimi suckling its young

Υ69
Faience
Mended from any fragments and restored.
Height: 11.2 cm. Length: 19.2 cm.
Knossos
Palace
Middle-Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period, Middle Minoan ΙΙΙΒ - Late Minoan ΙA period.:
1650 - 1550 BC:
Gallery:
VIII
Case:
82
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). Minoan religion. Palace cult
The Temple Repositories of the palace of Knossos
Description
faience plaque depicting an agrimi (wild goat) with its young in relief. The upper body of the agrimi forms the upper edge of the plaque. The horn is made separately and attached to the animal’s head. The female agrimi is seen walking in a rocky landscape, one kid suckling and the other walking a little ahead of its mother, turning its head back to look at her. The outlines of the bodies and some details are highlighted with black lines. The plaque was found with other similar plaques, including the famous one of the cow suckling her calf, in the Temple Repositories of the Central Palace Sanctuary of Knossos. The plaques were votive offerings that decorated furniture or the walls of the sanctuary, or were simply hung on the walls. Due to the fact that some of them depict mothers suckling their young, it has been suggested that they adorned a shrine dedicated to the cult of Mother Nature.
Bibliography:
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. Volume I. London, 1928, 510-512, fig. 366. Foster, K.P. Aegean Faience of the Bronze Age. New Haven, 1979. Panagiotaki, M. The Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos. British School at Athens Supplementary Volume no. 31. London, 1999, 82-87, 155, 273, fig. 17.
Author:
E. S.


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