Cypriot White Painted Ware Askos with copper-ingot decoration: Late Cypriot Ia (1650-1550 BC)

A unique and highly elaborate, late, handmade White Painted V-VI Ware askos, with a unique ring of what appear to be copper oxhide ingots depicted around the top, and swags above the ring-base, this last marking it as Late Bronze Age, and both features possibly unique in this ware. The vertical ring handle on the top is like those on MC III or LCI two-spout askoi with near spherical body and flat base, though one spout is normally a protome (see BM); the loop also found on zoomorphic askoi (see 76). The parallel-line zig zags between horizontals with bunched verticals below to the base, are a quite common scheme in late White Painted Ware, as are the wavy lines above, though the vertical dashes on the upper one are extremely uncommon. One spout doubles as a filler. The jug was probably used in rituals, including the funeral it was associated with, perhaps to pour libations of wine, beer, or oil in ceremonies, such as the burial it was found with. In the Late Bronze Age, copper-working sites are often found associated with shrines, and bronze statuettes of divinities combined with oxhide-ingot imagery, invoking divine protection for the industry. Oxhide ingots (named from their shape) weighed 25-28kg and existed through most of the late Bronze Age, associated with the bulk copper trade.

complete, good condition.

Cf. British Museum: BM 1982,0726.8 ; BM1868,0905.29 (Dali); BM 1884,1210.60; 1838,0413.1; Metropolitan Mus. 74.51.844; L. Gagné 2012 p.394 fig.716; p.355 fig.360 (paint); Lubsen Admiraal 2004 p123 fig.244