The figure at the right is grinding grain in a quern with an elliptical stone. Her companion stands over a sieve that is probably set on a low wicker tray or basket. At the left end is a large shallow scoop. Vignettes of daily life, particularly the preparation of bread, are common among Cypriot terracottas of the Archaic period. They have come to light mainly in tombs.
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Title:Terracotta group: making flour
Period:Cypro-Archaic II
Date:ca. 600–480 BCE
Culture:Cypriot
Medium:Terracotta; hand-made
Dimensions:H. 2 7/16 in. (6.2 cm)
Classification:Terracottas
Credit Line:The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76
Object Number:74.51.1643
Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1894. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 2. pl. X.75, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.
Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 2120, pp. 346–47, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1933. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 5th ed. pp. 41, 43, fig. 50, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1941. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 6th ed. pp. 41, 43, fig. 50, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Sparkes, Brian. 1962. "The Greek Kitchen." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 82: p. 137 n. 80.
Vandenabeele, Frieda. 1986. "Bread in the Cypriote Terracotta Production of the Archaic Period." Medelhavsmuseet, 21. p. 40, n. 5, fig. 3.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 1991. "La vie quotidienne a Chypre." Cypriote terracottas : proceedings of the First International Conference of Cypriote Studies, Brussels-Liège-Amsterdam, 29 May-1 June, 1989 / organized by the "Groupe de Contact interuniversitaire d'études chypriotes", F.N.R.S./N.F.W.O. (Belgium), Frieda Vandenabeele and Robert Laffineur, eds. p. 150, Brussels-Liège: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 1998. The Coroplastic Art of Ancient Cyprus: The Cypro-archaic period small female figurines, Vol. 5(A). pp. 45–6, n. 3, pl. XXX.1, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.
Barnes, Lorna and Ellen Salzman. 1998. "Preliminary Investigations of Surface Decoration on a Group of Ancient Terracottas from Cyprus." Glass, Ceramics and Related Materials : ICOM Committee for Conservation Glass, Ceramics, and Related Materials Working Group, & Institute of Arts and Design Department of Conservation Studies, Alice B. Paterakis, ed. p. 78, Vantaa, Finland: EVTEK Institute of Art and Design, Dept. of Conservation Studies.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 261, p. 161, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lightfoot, Christopher S. 2000. "The New Cypriot Galleries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Minerva, 11(3): p. 23, fig. 24.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 2006. Aspects of Everyday Life in Cyprus: Iconographic Representations. no. 87, pp. 117–18, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 288, pp. 247, 462–63, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Gloria Merker, and Joan R. Mertens. 2016. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Terracottas. no. 224, pp. 131, 258–59, Online Publication, [CD-Rom 2004], New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bombardieri, Luca. 2019. "Mill-songs. The soundscape of collective grinding in the Bronze and Iron Age Near East and eastern Mediterranean." Stone Tools in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Andrea Squitieri and David Eitam, eds. p. 72, fig. 3, Oxford: Archaeopress.
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