askos

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Object Type
Museum number: 1884,1210.60
Description: Animal-shaped pottery vase in Black Slip III ware; ovoid body with a flat base; animal head at one end and beak-shaped spout at the other with a handle on top; buff clay with worn brown slip.
Cultures/periods: Middle Cypriot III; Late Cypriot I
Production date: 1750 BC-1550BC
Production place: Made in: Cyprus
Excavator/field collector
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Phoenikiais, tomb
Materials
Ware
Type series
Technique: handmade; slipped
Dimensions: Height: 12.50 centimetres
Curator's comments: This appears to be the vessel shown on Pl. CLXXXIII, 20-21 and pl. CXLVI, 3B of Kypros though the drawing there is not accurate. The volume of the present vase is not properly represented and the animal has a much fleshier neck and no horns. See Merrillees 2014 for a modern survey of this kind of vessel, esp. pp. 36 and 42-3 (with bibliography) discussing an unusual example in Berlin. Bibliography: Merrillees, R.S. 2014, 'An exceptional Late Cypriote Bronze Age askos with animal protome', in V. Karageorghis et al. (ed.), Cypriote antiquities in Berlin in the focus of new research (Münster; New York: Waxmann)
Bibliographic references: Vase / Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum (C99); SCE IV/1B / The Swedish Cyprus Expedition. Vol. IV/ 1B The Middle Cypriot Bronze Age (p. 108, V c); CVA British Museum 1 / Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain 1, British Museum 1 (pl. 8.16); Ohnefalsch-Richter 1893 / Kypros, the Bible and Homer Oriental civilization, art and religion in ancient times (Pl. CLXXXIII, 20-21; pl. CXLVI, 3B (?))
Location: Not on display
Subjects
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1884
Department: Greek and Roman
Registration number: 1884,1210.60

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