Harvester Vase
Date ca. 1500-1450 BCE
Movement Aegean | Minoan
Medium Steatite (soapstone)
Dimensions width 4.5″
Provenance Hagia Triada, Crete
Housed at Archaeological Museum, Iráklion, Crete
Stoneware pottery, like the rhyton seen here, are considered to have played an important role in rituals, and were likely used as vessels for liquid offerings. Here, 27 men file in procession behind their cloaked leader and bellow in song; scholars debate as to whether these subjects are off to plant crops or harvest them. Like other Minoan works, their composite profiles and the “rattle” of the leader provide evidence of Egyptian contact.
