The Mycenaean palace amphora with octopus in the

National Archaeological Museum of Athens The National Archaeological Museum ( el, Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο) in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is ...

(NAMA) with inventory number Π 6725 is dated to the 15th century BC. It was found in the second grave of the Mycenaean cemetery at

Prosymna Prosymna ( grc, Πρόσυμνα) was a town in ancient Argolis, in whose territory the celebrated Heraion of Argos, Heraeum, or temple of Hera, stood. Statius gives it the epithet "celsa." Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias mentions only a distric ...

, near

Argos Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece ** Ancient Argos, the ancient city * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses * ...

. It is a three-handled

amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

, which belongs to the category of the so-called Palace amphorae, which arrived in the Greek mainland in the Late Helladic II and was heavily influenced by

Minoan The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...

palace amphorae.On palace amphorae, see: Penelope A. Mountjoy, ''Mycenaean Pottery. An Introduction.'' Oxford University Press, 2nd edition. 2001, pp. 44f. It is decorated with a sea-themed scene, with rocks, seaweed, and three large octopuses, whose long tentacles wind around the whole vase. The work is attributed to a Mycenaean vase painter who was working entirely within the tradition of "

Marine Style Minoan pottery has been used as a tool for dating the mute Minoan civilization. Its restless sequence of quirky maturing artistic styles reveals something of Minoan patrons' pleasure in novelty while they assist archaeologists in assigning relat ...

" Cretan

Minoan vase painting The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450BC ...

References

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External links

Image on the "Digital Collection" of the Greek Ministry for Culture and Sport
Archaeological discoveries in Greece Amphorae National Archaeological Museum, Athens Mycenaean art Argos, Peloponnese Minoan vase painting