Bowl (kalathos) with female figures

This clay kalathos was placed in a tomb at Ialysos on the island of Rhodes. It has three female figures standing on the rim, a fourth is now missing. Of the three surviving figures, two have their arms pressed against their chest and the third clasps her hands behind her neck. Both gestures are probably of mourning and are therefore suitable for an offering at a burial. The cemetery of well-built chamber tombs at Ialysos was in use between 1450 and 1100 BC. This indicates the presence of a flourishing Mycenaean settlement in the vicinity. This bowl belongs the twelfth century BC, a time when the site appears to have been particularly important following the destruction of the Mycenaean palaces on the mainland.