Marine Style pithoid jar



Marine Style pithoid jar

Π13985
Clay
Incomplete, mended and restored
Height: 55 cm. Diameter: 60 cm.
Zakros
Palace, Pantry of the Shrine (West Wing, Storeoom III)
Late Bronze Age, Neopalatial period, Late Minoan IB period:
1500-1450 BC:
Gallery:
IV
Case:
43
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). The New Palaces. The zenith of Minoan civilisation
Pithoid jars
Description
This small pithoid jar from Zakros is strikingly decorated in the Marine Style. The whole surface of the body is covered by the main themes: two large octopuses swimming diagonally on the main sides, with supplementary marine motifs including stylised rocks, corals and argonauts. The refinement of the decoration is heightened by the elegant shape of the vase and the relief details such as the rings around the neck and base, and the nine wavy strap handles with a central rib on the upper surface which adorn the shoulder and body of the vessel. The stylistic and thematic similarities between this vase from Zakros and vessels from Palaikastro and Gournia has led to the hypothesis that they were produced by the same workshop, perhaps even the same vase-painter. The vessel type is an early example of the Palace Style pithoid jars of the following period. It is clearly differentiated from them, however, by the naturalistic features of the decoration, which belongs to the Marine Style of the Late Minoan IB period.
Bibliography:
Hogarth, D.G. "Bronze Age vases from Zakros". Journal of Hellenic Studies 22 (1902): pI. XII, 2. Mountjoy, P.A. “The Marine Style Pottery of LM IB/LH IIA: Towards a Corpus”. Annual of the British School at Athens 79 (1984): 197 (Zakros 5), pl. 19f.
Author:
I. N.


Photographs' metadata