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Pitt Rivers Museum

1884.39.40

Handmade, hollow ceramic bird-shaped vase with traces of painted decoration; from Cyprus; Middle Bronze Age (Middle Cypriote) in date. [Dan Hicks 01/05/2012]


1884.39.40

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Handmade, hollow ceramic bird-shaped vase with traces of painted decoration; from Cyprus; Middle Bronze Age (Middle Cypriote) in date. [Dan Hicks 01/05/2012]
Long description
Pottery figure. “Bird-shaped vase of white painted III ware. Handmade, hollow. Head restored. Bird-shaped body, long neck, pointed beak, pointed tail. Two panniers on either side in the place of wings. Basket handle at top of body. Hole in chest. Vertical string-hole lug on back for suspension. Red bands irregularly applied on body and on panniers. Traces of transverse painted bands around neck”. [Description by Karageorghis, V., 2009, p.32] [JFK 16/10/2009] From Conservation Card by Emma Hook 12/06/1997 - Hollow pottery bird figure with 2 containers (like panniers) on either side. Hanging loop in the centre of the back. Ink label reads: "CYPRUS Cesnola Coll. P.R. Coll. (2707) (706 blue)". Remnants of a red pigment on one side? [MJD 27/1/2009]
Geographical reference
Unknown
Date / Period
Date made: 2500-1600 BC Archaeological period: Bronze Age
Date collected
By 1874
Acquisition information
Donated: 1884
Materials and processes
Material Pottery, Process Perforated
Dimensions
Height: max 90 mm, Length: max 130 mm, Depth: max 89 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1884.39.40 Other numbers: Cypriot Archaeology 015 PR Cat other PR nos: 2707
Research and responses

"Probably excavated by Luigi Palma di Cesnola and purchased by Pitt Rivers at Sotheby's by 1874". [Karageorghis, V., 2009, p.32] [JFK 16/10/2009]

In Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum Pitt Rivers ms collections there is a handwritten list [P141] headed 'A catalogue of M.General [sic - Major General] Pitt Rivers' Anthropological Collection Objects illustrating Animal Form conventionalised in Ornamentation from different countries' which seems to be a list of all items which were associated with the display entitled 'Illustrations of Human and Animal form Cases 92 - 93' in Bethnal Green and South Kensington Museums. A photocopy of this list is held by Alison Petch [AP 23/03/2005]

Associated publications
Published under catalogue number 15 on page 32 in Karageorghis, V., (2009) Cypriote Art in the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. A.G. Leventis Foundation. [JFK 08/10/2009]

Search terms: Figure, Pottery, Bird Figure