An Inscribed Stirrup Jar of Cretan Origin from Bamboula, Cyprus (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Origin of the Aegean Stirrup Jar and Its Earliest Evolution and Distribution (MB III-LBI)
American Journal of Archaeology, 1985
Stirrup jars, containers for oil and wine, are found at various sites throughout the Aegean from the time of their invention on Crete in MM III. Although much attention has been directed toward later versions (some with painted Linear B inscriptions), early stirrup jars-their origins, evolution, and distribution-have been poorly documented. Here the early history of this important vessel is examined. Since most early stirrup jars are sparsely decorated, if at all, the dating of individual specimens must usually be based upon typological details. Among the diagnostic features are the three-handle arrangement, disc hole, spout horns, and shape of the false neck and spout. By Late Minoan IA the form was well established on Crete and in the Cyclades. It was not, however, until LM IB/LH IIA that it reached the Greek mainland, and then only in small numbers. The stirrup jar,' a specialized container for oil or wine,2 is a vessel characteristic of the Aegean Late Bronze Age. Best known are the later versions, both the Mycenaean fine ware types, found throughout the eastern Mediterranean,3 and the large, coarse ware variety, many bearing painted Linear B inscriptions.4 Early stirrup jars have been relatively neglected. It is my intention to examine the date and place of the invention of the form, and its early typological development and distribution. Recent finds at Kommos on Crete, Ayia Irini on Keos, and Akrotiri on Thera have added fresh evidence, necessitating a re-examination of early stirrup jars. * A summary of this study was delivered at the 81st General Meeting of the AIA (Boston, December 1979): AJA 84 (1980) 210. It is part of wider research on the stirrup jar, and is a development of work done for my Ph.D. dissertation on coarse ware stirrup jars (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1981). SKnown also as Biigelkanne, and false-necked amphora. The name for the shape in Linear B, ka-rare we , is confirmed by a tablet at Knossos (K 778): M. Ventris and J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek2 (Cambridge 1973) 324, 328; A. Evans, Scripta Minoa 2 (Oxford 1952; hereafter SM) 778. 2 A note of caution should be sounded here, since the most secure evidence for contents comes from a much later context, 13th c. Pylos: for oil (Fr 1184), Ventris and Chadwick (supra n. 1) 481, and E. Bennett, "The Olive Oil Tablets of Pylos," Minos Suppl. 2 (1958) 40-41; for wine, C. Blegen, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia 1 (Princeton 1966) 342-47, and AJA 63 (1959) 133-35. 3 Furumark Shape (FS) 165-85: A. Furumark, The Mycenaean Pottery (Stockholm 1941) 610. F. Stubbings calls the fine ware stirrup jar, often found in tombs, the Bronze Age equivalent of the Classical lekythos: BSA 42 (1947) 24. 4 FS 164. For inscribed jars, see J. Raison, Les vases a inscriptions peintes de lage mycinien et leur context archdologique (Rome 1968), and A. Sacconi, Corpus delle iscrizioni vascolari in lineare B (Rome 1974); also H. Catling et. al., BSA 75 (1980) 49-113. The excavators at Troy used the word "oatmeal" as a descriptive term to indicate the fabric of these coarse ware stirrup jars: J. Caskey in C. Blegen et. al., Troy 3 (Princeton 1953) 305-306. s See BSA 9 (1902-1903) 138; Archaeologia 59 (1905) 510-11. 6 Furumark (supra n. 3) 19 and n. 5; see L. Pernier and L. Banti, II palazzo minoico di Festus 2 (Rome 1951) 491. Light-ondark pottery, thought at the time of Furumark's publication to end with MM III, was found in the destruction level of Casa 103. 7 R. Dussaud, Les civilisations prdhelliniques dans le bassin de la mer Eg&e (Paris 1910) 39 (LM I); E. Reisinger, Kretische Vasenmalerei vom Kamaresbis zumn Palast-Stil (Berlin 1912) 24 (LM I); H. Hall, Aegean Archaeology (London 1915) 94 (beg. of LM period); L. Renaudin, BCH 46 (1922) 144 (end of MM III or
2019
A 7th-century b.c. cup from the sanctuary of Kommos in Crete presents what may be the most complex and multifigured scene on a Cretan ceramic vessel of any period, and it has long puzzled scholars. Based on a recent reexamination of the cup, the present study offers original insights into its fabric, its technique of manufacture, and especially its iconography. Through this examination, an identification of episodes from the Trojan War is proposed, the relevance of this imagery to the cultural context of production and consumption is explained, and this interpretation is situated within the debate over the identification of myth and ritual in Cretan art of the early 1st millennium b.c.
During the First Palace or Protopalatial period (M(iddle) M(inoan) IB-IIB: 19th-18th c. BC) on Crete the communal consumption activities undertaken at palatial sites seem to prefer the use of specific cups, which are very different from one palatial site to another. The plain handleless conical cup is the typical shape of Phaistos, well attested in the palatial centre since Prepalatial times. It is also present in the nearby sites sharing the ceramic tradition of Phaistos (e.g. Ayia Triada, Kommos), but absent or rarely attested in the rest of the island at least until MM III. The footed goblet is the drinking cup par excellence of the palatial site of Knossos, from Prepalatial times until MM IIA. The footed goblet is well attested in the Knossian region, but quite rare outside it. At Malia, the one-handled conical cup is the main drinking cup in use at the palatial site, especially in MM II. It is present also in the nearby sites (e.g. Sissi), as well as in eastern Crete, but absent in the rest of the island. All these cups have in common the following characteristics: production in crude ware, plainness or a very simple decoration, presence in massive quantity only in one palatial site and respective region. On the contrary, there are some shapes that seem uniformly attested across the island in Protopalatial times, like the carinated, the straight-sided and the rounded cups in Polychrome Ware. In this paper I will argue that in Protopalatial Crete there existed some cups that are characteristic of specific palatial sites and their area of influence (ideological and/or political), and likely connected to ceremonial activities that took place under the auspices of the palaces or with the purpose of evoking palatial ceremonies, and others that are instead more uniformly attested across the island because representative of interconnected elites of Crete.
Cretan Hellenistic Pottery : between Modernity and Tradition
I. Kamenjarin et M. Ugarković (éd.), Proceedings of the 3rd IARPotHP Conference: Exploring The Neighborhood: The Role of Ceramics in Understanding Place in the Hellenistic World, Vienne, Phoibos Verlag, 2020, p. 517-531, 2020
The island of Crete is generally perceived as very traditional. Cretan Hellenistic pottery is used as a test case here to determine whether this impression is justified. After a general presentation of Cretan Hellenistic pottery, two groups of highly decorated vases are studied in detail. In the first group (ca. 270-190 BCE), we find Cretan olpae and Hadra hydriae bearing developed, sometimes baroque mythological scenes. The scenes are painted in white and brown, with red highlights, on a black-gloss background. The second group (ca. 290-175 BCE) consists mainly of phialae (the so-called Medusa bowls), hydriae and jugs. The decorations include ribbing and applied moulded heads or other ornaments. The palette is broader, comprised of pink, blue and yellow on a black-gloss or light background. Only very few figurative scenes are depicted. The decoration consists mainly of rosebuds and bucrania, though often combined with new three-dimensional designs, such as meanders and denticules. In both groups, the decorated shapes belong to a wine set, possibly reserved for some ritual use. They were probably painted by two related craftsmen who were master and pupil. They exhibit original, modern designs on traditional Cretan shapes, revealing the complexity of Cretan Hellenistic society. * For providing information, access to vases or images, I would like to thank Chr.
Two Mycenaean Stirrup Jars from the Levant
A cache of artifacts, recovered in 2014 by the cultural heritage squadron of the Guardia di Finanza (Gruppo Tutela Patrimonio Archeologico of the Nucleo Polizia Tributaria di Roma), included two Mycenaean stirrup jars among the pottery illegally brought into Italy from the Northern Levant. The stirrup jar has one of the most distinctive shapes of the Mycenaean repertoire and is found throughout the Mediterranean around the end of the Late Bronze Age. Even if removed from their original context, both of these stirrup jars can be ascribed to a distinctive cultural milieu within a specific chronological range, based upon morphological and stylistic parameters. Furthermore, their good state of preservation suggests that the original context of deposition may have been a tomb. Comparison with stirrup jars found at key sites in the Eastern Mediterranean allows us to re-contextualize them as part of the wide diffusion of Mycenaean luxury goods in the Levant.