dipper
- Museum number
- 1894,1101.233
- Description
-
Bronze dipper jug with a hinged handle, possibly used for serving wine hammered from sheet metal with cast (?) handle; the jug is depressed ovoid in shape, rather baggy in profile, with a high collar at the back and a flat everted rim; the handle has a rounded section, terminating in a curved duck's head with a long, concave beak; at the other end, the shaft of the handle widens into a triangular lotus-like (?) profile with three concentric mouldings at the base, on the top of which is a rectangular place to which the circular hinge is attached; surface corroded in places.
- Production date
- 600BC-500BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 34 centimetres (at full extension of handle)
-
Height: 14 centimetres (jug)
-
Length: 18.50 centimetres (handle)
- Curator's comments
- The surviving pottery from the tomb dates to the CA II period though the ring suggests a further burial in the 5th century BC.
See Matthäus 1985, 257-60 for a survey and discussion of the three known examples of this type in Cyprus, tow of which come from Tomb 84. They are widely distributed in the Mediterranean. Vonhoff (2015, 280-1) considers the type to be a Phoenician version of a type first attested in Egypt from the time of the Bronze to Iron transition, though some features - such as the bird-headed handle - are found in Cyprus already in the Late Bronze Age (deriving from Near Eastern prototypes).
Bibliography:
Vonhoff, C. 2015, 'Phoenician bronzes in Cyprus' in: J. Jiménez Ávila (ed.), Phoenician bronzes in Mediterranean. Bibliotheca Archaeologica Hisopania 45 (Madrid: Read Academia de la Historia), 269-96.
- Location
- On display (G72/dc16)
- Acquisition date
- 1894
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1894,1101.233
