Pithos
The pithos ( Greek πίθος [m.] Píthos ), plural pithoi ( πίθοι píthoi ), is a large storage vessel of antiquity , for example for wine, oil or grain, which occurred throughout the Mediterranean cultural area, but especially in the Aegean and Crete . The manufacture of such vases or jugs up to man-high required special skills of the potter.
description
The pithos is a large (occasionally taller than a man), thick-walled, bulbous storage vessel made of clay similar to an amphora , but mostly with a flat bottom, which often has lifting eyes in the upper half. Ropes were pulled through them to move the pithos. Its surface can be smooth or designed in terms of color and structure using ribbon patterns. In terms of color there are pithoi from beige , sand-colored , brown to red ocher . The painted pithoi of the Minoan Kamares style show fish.
Pithoi were also used regionally for burial (e.g. El-Argar culture , children's skeleton from Kritsa ), but primarily olive oil , water , honey , salt and grain were stored in them. 47 pithoi for wine were found e.g. B. buried in a cellar in Zagora . In eight cases flat roof tiles ( solene ) were discovered next to the pithoi , which were probably used as a cover. Two of them had traces of a clay mass on which stamp impressions could be seen. A lion must have been depicted on the stamp. From this it can be concluded that the pithoi were also sealed.
reception
Similar vessels are called Dolium (Roman, plural Dolia ) and Tinaja (Spanish). The philosopher Diogenes to the legend lived for a time in a Pithos.
In Greek mythology , Pandora's box is mentioned, a vessel that contains all the evils, such as toil, disease and death, hitherto unknown to mankind. In 1956, Dora and Erwin Panofsky succeeded in proving that the word Büchse came from a translation mistake by Erasmus von Rotterdam when translating the Greek text into Latin. In Hesiod is even talk of a πίθος Pithos - Greek for large, earthen storage jar (. Eg for wine, oil and cereals).
See also
literature
- Beatrice McLoughlin: The pithos makers at Zagora. Ceramic technology and function in an agricultural settlement context. In: Alexander Mazarakis Ainian (Ed.): The "Dark Ages" Revisited. Acts of an international symposium in memory of William DE Coulson. University of Thessaly, Volos, 14-17 June 2007. University of Thessaly Press, Volos 2011, Vol. II, pp. 869-884 ( online ).
- Kostandinos S. Christakis: Cretan Bronze Age Pithoi. Traditions and Trends in the Production and Consumption of Storage Containers in Bronze Age Crete (= Prehistory Monographs . Vol. 18). INSTAP Academic Press, Philadelphia PA 2005, ISBN 1-931534-15-2 .
