Fragment of a relief pithos

Fragment from the shoulder of a large pithos (storage jar) made in a Cretan workshop of the 7th c. BC. The fragment is decorated in relief with a zone of sphinxes with polos (headdress) and plume on the head. Between the sphinxes is an impressed rosette, while visible on the lower part of the fragment are clay bosses. From the Late Geometric and the Early Archaic period (8th-7th c. BC) many places in the Aegean were producing pithoi with relief decoration, which were used as storage jars in houses and sanctuaries or for burials. The Cretan relief pithoi were made in the workshops of important Archaic cities (Arkades, Phaistos, Lyttos, Knossos) and are usually up to 1.50 m. high. Pithoi were coil-built pots to which relief rings were applied at the joins for reinforcement. The decoration is concentrated on the neck and the shoulder, where there are relief representations usually of animals (sphinxes, griffins, oxen, horses) and more rarely of men. Pictorial relief representations began to appear shortly before 700 BC. On the illustrated fragment the sphinxes were made in a mould and then luted to the surface of the pithos while its walls were still damp. Sphinxes, rampant or sedent, were among the most popular decorative motifs of oriental provenance. The technique with relief applique figures made in a mould was also introduced from the East and was widely used for making clay votive plaques. The use of impressed, incised and relief decoration links these pithoi with contemporary metal vessels.