Wine Flask

A large Athenian Late Geometric IIA oinochoe with trefoil lip, a conical shaped body with only a thin base, a long and thin neck and a long vertical handle extending slightly above the trefoil mouth from the shoulder of the jug. The handle is made of thee long strip, the central one attached on top of the other two and it is joined with the upper neck with a short horizontal strip of clay. The decoration is in zones of geometric designs covering the whole body and including chequer-board, swastikas and maeander. In one area of the band just below the neck there is a scene of two seated long figures represented in a schematic way. In between them lies a thick rectangular construction, an altar or a tomb. The figures have their long arms raised and are holding clappers or rattles. To the sides of the scene there are two raised clay roundels. The scene could be a cult or funerary scene. Ahlberg (1967) interprets the objects as 'pomegranate-vases', with one point turned up, the other down.