Terracotta figure of a horse or bull, painted with black vertical stripes. Missing the head, legs and tail. Has a roughly cylindrical main body, with five protrusions where the legs, head and possibly tail have broken off. [IL [OPS Move] 18/7/2017]

Collection type: Object
Description: Terracotta figure of a horse or bull, painted with black vertical stripes. Missing the head, legs and tail. Has a roughly cylindrical main body, with five protrusions where the legs, head and possibly tail have broken off. [IL [OPS Move] 18/7/2017]
Long description: Terracotta figure of a horse or bull, painted with black vertical stripes. Missing the head, legs and tail. Has a roughly cylindrical main body, with five protrusions where the legs, head and possibly tail have broken off. Bronze Age in date; from Schliemann's excavations at Mycenae. The figure has painted black stripes, and missing a leg and head. [IL [OPS Move] 18/7/2017] [Dan Hicks 15/05/2012; MJD 19/1/2016]
Geographical reference: Greece
Europe > Southern Europe > Greece; Peloponnese Argolis Mycenae
Person: Field collector Heinrich Schliemann; PRM source Friedrich Max Müller; PRM source Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Date / Period: Date made: 1300-1200 BC Archaeological period: Bronze Age Mycenaean
Date collected: Excavated by 1887
Acquisition information: Donated: 09/1887 Transferred: 09/1887
Materials and processes: Material Terracotta Pottery, Material Pigment, Process Thrown, Process Painted
Dimensions: Length: max 66 mm, Depth: max 44 mm, Width: max 44 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1887.20.66
Research and responses: This object was examined by Dr Yannis Galanakis as part of the Fell funded project Characterizing the World Archaeology Collections. He advised that it dated to the thirteenth century BC. [AS 11/05/2010]
Schliemann, who for a few years tried to acquire permission to excavate Mycenae, conducted his first (unauthorized) excavations at the site in 1874 (from February 24 to March 1). Several areas where explored including the side chamber of the so-called ‘treasury of Atreus’, a Mycenaean tholos tomb (see Traill 1995, 128–9). In 1876, the General Ephor of Antiquities (P. Eustratiades, from 1863 to 1884) and the Archaeological Society at Athens granted permission to Schliemann to excavate at Mycenae but, being short of funds, advised that the excavations should be carried out on its behalf at Schliemann’s expense. Excavations began on August 7 and were supervised by Schliemann and the Greek archaeologist Panagiotis Stamatakis. It is probably from these excavations that the material at the Museum comes from (either 1874 or 1876). See TRAILL, D. 1995: Schliemann of Troy. Treasure and Deceit (London). [AS 11/05/2010]
Associated publications: Referred to on page 319 of 'The Aegean and Cyprus', by Yannis Galanakis and Dan Hicks, in World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: A Characterization, edited by Dan Hicks and Alice Stevenson (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013), pp. 216-39. Galanakis and Hicks writes: ‘The material from Mycenae excavated by Schliemann comprises c. 54 Bronze Age ceramic vessels and sherds (1887.20.1–53, 2004.194.1), c. 9 Bronze Age terracotta figures and heads (1884.20.59–67), and 4 ‘plank’ figurines and a terracotta figure of a horse and rider of Archaic Greek date (1887.20.54–58). These objects were excavated in 1874 or 1876, and were donated to the PRM by Professor (Friedrich) Max Müller, Oxford’s first Professor of Comparative Theology and a close acquaintance of Schliemann (Meyer 1962).’ [MJD (Verve) 11/1/2016]

Search terms: Pottery, Figure, Animal Figure