A Late Helladic IIIC Vase in Birmingham

Abstract

I publish illustrations here of a Mycenaean vase that has for long been in the possession of the Department of Archaeology in the City of Birmingham Museum. It entered that collection in 1885 as part of a group of pottery found in Cyprus, without further details of source. All the rest of the material is certainly of Cypriot origin, and there must be a very strong presumption that our vase was found there, too. Since it belongs to a class of Mycenaean pottery of which very little has been reported from Cyprus, and is also of some little intrinsic interest, it seems appropriate that it should be more widely known. The vase may be described as follows:Birmingham accession no. 1369/85. Stirrup jar, complete and intact. Ht. 0·25 m., diam. 0·203 m. Furumark would call the shape ‘globular-conical’ and ‘perked-up’. Shoulders and belly are spherical, but the lower walls straighten somewhat toward the foot. The clay is light buff in tone, with some inclusions, well fired, and has a smooth yellowish surface finish. The paint is rich brown to dark brown in colour, matt, and rather streaky on the solid areas; brush strokes are very evident. The spout is of concave profile, with wide mouth that has a well-formed bead lip; it just tops the disc of the false-neck, almost touching it. The broad handles are rather narrowly set on the shoulder. In the middle of the disc of the false-neck is a prominent plastic nipple, pierced before firing, that acts as air-hole. The bevelled foot is well proportioned. There is paint on the lip of the spout, whose root, as well as the root of the false-neck and the roots of the handles, is outlined with paint.