Pithos

Piriform jar with flat, everted rim, ridge at juncture of neck and upper shoulder, three ridges on lower body, and thickened base; four horizontal handles on upper shoulder. Coarse, red (2.5 YR 4-5/6) clay with pale surface, possibly slipped, with decoration in black paint. Wiped with water. Handmade. Rim painted; alternating crocus and crescents on neck; joined running spirals with large dots for centers on body; petaloid loops on lower body; vertical foliate bands on lower body; base painted. Added white: dots on centers of spirals; foliate arrangements on bands; traces elsewhere. Restored from fragments; some sherds missing. The alternating crocus and crescents motif (see no. 572) and the spirals with large centers suggest LM IA, but the sketchy treatment of foliate bands is more common in LM IB. Compare (for the shape) Hawes et al. 1908: pl. 9, no. 28 (Gournia). For such spirals used in friezes on a jar see Evans 1921-35: II, fig. 244 (Knossos).