• Bird-shaped rhyton



Bird-shaped rhyton
Bird-shaped rhyton

Bird-shaped rhyton

Π6868
Clay
Good
Height: 12.2 cm. Length: 15.7 cm
Platanos
Tholos Tomb Β
Early-Middle Bronze Age. Prepalatial period. Early Minoan ΙΙΙ- Middle Minoan ΙΑ period:
2200-1900 BC:
Gallery:
I
Case:
7
Exhibition thematic unit:
Early Bronze Age - Prepalatial period (3000 - 1900 BC). Settlements and cemeteries - the rise of ruling groups
Tholos tombs
Description
Clay bird-shaped object, perhaps a partridge based on the wings. The head is missing but the beak probably formed the pouring spout for libations, while the vase was filled through the wide hole in the neck. The elaborate wings and tail are naturalistically rendered, while the vase preserves the polychrome decoration in brown, red and white, which would have given it a particularly lively aspect. The vase was found in the rich cemetery of tholos tombs in Platanos in the Mesara, which was used by local communities for hundreds of years. The ceremonies held in communal tholos tombs were not intended to keep individual remains together, so it is unclear whether the vase accompanied a specific burial or was used to make ritual libations to the deceased in general. Shortly before the building of the first palaces, rituals involving libations poured from elaborate clay animal-shaped vessels like this one intensified.
Bibliography:
Xanthoudides, S. 1924. The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara. An account of some early cemeteries of Southern Crete. London.
Author:
I. G.


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