Bichrome Amphora on a Pedestal Foot with Wavy Lines on the Neck

Cypro-Archaic I, c. 750–600 BCE (possibly late Cypro-Geometric III) · Bichrome IV ware · Wheel-made · H. 25 cm

A two-handled amphora with a full, almost biconical body carried on a tall, splaying pedestal foot. The wide cylindrical neck ends in a flat, slightly everted rim, and two flat strap handles spring from the rim down to the shoulder, painted dark. The pale buff ground is painted entirely in horizontal zones. Two wavy lines, laid down as rows of short overlapping dabs, circle the neck above a black band at its base. On the body, groups of fine black lines alternate with broad bands of purplish red, and a very wide black belt sits across the belly. A plain buff zone follows, then a red band between fine lines, a dark band at the base of the body, and a foot washed red-brown.

The surface is scored all over with a dense web of fine white hair-lines left by roots during burial, heaviest across the black belly band. Apart from a small chip at the rim beside one handle, the vessel is intact.

Commentary

The vessel belongs to the Bichrome ware of the Cypriot Iron Age: matt black paint on a light ground, with red added as a second colour for broad bands. In Gjerstad's classification it is an amphora with handles from rim to shoulder, one of the three handle classes he set out for the painted amphorae of the Cypro-Geometric and Cypro-Archaic periods [1]. It carries no figured or floral ornament, so its date rests on shape and on the arrangement of its bands.

The best guide is an amphora in the Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm, MM 1994:012, catalogued as Bichrome IV and so Cypro-Archaic I [2]. It is almost exactly the same height (25.5 cm), stands on a splaying base, has handles from rim to shoulder, carries two wavy black lines around the upper neck and has a very broad black band at mid-body. The Cesnola amphora in New York, 74.51.576, is another footed piece of the same size with rim-to-shoulder handles and a wavy line on the neck, dated to Cypro-Archaic I [3]. A banded footed amphora in Toronto, ROM 965.114.57, is close to this vessel in outline and scheme [4]. The type did not begin in the Archaic period, however. An amphora of Bichrome III ware in the Severis Collection already stands on a high splaying foot and has rim-to-shoulder handles [5]. A date in Cypro-Archaic I, c. 750–600 BCE, is therefore the most likely, and a place late in Cypro-Geometric III cannot be excluded.

Two details favour the Archaic end of that range. The neck is tall and cylindrical, a feature that becomes common in Cypro-Archaic I, and the broad black belly belt dominates the whole scheme, as it does on the Stockholm amphora. Banded decoration of this kind was used across the island for a long time, so no regional workshop can be named from the painting alone.

Nearly all complete amphorae of this class come from chamber tombs, where they held liquids such as wine, oil or water, or dry foodstuffs, and were set beside the dead as serving and storage vessels. The dense root marks on this example are consistent with burial. No residue analysis has been carried out on it, so its original contents are unknown.

An earlier description of this piece referred to "disk patterns". The decoration consists only of horizontal bands and lines, with the two wavy lines on the neck as its sole curved ornament.