276-293

Daedalic objects from the Mitsotakis collection

Σύμμεικτα

• Τσιποπούλου, Μεταξία

The Collection of antiquities of K. and M. Mitsotakis contains objects found in Crete and chronologically ranging from the EM period to Roman times. Two relief pithoi and part of the neck of a third, as well as a female figurine are published here. The pithoi come from Aphrati ( Arcades ). The figurine is of unknown provenance.I. PithoiRelief pithoi were manufactured during the archaic period in many Aegean centres. There are more such vases from Crete, than from any other region. The shape of the Cretan pithos is a direct evolution of the geometric pithos ( note 2 ) yet the decorative scheme is completely new.There were local workshops in the most important archaic Cretan cities; these workshops used similar forms and decorative ideas. Their individual identity is asserted by the frequency and variations of the motifs commonly used by all.It seems very probable that the pithoi of the Mitsotakis Collection belong to the same group as the similar vases — all very well known —· in the Museums of Basle ( note 8 ), Louvre ( note 7 ) Jerusalem ( note 9 ) and Thessaloniki (note 11 ), and two in the Metaxas Collection (note 10); they apparently all come from a site plundered in the area of Aphrati, in 1964 ( note 26 ).P. 84 : (figs. 1 - 7 ) This vase has many motifs common in the Arcades workshop, such as rosettes, bosses, wavy lines and empty metopes. Only a small part is preserved from the relief decoration of the neck : a standing sphinx near the right handle, moves to the left ; the missing head had looked in front ; two front legs of another sphinx are near the left handle. There is space in the panel for a third sphinx. The closest parallel is the pithos in the Thessaloniki Museum, which has also three sphinxes in the neck panel, but coming from a different mould than those of P. 84.P. 104: (fig. 8). This fragment comes from the neck of a relief pithos similar to P. 84, but smaller in size. The only part of the decoration preserved is the rear part of a sphinx. It was probably enclosed in a metope, and was standing to the right. There are three possibilities for the initial decoration of the neck : two metopes ofsphinxes either facing each other or looking to the right, or a large panel with two heraldic sphinxes.P. 100: (figs. 9-14). This pithos has no relief decoration on the neck. Instead, there are two relief bands with impressed decoration of a multiple running spiral and small rosettes — one on the shoulder and the other on the neck of the vase —. This motif is rather rare on Cretan relief pithoi, and, apparently, a peculiarity of the Arcades Chania, March 1981workshop : there are four known examples; three come from Aphrati ( notes 20, 21, 22 ), the fourth is in the Cretan Collection in Oxford, its only provenance being that it comes from Crete ( note 19 ). The spiral and rosette motif is very common in the workshop of relief pithoi at Camiros in Rhodes ( note 23 ) which dates to the middle of the sixth century B. C. It is evident that the impressed pattern on P. 100 has been stamped by a cylinder.The three pithoi of the Mitsotakis Collection should be dated around the middle of the seventh century B. C.II. FigurineP. 103 : (figs. 15, 17 ). Upper part of a female, dressed, standing figurine of late Daedalic date.The provenance is unknown. Two examples at the Chania Museum, nos. 1048 and 1051 (figs. 16-17) come from Axos and seem to be products of the same mould as the Mitsotakis figurine ( note 31 ). However they differ slightly at the back of the head : a small conical protrusion on P. 103. which is lacking in the other two. This difference may be due to the way the figurines were cut off the mould, similar protrusions appear on other Axos examples of the same group.Moreover, the clay of P. 103, which is pinkish — buff, with many impurities, is typical of the Axos workshop and was used for the manufacture of figurines from the Sub-Minoan to the Hellenistic period.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία

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