Bowl with two handles

Ultima modifica 26 ottobre 2023

Low navelled bowl, round sized with two small handles on the sides.
It was a household item. It has no decoration but on the bottom there is an omphalos (onfalo or navel) that is  a central recess.
Omphalos is common on vases without handles and of ritual use such as patere or phialai, and is useful to the handling of the vase because this small recess allowed to hold the vase to be molded with one hand while a finger of the other hand is placed in the external depression and the thumb on the edge.
It is an open-shaped vessel whose dimensions can vary from small to medium, but there are no large ones.
Its use was for domestic use, in the kitchen or as a container for food and liquids, to be taken by grabbing the side handles.
The bowl formed the funeral set of tomb nr 17 in which an adult man was buried, curled up on his right side.

The original artefact has incomplete handles and is 6 cm high  with a diameter of the edge of about 17 cm.

In addition to the clay artefacts, including a glass and a two-handled cup, three iron fibulas, it has been found also the tip of a spear and a sword still inside the sheath placed in front of the man’s chest. From these elements it can be assumed that the deceased man was a warrior and that his conditions in the social hierarchy were medium-high.

Dating: sixth century 590-525 BC.