• Marine Style rhyton in the Special Palatial Tradition



Marine Style rhyton in the Special Palatial Tradition
Marine Style rhyton in the Special Palatial Tradition

Marine Style rhyton in the Special Palatial Tradition

Π5832
Clay
Mended with minor restoration
Height: 20 cm. Rim diameter: 7.1 cm. Diameter of hole: 0.4 cm.
Phaistos
Palace area 63d (Lustral Basin)
Late Bronze Age, Neopalatial period, Late Minoan IB period:
1500-1450 BC:
Gallery:
IV
Case:
41
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). The New Palaces. The zenith of Minoan civilisation
Palaces. Palatial buildings. Palaces of Phaistos and Malia
Description
This elaborate rhyton from Phaistos stands out among the pottery of the Late Minoan IB period due to its refined Marine Style decoration and distinctive use. This is an ovoid rhyton, a vase with a narrow mouth for filling and an even narrower pouring hole in the tip, ergonomically suited to decanting or filtering liquids. This particular vase contains a cone fitted inside the rim, forming a second, funnel-like vessel. This strange arrangement meant that the user could control the flow in a way that would have seemed almost magical. The main decorative theme, large argonauts floating to the right in a seascape of stylised rocks and other supplementary motifs, was a particularly popular one in the art of the period, where the world of the sea was treated as a reference point in both the daily life and the religious beliefs of the Minoans. Rhyta like this one not only served practical everyday needs but were also used at ceremonial events as libation vessels, often in pairs.
Bibliography:
Pernier L. and L. Banti. Il palazzo minoico di Festòs : scavi e studi della Missione archeologica italiana a Creta dal 1900 al 1950, Roma, 1951, 173, no 4, 530, 532, figs. 103a, 104. Koehl, R.B. Aegean Bronze Age Rhyta. INSTAP Prehistory Monographs 19. Philadelphia, Penn., 2006, 133, no 380, fig. 14, pl. 31. Mountjoy, P.A. “The Marine Style Pottery of LM IB/LH IIA: Towards a Corpus”. Annual of the British School at Athens 79 (1984): 195 (Phaistos 2), pl. 25a.
Author:
I. N.


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