Pottery stemmed bowl decorated with a procession of riders in chariots

Mycenaean, about 1400-1300 BC
From Maroni, Cyprus

A 'Chariot Krater'

This vase is a fine example of Mycenaean Pictorial Style pottery. Such vases, painted with scenes of humans and animals, were popular exports from Mycenaean Greece to the island of Cyprus, where many of them, including this one, have been found. This is a particularly fine example of the group known as 'Chariot Kraters' after their subject-matter and shape, which were particularly popular in the fourteenth century BC. A krater is a wide-mouthed bowl for mixing wine and water.

The upper zone of the vase is painted with a frieze of chariots, pulled by elongated horses, in which ride a charioteer and a passenger. Such chariot processions on vases may well have been inspired by contemporary fresco-paintings which decorated the walls of Mycenaean palaces.

R. Higgins, The Greek Bronze Age (London, The British Museum Press, 1977)

R.A. Higgins, Minoan and Mycenean art, new revised edition (London, Thames & Hudson, 1997)

D. Williams, Greek vases (London, The British Museum Press, 1999)