Mycenaean Stirrup Jar + Hellenistic Oil Lamp

Eastern Mediterranean, Mycenaean and Hellenistic Greek. Two ceramic vessels made more than a thousand years apart. The older is a Mycenaean stirrup jar with a squat, globular body and a cream slip. It is painted in lustrous brown and red-brown with bands of different widths circling the body. The shoulder carries stacked concentric arcs and a band of short dashes around a solid false neck, beside the flaring spout that actually poured the contents. The younger is a Hellenistic oil lamp in buff clay. It has a rounded body, a wide filling hole set inside a raised ring, a short nozzle with a wick hole, and a small lug at the side. The two pieces cover the long history of olive oil in the Greek world, from a container for carrying it to a lamp for burning it. The stirrup jar takes its name from its odd top. A solid, blind false neck sits at the center, with two strap handles running from it to the shoulder and looking something like a stirrup, while a separate spout set off to the side did the pouring. The narrow opening limited spills and evaporation, which made the shape well suited to carrying oil, perfumed oil, and possibly wine. Mycenaean stirrup jars travelled widely across the Aegean, Cyprus, the Levant, and Egypt, and they are among the clearest signs of Late Bronze Age trade by sea. Hellenistic lamps like this one, with a wide central filling hole and a short nozzle, were used in houses, sanctuaries, and tombs all over the eastern Mediterranean after Alexander's conquests. They burned olive oil and gave a steady, modest light. Item # 205610

Estimate:£302.36

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