Archaic I

Terracotta jug

The front of the jug is decorated with the head of a man wearing a horned helmet. Male figures, probably deities, with horns are familiar in Cypriot art from late prehistoric times, about the thirteenth and twelfth centuries B.C. It is unclear whether the head here refers to a later manifestation of a similar god or whether it represents a contemporary Cypriot warrior. H. 9 5/16 in. (23.7 cm)

Date

750 - 600 BC

Accession No.

74.51.508

Collection

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Provenance

References

Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1885. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 1. pl. CXVIII.911, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 714, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 152, p. 94, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.