• Cycladic jug with bird decoration



Cycladic jug with bird decoration
Cycladic jug with bird decoration
Cycladic jug with bird decoration
Cycladic jug with bird decoration

Cycladic jug with bird decoration

Π2595
Clay
Incomplete, mended and restored
Height: 56 cm. Base diameter: 14 cm.
Knossos
Palace, Temple Repositories
Late Bronze Age, Neopalatial period, Middle Minoan IIIB - Late Minoan IA period:
1650-1500 BC:
Gallery:
VIII
Case:
Case 81
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). Minoan religion. Palace cult
Palace of Knossos. The Temple Repositories
Description
This vase comes from the “Temple Repositories” of the Central Palace Sanctuary of Knossos, two large crypts under the floor apparently used to store ritual objects and the equipment of the Sanctuary following the destruction of the palace around 1600 BC. The objects found in the crypts constitute a multifaceted assemblage symbolically associated with the cult of the Great Goddess of nature. Besides the Snake Goddesses, other artefacts of various materials and many seals, the Temple Repositories contained some thirty vases, mostly large jugs and amphorae dated around 1600 BC. Many of the vases are locally produced but there are also several imports, like this beaked jug from a workshop of Thera or Melos in the Cyclades. Its upper body is decorated with a row of birds in the Middle Cycladic tradition, with a large body shaped like a solid monochrome disc. The assemblage of vases from the Temple Repositories also included other vessels and sherds of vessels from Melos, Thera and probably Naxos. Among these last is an amphora with a Linear A inscription on the rim recording a large quantity of wine totalling 3,369 litres. It appears that these transport vessels from the Cyclades contained goods that may have been offerings to the Central Palace Sanctuary of Knossos, at a time when Minoan culture had begun to exercise a strong influence on island communities.
Bibliography:
Evans, A. The Palace of Knossos. Annual of the British School at Athens 9, fig. 26g. 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. Vol. I, London, 1921, fig. 404h. Panagiotaki, M. The Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos. BSA Supplementary Volume 31. London, 1999, 178, no. 338, fig. 38-9, pl. 24-5.
Author:
I. N.


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