• [ΚΕΝΟ]



[ΚΕΝΟ]
[ΚΕΝΟ]

Handleless conical cup containing olives

Π33321
Clay
Intact
Height: 10 cm. Rim diameter: 12 cm.
Zakros
Palace (East Wing, Well)
Late Bronze Age, Neopalatial period, Late Minoan IB period:
1500-1450 BC:
Gallery:
VI
Case:
Case 54
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). Private and public life. Bread and circuses
Daily life. Diet and food preparation
Description
The excellent state of preservation of the olives at the moment of their discovery makes them a unique find in the history of Cretan archaeology. The conical cup containing the fruit was found in a built well in the East Wing of the palace of Zakros, together with burnt animal bones and fragments of tripod tables, perhaps the remains of offerings to the deity. The olives were preserved almost intact in the water that collected in the well from a natural spring supplying the palace and town of Zakros. As we know from archaeobotanical remains, pictorial scenes and written testimonies, the olive tree and the valuable oil it produced were essential elements of the agricultural production and economy of the palatial communities of Minoan Crete.
Bibliography:
Platon, N. Zakros. The Discovery of a Lost Palace of Ancient Crete. New York, 1971, 196-7.
Author:
I. N.


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