Collection Online

Amphora (bichrome IV ware)
Iron Age, Cypro-Geometric III – Cypro-Arachiac I 900 BCE-600 BCE

Medium
fired clay
Measurements
69.1 × 47.1 × 47.4 cm
Place/s of Execution
Cyprus
Accession Number
D157-1971
Department
Antiquities
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1968
Gallery location
Not on display
Physical description
Large wheel-made amphora with piriform body, narrowing to an inverted base with wide ring. Two large horizontal handles are located on the shoulders. The neck is wide and cylindrical with an everted rim. The vessel is heavily decorated with red and black thin horizontal bands and painted designs. The rim is painted with red and brown/black lines running across the rim. Two black bands circle the interior rim and upper interior neck area. The exterior neck is decorated with red and black thin horizontal bands. A wide band of decorative patterns, consisting of vertical panels of alternating rosette, chain, lotus and bud, and diamond and cross patterns circles the neck. The body is decorated with horizontal bands painted red and black. These start approx. 1/4 of the way up the body. The lines continue at intervals up the body to the upper body or shoulder region. The two handles located on the shoulder are painted black with a black line continuing down the body from the base of the handles. On the shoulder, between the two handles are two friezes, identically decorated with a linked lotus and bud configuration which extends up to the base of the neck. The clay fabric is coarse white-grey to light pink in colour.