A Mycenaean Pictorial Vase of the Fifteenth Century B.C. from Laconia

Abstract

The large pictorial jug published here (Plate 12 a-d) was discovered in 1966 in a plundered Mycenaean chamber tomb at the site Melathria, near the village of Skoura in Laconia. Skoura is close to Sparta, opposite to and east of the Vapheio tholos tomb, on the east side of the river Eurotas.It is a most unusual Mycenaean vase, remarkable for its pictorial decoration at such an early date. In view of the shape of the vase and its linear decoration, it seems to be one of the earliest pictorial vases yet found on the mainland of Greece.The jug, which is now exhibited in Sparta Museum (Inv. no. 5533), has been restored from fragments, and large pieces of the belly have been completed with plaster. It can be described as follows: Tall jug with cut-away neck (Plate 12a). Light brown clay, polished yellow-pink surface, lustrous red paint which in places has adhered badly and flaked away.