Amphora with lion

This monumental amphora was used as a krater, a vessel in which wine was diluted with water. The wine mixture could be ladled out of its wide mouth and distributed among the drinking bowls of the merry-makers who were present. The amphora was made around 600 BC in the archipelago that is known today as the Cyclades. The decorations reveal Oriental influences: a ferocious lion sitting with jaws open wide, ready to pounce on its prey. Amphoras with Oriental decorations of this kind are called ‘Orientalising’ in archaeology.