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Cretan Relief Pithoi in Dr. Giamalakes' Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

T. J. Dunbabin
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Extract

Many visitors to Crete have enjoyed Dr. Giamalakes' hospitality in Heraklion and have seen the very fine collection of antiquities found on Cretan soil which he has gathered together, and it is with a lively sense of gratitude that, on his suggestion, I make some part of that collection known to those who have not had the good fortune to see it. Most of the collection is Minoan; but I begin with some of the most characteristic products of Hellenic Crete, the archaic relief pithoi.

My descriptions are based on Dr. Giamalakes' own account of his pieces. The photographs are due to Mr. N. Lambrinides.

These pieces offer a useful supplement to the known corpus of Cretan archaic relief pithoi. The oldest is probably 2. Certainly it exhibits an earlier composition, and is closer to Oriental models, than any of the others. A fragment of pithos from Afrati, Ann. X–XII, fig. 45, 48, has a similar representation, which might come from the same mould. For the composition compare a fragment of a stamped pithos from Perachora, with two lions on their hind legs, separated by a floral ornament. Cf. also for the composition the pithos fragment from Plati, BSA XX, pl. 5c lower, which is also like in the proportions of the animals (there headless).

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 47 , November 1952 , pp. 153 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1952

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References

1 Measurements in cm.

2 Information about the provenience through the kindness of Messrs. J. M. Cook and M. Akoumianos. For other fragments of relief pithoi from Kastamonitza see Marinatos, S., AA 1934, 251.Google Scholar

3 Mariani, L. in MA VI (1895), 343 f.Google Scholar and pl. 12, 61, 63–4, 66–7; Savignoni, L., ‘Fragments of Cretan Pithoi’, AJA V (1901), 404 ff., pll. 13–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Courby, F., Les vases grecs à reliefs (1922), 40–53Google Scholar; Levi, D., ‘I pithoi cretesi a rilievo’, Ann. X–XII (1931), 58–77 and 386, fig. 497Google Scholar; Marinatos, S., ADelt XV, παράρτ (1938), 57–60Google Scholar; Levi, D. in Hesperia XIV (1945), pll. 30–2.Google Scholar The examples published in these articles come mainly from Prinias, Afrati, and Lyttos (including under this site perhaps those said to be from Kastelli Pediados); others from Knossos, Phaistos, Eleutherna, Astritzi, Gonies Pediados, Praisos, and Lithines (Siteia). Two fragments in Oxford are published by Dohan, E. H. in MetrMusStud III 209 ff.Google Scholar, figs. 9 and 35; others are unpublished. Other published pieces: Berlin, from Arkhanes (?), Arch. Sem. d. Universität J 615, Korkyra II 149, fig. 145; Ann. I 65 ff., figs. 33–5; 93, fig. 47; 99, fig. 54; AJA 1934, pl. 18b, all from Prinias; fragments from Plati, and Embaros, , BSA XX, pl. 5, b–dGoogle Scholar; from Dreros, , BCH 1936, 260 ff., figs. 24–7, and pl. 28Google Scholar, whence Korkyra II 161, fig. 152; from Anavlochos, , BCH 1931, 385 f.Google Scholar

3a Cf. Kunze, , Olympische Forschungen II 60 f.Google Scholar

4 The Gate of Horn, 218.

5 For an analysis of the sphinxes on Cretan relief pithoi see Levi, D., Ann. X–XII 64 ff.Google Scholar; Verdelis, N. M., BCH 1951, 7 f.Google Scholar

6 For the antecedents of this see Marinatos, , BCH 1936, 263, on fig. 25.Google Scholar

7 La Crète dédalique, 29.

8 Cf. also the wing of the sphinx on the pithos fr. from Tenos, , RA VI (1905), 288, fig. 2.Google Scholar

9 Kunze, KrBr, 183 f.; Cretan shields, Cycladic vases; add Attic vase, BSA XXXV 176, fig. 2; Corinthian kotyle from Perachora of the early seventh century.

10 For the provenience see below n. 33.

11 For horses on Cretan pithoi see Levi, D., Ann. X–XII 66 ff.Google Scholar

11a Add here the early Melian pyxis, Delos, , BCH 1911, 383, fig. 47Google Scholar; JdI 1925, 146, fig. 46.

12 E.g., the pyxis in Brussels, Payne, PV, pl. 16; and see Buschor, , AJA 1934, 129, n. 8.Google Scholar

12a Detail of the horse, Ann. XIII–XIV 114, fig. 34.

13 Feytmans, D.BCH 1950, 135 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; esp. 179 f.

14 Mentioned by Courby, op. cit., 51, n. 3. This Kastri near Tourloti (for which see Evans, , The Academy, 4 July 1896, p. 18, col. 1Google Scholar) is to be added to Pendlebury's list of archaic sites in Crete, The Archaeology of Crete, 343–4 and Map 19. Is it the same site as Kastellos (ibid., 236–7, 266)?

15 BCH 1950, 171 ff.

16 ibid., 160 ff.

17 MetrMusStud III 214.

18 Cf. Lamb, W., BSA XXVI 77Google Scholar; Brock, J. K., BSA XLIV 55 ff.Google Scholar

19 Cf. Payne, , NC, 223 f.Google Scholar; Perachora I 144 f.; Kunze, , Olympische Forschungen II 231 ff.Google Scholar

20 Reichel, W., Griechisches Goldrelief (1942)Google Scholar and Kunze, E., Gnomon XXI (1949), 1 ff.Google Scholar

21 A rather similar use of small stamps on a number of pithoi and bowls from Caere; e.g., Louvre, Pottier, pll. 2, 36; Pareti, , La Tomba Regolini-Galassi, pll. 69–70, nos. 631–6, 654.Google Scholar

22 See Dohan, E. H., MetrMusStud III 209 ff.Google Scholar; Demargne, P., BCH 1929, 417 ff.Google Scholar; 1930, 195 ff.; 1931, 408 ff.

23 Ann. X–XII 75, fig. 52; ADelt XV, παράρτ 57 ff.

24 For which see Kunze, , Olympische Forschungen II 110 ff.Google Scholar

25 E.g., a Transitional Corinthian phiale from Perachora (lion).

26 See Jenkins, , Perachora I 193 f.Google Scholar; Knoblauch, , Studien zur archaisch-griechischen Tonbildnerei, 23 ff.Google ScholarCf. also Ohly, , AM 1940, 69 ff.Google Scholar; 1941, 35; Stillwell, , Corinth XV i, 88 and pl. 29. 1.Google Scholar

27 E.g., some of those from Tenos listed on p. 156.

28 Cf. Marinatos, , BCH 1936, 262 ff.Google Scholar

29 Mentioned by Evans, , JHS 1897, 356Google Scholar, where a very early date is suggested.

30 The Archaeology of Crete, 335.

31 In spite of the close relations in vase-painting and other arts between Crete and Corinth, and the discovery of relief plaques probably from Cretan matrices at Perachora, (Perachora I, pl. 102 and pp. 230 f., 179–80)Google Scholar, Corinthian relief pithoi have, with the exception of the fragment from Perachora mentioned on p. 153, no connection with Cretan pithoi. The Corinthian pithoi are mainly unfigured, and decorated from small stamps. The main series comes from Perachora and will be published in Perachora II; a general discussion of Corinthian stamped pithoi will shortly be published by Weinberg.

32 Courby speaks of ‘la manque de contact entre les ateliers’ (op. cit., 52), but later finds disprove this.

33 Not Goulas, as is said by Poulsen. The Oxford inventory reads ‘from below the votive site Papouda near Lyttos’; presumably Agiou Georgiou Papoura on the north side of the Lasithi plain (see Pendlebury, , The Archaeology of Crete, 324, 341Google Scholar; BSA XXXVII 199); cf. Evans, , The Academy, 20 June 1896, 513.Google Scholar

34 An example is that of the family of potters from Margarites in Mylopotamo who go every year to Anouphia near Apodoulou in Amari, on the other side of Mount Ida, where they build summer-houses on a clay-bed near the spring. For the potters of Thrapsanos see Xanthoudides, in Essays in Aegean Archaeology, 118 ff.Google Scholar