pithos
- Museum number
- 1896,0201.107
- Description
-
Rim and part of upper body of a large Red Slip pottery pithos or storage vessel; wheelmade/ wheel-turned; thick lower body separated from carinated upper part by a prominent ridge; small relief head of a human with long tresses and large ears at the junction, possibly a hathor figure; details of hair rendered with parallel diagonal incisions; broad, flat everted rim with a continuous groove on the inner side; coarse buff clay with small white inclusions covered in a red slip; traces of a darker red paint below the rim may represent an original all-over layer of paint; top and inside of rim painted in black; reconstructed from fragments.
- Production date
- 750BC-600BC (?)
- Curator's comments
- Exact parallels are unknown but see SCE IV/2, pl. XXIV for similar protomes on a Bichrome III ring vase; this may also be related to the later protome vases of CA II date (see Vandenabeele 1998, chapter II) or to vases with anthropomorphic elements vase (see Nys 1997). These may also be related to figurines found on wall plaques, some of which were holders for lamps or incense burners (see J. and V. Karageorghis 2006, who discuss the identity of the figurines which may be deities, especially Hathor). The identification of the head on the present example as Hathor is less certain, as it lacks the familiar upcurling locks, though more correctly this is probably an image of the local Great Goddess than Hathor herslef.
Bibliography:
Carbillet, A. 2011, La figure hathorique à Chypre (IIe-Ier mill. av. J.-C.). AOAT 388 (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag).
Karageorghis, J. and V. 2006, 'A propos des appliques murales de Chypre', RDAC 2006, 173-7.
Nys, K. 1997, 'Vases with anthropomorphic protomes in the Cypro-Geometric and Cypro-Archaic periods (1060-475 B.C.), in: V. Karageorghis, R. Laffineur and F. Vandenabelle (eds), Four thousand years of images on Cypriote pottery. Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Cypriote Studies, Nicosia 3-4 May, 1996 (Brussels-Liège-Nicosia), 81-7.
Vandenabeele, F. 1998, Figurines on Cypriot jugs holding an oinochoe (Jonsered: P. Åström).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1896
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1896,0201.107