Jug with animal protomes
Jug with animal protomes
This jug is an extremely rare and early example of White-Slip Ware, which appeared at the beginning of the Late Cypriot period. Vases of this category were handmade (at least in the early phases of the style) and were widely diffused in Cyprus and exported abroad until around the early 12th c. BC. This remarkable jug and a similar one in the Louvre belong to the so-called Proto-White-Slip Ware, which is dated to the mid-17th c. BC. Characteristic of the vase is the decoration on the shoulder with ibex heads modelled in the round. The application of animal protomes on vessels is a habit that continues the tradition of Middle Cypriot pottery. Researchers consider the said two jugs as products of the same workshop in the Pendayia area, in the bay of Morphou in northwest Cyprus, provenance of other Proto- White-Slip vessels with the same clay fabric and similar thick slip. Although the contexts of the two jugs are not known, their extravagant decoration most probably points to a ritual or mortuary use.
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Cypriot Art
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