Glossary Pottery and vessels
Meander
Also called: Greek key
A continuous band of right-angled, interlocking turns, known as the Greek key, used as a border on Geometric and later decoration.
The meander is a line that runs along a band, turning at right angles and doubling back on itself in a regular rhythm. It is the pattern now called the Greek key, and it was a standard border on Greek Geometric pottery, whence it passed into Cypriot painted decoration and other media of the first millennium BCE.
It is rare in Cyprus compared with zig-zags and wavy lines, and in the catalogue it is mostly a border on pots in Greek-influenced styles and on a few small finds. See all meanders in the catalogue.
Full entry: Motifs of Cypriot Pottery
Related terms
- Metopes and panels
Decoration divided into separate rectangular fields, each holding its own motif, as on an Archaic Bichrome amphora or skyphos.
- Bands and lines
Plain horizontal stripes painted or incised round a pot, the simplest decoration, counted as a motif when they are the main or only ornament.