A Cypro-Archaic I Vase Rediscovered

AbstractThis paper describes and discusses a Black-on-Red II (IV) ware jug of the Cypro-Archaic I period, which was found at Idalion by Alexander Palma di Cesnola and was acquired by the Berlin Museums in 1893. It has hitherto been known from incorrect drawings. After World War II it was taken to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, where it is now. The vase is decorated on both sides with a highly stylized human figure holding a 'comb'. The author compares its pictorial decoration with that on other vases from Cyprus and suggests that the vase-painter probably intended to represent xoana, i.e.cultic statues of wood, which embodied the divine power. Such 'statues' were known in Cyprus from the Bronze Age. The origin of such statues may be Near Eastern, from where the idea was borrowed by the Greeks in the 8th century BC. The 'comb' may also be a cultic motif.Keywords: JUGBERLINPUSHKIN MUSEUMXOANON