Terracotta stemmed cup with murex decoration
By the Late Helladic III period, methods of firing improved on the Greek mainland, making possible this type of long-stemmed cup known as a kylix. The shape becomes the standard form of drinking cup throughout most of the Mycenaean world from the fourteenth century BCE onward. On this particular kylix, the high, striped stem supports a flaring body decorated with marine life, sea anemones and murex shells that attest to the sea as an important source of food and wealth for Mycenaean civilization. The murex, a type of mollusk, was prized throughout antiquity as a source of purple dye.
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