Ovoid pithos
Π2514
Clay
Incomplete, mended and restored
Height: 60 cm. Rim diameter: 46 cm.
Phaistos
Palace - Magazine XXXIV
Middle Bronze Age, Protopalatial period, Middle Minoan II period:
1800-1700 BC:
Gallery:
IIICase:
Not in caseExhibition thematic unit:
Middle Bronze Age - Protopalatial period (1900-1700 BC). The First Palaces. The emergence of palatial societiesDescription
This large ovoid pithos from the palace of Phaistos has eight handles on the upper body and four on the lower body, ergonomically designed as handles for the safe transportation of the vessel and its contents (agricultural products or objects). The decoration of large reddish-brown drop shapes with white outline, containing an inscribed circle with white outline and a smaller drop ornament, is in the contemporary polychrome Kamares Style which dominated the ceramic production of the palace workshops during the period of the First Palaces. Taken together with the larger pithoi, usually with relief rope patterns but otherwise undecorated, the ornate pithoi provide important information on the storage and distribution strategies of the palatial centres of the Protopalatial period.Bibliography:
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. 176. Levi, D. Festòs e la civiltà minoica I. Incunabula Graeca 60. Roma, 1976, 1733, tav. 48b.Author:
I. N.Photographs' metadata