Marble vase with lug handles

Technical analysis: Ultraviolet-induced visible luminescence examination, optical microscopy


This vessel carved of gray marble with white veining is intact except for along the rim where minor chips have been restored. Its conical form is slightly convex with a flat base and two long slender pierced lugs halfway down the opposing sides. The roughly finished interior is hollow to a depth of 15.4 cm and shows horizontal ridges left by a lathe. Exterior and interior surfaces are partially covered with calcareous accretions. The exterior surface appears to have been mechanically smoothed and coated after cleaning. On one exterior side there are worn traces of diagonal forearms shown as reaching upward from a horizontal band that in other vases of this type (MET L.2022.38.26) suggest a pubic area with the side lugs serving as upper arms. This is one of only four such beakers with anthropomorphic features on one side. (1)


Sandy MacGillivray, Dorothy Abramitis, J.-F. de Lapèrouse





(1) See, Thimme, Jürgen, ed. Art and Culture of the Cyclades: Handbook of an Ancient Civilisation. Karlsruhe: C. F. Müller, 1977, fig. 78 and no. 281. Getz-Gentle, P. Stone Vessels of the Cyclades in the Early Bronze Age: Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996, 41-63.