Jug with plastic decoration

This "Red Slip Ware" jug with plastic decoration of a female figurine on the shoulder is a typical example of Cypriot pottery in the Classical period (480-325 BC). Most jugs of this kind carry female figures holding an oinochoe, which also functions as the spout through which the contents are poured. Fewer examples feature an animal head. Production of these jugs commenced in the Cypro-Archaic II period, towards the end of the 6th c. BC, and lasted until the early Hellenistic times. The chief production centre was Marion, on the northwest coast of the island. This is also the site where the majority of imported Greek vases of Classical times has been found; in fact, it has been suggested that this pottery type was created to compete with the imported Greek vases. In the course of the Cypro-Classical period similar vases began to be made in other parts of western Cyprus. The fact that almost all such jugs have been found in graves has led researchers to propose that they were used for funerary libations.