Large Bichrome Amphora with a Wavy Line on the Neck

Cypro-Geometric III–Cypro-Archaic I, c. 850–600 BCE · Bichrome ware · Wheel-made · H. 42 cm

A tall ovoid amphora on a low ring base. The cylindrical neck flares slightly to a flat, everted rim, and two strap handles run from the rim down to the shoulder. The pale buff ground is painted in matt black and a dull purple-red. A single black wavy line circles the neck above a band at its base. On the shoulder, two groups of fine black lines frame a broad purple-red belt; below them a very broad black band marks the widest point, and a single black band runs around the lower body. Rim, handles and foot are painted dark.

Written in ink on the shoulder beside one handle is the Cyprus Museum Sales Register number S.R. 3477/65, and a lead seal hangs on string tied around the handle roots. The body has been broken and repaired: a long plaster fill runs down one side from the belly band to the base. A rust-orange stain marks the lower body and the rim is worn.

Commentary

Matt black and red on a light ground make this a Bichrome amphora of Gjerstad's class with handles from rim to shoulder [1]. Its decoration uses only bands and a wavy line, which gives little stylistic dating evidence, so the date depends on shape and on parallels. The tall ovoid body with a high shoulder, the cylindrical neck and the low ring base all point to Cypro-Archaic I. The closest parallel is an amphora in Stockholm classed as Bichrome IV, with the same handle type, wavy lines on the neck and a very broad black band at mid-body; it is smaller, at 25.5 cm [2]. The rim-to-shoulder handle and a banded scheme already existed in Bichrome III, as two Severis amphorae of Cypro-Geometric III show [3], and a banded Bichrome III amphora from Tamassos in Cambridge belongs to the same broad family [4]. A range of about 850–600 BCE is therefore given, with Bichrome IV and Cypro-Archaic I, about 750–600 BCE, the more likely stage.

At 42 cm the jar belongs among the medium-to-large storage amphorae of the period, suitable for wine, oil or water in the household and placed in chamber tombs as containers for the dead. No residue analysis has been made and no find-spot is recorded.

The interest of this particular pot lies in the marks it carries from its sale. The number S.R. 3477/65 belongs to the Sales Register kept by the Department of Antiquities, through which the Cyprus Museum sold objects it judged surplus. In 1983 Vassos Karageorghis described the register as a list of items available at nominal prices, with exports to universities and museums encouraged [5]. The number is the Museum's own record of the sale, and the site's article on how the Cyprus Museum sold antiquities discusses this amphora in that context. The suffix "/65" probably records the year of entry, 1965, though we know of no published key to the register's numbering that confirms it. The lead seal on string is of the kind the Department of Antiquities attached to antiquities licensed for export [6]. The Stockholm parallel was also bought from the Cyprus Museum, in 1953, which shows the same legal channel supplying a public collection [2].