bead
- Museum number
- 1884,1210.222
- Description
-
Glazed composition bead in form of bull's head; rod-formed (?); schematically rendered facial features; horizontal performation towards the top of the head; glazed mostly worn away.
- Production date
- 2000 BC-1100 BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 1.30 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- The provanance of this item is stated in the excavator's publication Kypros where it is also illustrated (Ohnefalsch-Richter 1893, 239 and pl. XCIV, 25). It is very possible that others 'shaped like fruit and balls' that were said to have been found with the present item are the faience beads registered in the sequence GR 1884,12-10.204 to 222.
Confusingly, on pl. I, 70 of the excavator's earlier publication (Ohnefalsch-Richter 1889), the same drawing is reproduced as part of a series of beads said to come from the 'Ochsenkrater-Grab' from Nicosia (but no longer identifiable in Antikensammlung in Berlin). Merrillees, who seems not to have been aware of the BM items, assumed that Ohnefalsch-Richter had simply mixed up the findspot (2012, 32 and fig. 51) but the other beads illustrated here are not, for the most part, the same as those in the GR 1884,12-10 sequence so we are clearly dealing with two sets of beads both of which seem to have included a bull's head example. Furthermore, the Phoenikiais material was excavated, and probably sent to London, well before the discovery of the Ochsenkrater-Grab which was found late in 1884. It is possible that Ohnefalsch-Richter, mistakenly or otherwise, used the same drawing to illustrate both examples - and his publications are full of such ambiguities and errors (Merrillees 2012, 5).
A bull-shaped faience bead was also found in Akhera Tomb 3 (Karageorghis 1965, 129; fig. 37:50; pl. X:4-5); see also SCE IV/1D, 522, Pendant 2 and fig. 70, 21.
Typologically, all the beads are similar to beads of MC (SCE IV/1B, fig. 15, 14-15) and LC (SCE IV/1D, 529 and fig. 70, 8 to 20) date and therefore fall within the likely date range of the tomb material from Phoenikiais.
Bibliography:
Karageorghis, V. 1965, Nouveaux documents pour l'étude du Bronze Récent à Chypre. Recueil critique et commenté (Paris: De Boccard).
Merrillees, R. 2012, The 'Ochsenkrater-Grab' from Nicosia Ayia Paraskevi (Uppsala: Åström).
Ohnefalsch-Richter, M. 1889, 'Ledrai-Lidir and the Copper-Bronze Age', The Journal of Cyprian Studies I, 1-9.
Ohnefalsch-Richter, M. 1893, Kypros, the Bible and Homer (London: Asher).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1884
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1884,1210.222