DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0045
422
'NORTH-EAST HOUSE': ' PITHOID JARS
Its
handles
reminis-
cent of
' medal-
lion '
pithoi.
Preserves
tradition
of store-
jars of
earlier
maga-
zines.
a type of large jar, which it has for the first time been possible to restore
an example, in Fig. 244.
In decoration and technique this jar is a characteristic specimen of the
early L. M. I style. The designs are of a bright ruddy brown hue on the
buff ground, and the details are added in the usual evanescent white. The
olive sprays that run round some of the zones are also a recurrent motive
of vases of this epoch, a reflection, as we shall see, of the naturalistic school
of wall-painting that was so characteristic of the closing Middle Minoan
phase.
But the arrangement of the handles on the jar, as restored in Fig. 244,'
is specially significant. It is provided with three rows of upright loop
handles, six in each, answering thus to the number of the zones and handles
of the ' medallion ' pithoi. The dotted rings enclosing white disks, here seen
within the coils of the spiral, may be themselves, moreover, regarded as
a reminiscence of the embossed disks of these larger jars with their white
rosettes. The type of vessel here illustrated is of much smaller dimensions
than the ' medallion 'pithoi, being only 78 centimetres in height as compared
with nearly a metre and a half, and the name of ' pithoid jar' may be con-
veniently applied to it.2
It will be seen that both the ' medallion ' pithoi and the type of ' pithoid '
jar, above illustrated, correspond, in their successive tiers of zones with handles
round, with the arrangement seen on the great store-jars of the Palace
Magazines both at Knossos and Phaestos that go back to the earlier part
of the Middle Minoan Age.3 These great jars were built up in zones, and
the ropework bordering each was suggested, as already pointed out, by the
actual rope ' cradles' necessary for the transport of such unwieldy receptacles.
The loop-handles that answer to these zones would thus have been
utilized for the actual ropes. In the case of small jars, like Fig. 244,
however, the handles served no utilitarian purpose.
Beside this, in Fig. 245, is placed a magnificent example of a ' pithoid'
jar showing only two rows of handles, restored from fragments found near
1 The lower zone with its handles and the remains of jars with similar moulded rim are
hase were wanting, but are here conjecturally
supplied. This, however, may be regarded as
a sale restoration, a zone of handles above the
base being common to all varieties of pithoi.
2 A good contemporary parallel to this is
supplied by the fine painted jar with handles
similarly arranged and a moulded rim from
Pseira (Seager, p. 28, Fig. 9). Fragmentary
not infrequent at Knossos.
3 See P. of M., i, pp. 232-4 and Figs. 174,
175. Some at least of these may be earlier
than M.M. II, since large vessels of the kind
are liable to go back to the same date as the
floor on which they stand. The bosses on
these pithoi are the progenitors of the later
embossed ' medallions'.
'NORTH-EAST HOUSE': ' PITHOID JARS
Its
handles
reminis-
cent of
' medal-
lion '
pithoi.
Preserves
tradition
of store-
jars of
earlier
maga-
zines.
a type of large jar, which it has for the first time been possible to restore
an example, in Fig. 244.
In decoration and technique this jar is a characteristic specimen of the
early L. M. I style. The designs are of a bright ruddy brown hue on the
buff ground, and the details are added in the usual evanescent white. The
olive sprays that run round some of the zones are also a recurrent motive
of vases of this epoch, a reflection, as we shall see, of the naturalistic school
of wall-painting that was so characteristic of the closing Middle Minoan
phase.
But the arrangement of the handles on the jar, as restored in Fig. 244,'
is specially significant. It is provided with three rows of upright loop
handles, six in each, answering thus to the number of the zones and handles
of the ' medallion ' pithoi. The dotted rings enclosing white disks, here seen
within the coils of the spiral, may be themselves, moreover, regarded as
a reminiscence of the embossed disks of these larger jars with their white
rosettes. The type of vessel here illustrated is of much smaller dimensions
than the ' medallion 'pithoi, being only 78 centimetres in height as compared
with nearly a metre and a half, and the name of ' pithoid jar' may be con-
veniently applied to it.2
It will be seen that both the ' medallion ' pithoi and the type of ' pithoid '
jar, above illustrated, correspond, in their successive tiers of zones with handles
round, with the arrangement seen on the great store-jars of the Palace
Magazines both at Knossos and Phaestos that go back to the earlier part
of the Middle Minoan Age.3 These great jars were built up in zones, and
the ropework bordering each was suggested, as already pointed out, by the
actual rope ' cradles' necessary for the transport of such unwieldy receptacles.
The loop-handles that answer to these zones would thus have been
utilized for the actual ropes. In the case of small jars, like Fig. 244,
however, the handles served no utilitarian purpose.
Beside this, in Fig. 245, is placed a magnificent example of a ' pithoid'
jar showing only two rows of handles, restored from fragments found near
1 The lower zone with its handles and the remains of jars with similar moulded rim are
hase were wanting, but are here conjecturally
supplied. This, however, may be regarded as
a sale restoration, a zone of handles above the
base being common to all varieties of pithoi.
2 A good contemporary parallel to this is
supplied by the fine painted jar with handles
similarly arranged and a moulded rim from
Pseira (Seager, p. 28, Fig. 9). Fragmentary
not infrequent at Knossos.
3 See P. of M., i, pp. 232-4 and Figs. 174,
175. Some at least of these may be earlier
than M.M. II, since large vessels of the kind
are liable to go back to the same date as the
floor on which they stand. The bosses on
these pithoi are the progenitors of the later
embossed ' medallions'.