jug
- Museum number
- 1871,0210.1
- Description
-
Pottery jug with double-spout in Red Polished ware; hand-made. Ovoid gourd-like body on a rounded base; two tall cylindrical necks with cutaway mouths; single handle with an oval profile branching into two bridges to the bottom of the cutaway mouths. Made of pink-buff fabric and covered with a lustrous burnished red slip; incised with lime-filled incised geometric motifs: bands of horizontal lines on the lower body, spouts and hand; panels of vertical zig-zags and hatched triangles. Some restoration (at joins) and the surface is worn in places.
- Production date
- 2100 BC-1900BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 30.48 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- The source of the information on the findspot is not immediately clear from the GR register, though the vase appears to be lot no. 39 of Cesnola's sale at Sotheby's on 9-10 January where, along with various items of prehistoric metalwork (possibly among lots 1-9 passim), are said to come from Alambra. The vessel also appears to be the one illustrated in pl. VII of Cesnola's Ancient Cyprus (1877, bottom row, left). Cesnola excavated in the cemeteries around the modern village of Alambra beginning in the later 1860s (Cesnola 1877, 87ff) and this was the stated source of many of his earlier Bronze Age finds, such as those in the Metropolitan Museum.
This was the type specimen cited by Stewart for this group which is also represenetd by an example from Vounous (Stewart and Stewart 1950, Tomb 36a, no. 33).
Bibliography:
Cesnola, L. P. di 1877: Cyprus. Its ancient cities, tombs and temples (London: John Murray).
Stewart, E. and Stewart, J. 1950, Vounous 1937-38. Field-report of the excavations sponsored by the British School of Archaeology at Athens (Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2021-2022 29 Jun-9 Jan, Turin, Musei Reali, Cyprus: Crossroads of Civilization
- Acquisition date
- 1871
- Acquisition notes
- Donated by Augustus Franks to the BM in 1871. It was excavated in Cyprus by Luigi Palma di Cesnola in the later 1860s and presuambly sold at auction at the Cesnola sale at Sotheby's on 9-10 January 1871 as it seems to correspond with lot no. 39. This was purchased by 'Wareham' for £1 6s, possibly William Wareham of 14 Charing Cross Road and Castle Street near Leicester Square. Either Wareham was Franks' agent or the latter subsequently bought the vessel from him and later presented it to the GR department.
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1871,0210.1
