DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15680#0109
THE POTTER Y.
89
idea tbat they represent birds is rigLt or wrong, the name is at any rate a
convenient one and deserves to be retained.1 These duck-vases were very
common althougb not many of tbem were preserved whole. They all have
flattened bases, a spout with broad flat rim and pointed nose, and
a small liandle at the root of the neck (attached externally). The normal
type is illustrated by IV. 6. The large globular specimens of whicli IV.\S
is a representative have a suspension-handle at either side. There was a small
and extremely flat one with little unperforated iedge-handles. Some of the
spouts were mach longer than others and some stood more erect than others,
but the material was too fragmentary for any nicer distinctions to be fonnded
lipon it.
Hitherto not many examples of this remarkable type have been known.
There are at least two from Amorgos, one of which is in the Ashmolean and
the other in Athens (At/t, Mitth. 1886, Beil., 2, 1), one from Tiryns (Schlie-
mann, Tirana p. 67, No. 5), and another from Hissarlik.2 Two other
specimens in the British Museum and the Sevres Museum respectively come
without much doubt from the Phylakopi tombs. I am not aware of any
others.
Though it is possible that the shape of the duck-vases was secondarily
intended to recall that of a bird, it cannot be thought that the type
originated as a realistic Imitation. Dümmler remarks that the ornamentation
on the top of the Amorgos specimen points to its being derived from a vase
with a removable lid (Ath. Mitth. 1886, p. 37), and it seems to me that he is
right. The top may well be a copy of a conical lid like Fig. 72. A round-
shouldered vase with conical lid and side-spout (something in the style of
'E(/>. 'Apx- 1899, PI. ix. 14);! is what one can imagine to have been the proto-
type of the duck-vase. The flat-topped spout is a modification of one like
IX. 1, more ornamental than useful for pouring from.
Dümmler further suggests that the well-known Mycenaean type called
pseudamphora or bügelkanne is derived from the duck-vase (I.e. p. 37). The
inteimediate link by which he connects them is rather weak (I.e. Beil. 2, 2);
• but nevertheless there is something in the Suggestion. A large painted vase
from Phylakopi, Fig. 74, forms a strikingly clear link between the two types;
it retains the essential elements of the duck-vase, the shoulder-spout, the
conical top and the handle ; but the spout has lost its flat rim and the handle
is now erected over the central cone4 ; the general shape of the vessel, too, is
exactly that of certain large pseudamphorae. It is possible that this is an inten-
1 Vasea in the form of birds occur in pre-
Historie deposits both in Egypt and in Europe
(cy. Petrie and Quibell, Naqada and Bailas,
l'ls. XII. and XXVII., Hoernes, Urgeschichte,
n. 496), and a specimen from Corinth shows
that. they were not unknown in the Aegean
area (Anw. Journ. of Arch. 1897, p. 3-23).
Of. also a ' Kamares' bird-vase from Cnossos
[J.H.S. H>iil, p. 79). In viewof the European
examples and of the nndoubted animal-vases
found at Phylakopi (see p. 91), I think it quite
possible that the makers of the jra7riais did
really intend them to be suggestive of birds.
- Schliemann, Troja, (Eng. ed.) p. 21(i, no.
130. Is this of looal fabric or imported ? In
either case it is a token of Aegean influence.
3 Cf. also PL IV. 13.
4 The handle of the Tiryns specimen is of
an intermediate type.
89
idea tbat they represent birds is rigLt or wrong, the name is at any rate a
convenient one and deserves to be retained.1 These duck-vases were very
common althougb not many of tbem were preserved whole. They all have
flattened bases, a spout with broad flat rim and pointed nose, and
a small liandle at the root of the neck (attached externally). The normal
type is illustrated by IV. 6. The large globular specimens of whicli IV.\S
is a representative have a suspension-handle at either side. There was a small
and extremely flat one with little unperforated iedge-handles. Some of the
spouts were mach longer than others and some stood more erect than others,
but the material was too fragmentary for any nicer distinctions to be fonnded
lipon it.
Hitherto not many examples of this remarkable type have been known.
There are at least two from Amorgos, one of which is in the Ashmolean and
the other in Athens (At/t, Mitth. 1886, Beil., 2, 1), one from Tiryns (Schlie-
mann, Tirana p. 67, No. 5), and another from Hissarlik.2 Two other
specimens in the British Museum and the Sevres Museum respectively come
without much doubt from the Phylakopi tombs. I am not aware of any
others.
Though it is possible that the shape of the duck-vases was secondarily
intended to recall that of a bird, it cannot be thought that the type
originated as a realistic Imitation. Dümmler remarks that the ornamentation
on the top of the Amorgos specimen points to its being derived from a vase
with a removable lid (Ath. Mitth. 1886, p. 37), and it seems to me that he is
right. The top may well be a copy of a conical lid like Fig. 72. A round-
shouldered vase with conical lid and side-spout (something in the style of
'E(/>. 'Apx- 1899, PI. ix. 14);! is what one can imagine to have been the proto-
type of the duck-vase. The flat-topped spout is a modification of one like
IX. 1, more ornamental than useful for pouring from.
Dümmler further suggests that the well-known Mycenaean type called
pseudamphora or bügelkanne is derived from the duck-vase (I.e. p. 37). The
inteimediate link by which he connects them is rather weak (I.e. Beil. 2, 2);
• but nevertheless there is something in the Suggestion. A large painted vase
from Phylakopi, Fig. 74, forms a strikingly clear link between the two types;
it retains the essential elements of the duck-vase, the shoulder-spout, the
conical top and the handle ; but the spout has lost its flat rim and the handle
is now erected over the central cone4 ; the general shape of the vessel, too, is
exactly that of certain large pseudamphorae. It is possible that this is an inten-
1 Vasea in the form of birds occur in pre-
Historie deposits both in Egypt and in Europe
(cy. Petrie and Quibell, Naqada and Bailas,
l'ls. XII. and XXVII., Hoernes, Urgeschichte,
n. 496), and a specimen from Corinth shows
that. they were not unknown in the Aegean
area (Anw. Journ. of Arch. 1897, p. 3-23).
Of. also a ' Kamares' bird-vase from Cnossos
[J.H.S. H>iil, p. 79). In viewof the European
examples and of the nndoubted animal-vases
found at Phylakopi (see p. 91), I think it quite
possible that the makers of the jra7riais did
really intend them to be suggestive of birds.
- Schliemann, Troja, (Eng. ed.) p. 21(i, no.
130. Is this of looal fabric or imported ? In
either case it is a token of Aegean influence.
3 Cf. also PL IV. 13.
4 The handle of the Tiryns specimen is of
an intermediate type.