Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Clay objects : Clay pair of galloping horses [Π21021 + Π21022]

Clay pair of galloping horses

Π21021 + Π21022

Clay

Incomplete

Max. Height: 6.5 cm. Length: 15.8 cm.

Prinias

Cemetery

Geometric period:

800-700 BC:

Gallery:

XVIII

Case:

182

Exhibition thematic unit:

Geometric - Archaic period (10th-6th c. BC). The cemetery of the city of Prinias

Description

Pair of galloping terracotta horses, joined from the tail to the base of the neck. The horses are quite realistically made, with a well-smoothed surface. The various details are rendered and highlighted in reddish-brown paint, including the manes, the tails, the features of the heads and part of the reins. Holes have been pierced in the neck and legs, presumably for the harness and chariot traces, which were probably made of perishable material, now lost. Next to them, in the same excavation trench, were found two clay wheels which must have belonged to the same object. The horses come from an area of the Prinias cemetery intended for horse burials.

Bibliography:

Rizza G., “Ceramiche figurate di Prinias”, in Antichita Cretesi. Studi in Onore di Doro Levi, vol. II, Catane, 1978, 131, fig. 50. Rizza G.-Rizzo M. A., “Prinias”, in Ancient Crete, A Hundred Years of Italian Archaeology (1884-1984), Rome, 1984, 161-165, fig. 299.

Author:

S. P.

Photographs' metadata