§ 4. Objects of Terracotta from Palaikastro and Praisos

Abstract

[Though some of these objects have already been published, they are better represented in the photographs in Plates 17–20.The descriptions are based on notes left by Mr. Hutchinson when he left England for Crete in 1940, and it has not been possible to submit them to him for revision.]A Bull's-head of Terracotta (Plate 20 A; CM 2070) was found at Praisos, but the circumstances of the find are not recorded. It may be the fragment which Bosanquet thought (BSA Suppl. I (1923) 153 n.) to be the end of the ridge-pole of the larnax from Tholos B. The larnakes in Candia afford nothing like it, but Dr. Schachermayer reports a similar head on a LM.III larnax in the Museum at Hierapetra. This head is of pink clay, covered with a pink slip; across the horns (one of which is broken) it measures ·13m. and from the top of the head to the tip of the muzzle ·10m. One ear is missing. Strongly marked characteristics are the bold modelling of the eyes and brow, the incised lines above the nostrils, the slit for the mouth, the narrow neck and nose, and the forward stretching of the head.