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Lot Essay
PUBLISHED:
The Art of Ancient Cyprus, pp. 269-274, pls. 292-302.
The Oxford bowl is one of six known examples of Scenic Compositions in which many small figures are shown protruding from around the outside of the rims of very large deep bowls in Red Polished Ware, each one providing a fascinating 'strip cartoon' of village life in the Early Bronze Age. Scenic compositions are great rarities. They provide us with a valuable insight into the ways of life of Early Bronze Age society in Cyprus, a period for which we have no written records. Instead of individual representations of animals, humans, plants or inanimate objects as single units, they offer an illustration of actions and events. Desmond Morris lists twenty known examples of Scenic Compositions and concludes that their most likely function as tomb offerings was to equip the deceased with possessions that would make them feel "at home" by providing them with familiar scenes from their past lives. These scenic compositions intriguingly present human figures in the round, which contrasts dramatically with the flattened forms of single 'plank' figures produced during the Early to Middle Bronze Age.
The Oxford bowl described above displays some obscure elements which make the scenes depicted open to interpretation. There is a notable division of the sexes. All the figures on side B have conspicuous male genitals whilst on side A no gender signs are present, thus suggesting that side A shows female activity whilst side B shows male activity. The females can therefore clearly be seen to be baking bread, perhaps making ritual loaves for the Temple. (The detail in scene iv on side A, of a basin by the side of the oven, strengthens this interpretation, as on early ovens small containers were often to be found half built into the façade, designed to hold water with which to moisten the bread in order to obtain a good crust). What of the other side? Desmond Morris puts forward several possibilities. If the bread theme is to be continued one could see the males active around circular ovens, this time seen in section each with its roof removed to reveal pyramid loaves baking inside. The long vertical stick on side B xiv is strongly reminiscent of the long baker's sticks used until recent times for placing bread in ovens in Cyprus. However, Morris wonders why ovens should be shown in side-ways view by the artist on one side of the vessel and in plan view on the other. Could two types of loaves be in production here, following the Egyptian model where women were responsible for producing day-to-day flat loaves while men alone were responsible for baking the sacred pyramid loaves? The male ovens do contain conical shapes it is true, but both flat and conical loaves are found on both sides of the vessel. There is no such neat division here. Could it be that, just as in Egypt today, women were resonsible for making the bread and men for baking it? This would not explain why ovens are seen also in the female scene.
The presence of the deer is puzzling. It has led to another proposal that side B might depict some kind of animal trapping with the circular enclosures representing traps or stockades, guarded by hunters. This is not entirely satisfactory.
Morris finds the interpretation put forward by Robert Merillees as more convincing, that the male side of the bowl could be taken as a depiction of metal production, specifically of copper leaching (see The Art of Ancient Cyprus, pp. 273-274 for a full discussion). However ingenious this interpretation, it still does not explain the presence of the long baker's stick or the stag. Another idea put forward by Vassos Karageorghis is that the scene relates to the production of pottery.
The Art of Ancient Cyprus, pp. 269-274, pls. 292-302.
The Oxford bowl is one of six known examples of Scenic Compositions in which many small figures are shown protruding from around the outside of the rims of very large deep bowls in Red Polished Ware, each one providing a fascinating 'strip cartoon' of village life in the Early Bronze Age. Scenic compositions are great rarities. They provide us with a valuable insight into the ways of life of Early Bronze Age society in Cyprus, a period for which we have no written records. Instead of individual representations of animals, humans, plants or inanimate objects as single units, they offer an illustration of actions and events. Desmond Morris lists twenty known examples of Scenic Compositions and concludes that their most likely function as tomb offerings was to equip the deceased with possessions that would make them feel "at home" by providing them with familiar scenes from their past lives. These scenic compositions intriguingly present human figures in the round, which contrasts dramatically with the flattened forms of single 'plank' figures produced during the Early to Middle Bronze Age.
The Oxford bowl described above displays some obscure elements which make the scenes depicted open to interpretation. There is a notable division of the sexes. All the figures on side B have conspicuous male genitals whilst on side A no gender signs are present, thus suggesting that side A shows female activity whilst side B shows male activity. The females can therefore clearly be seen to be baking bread, perhaps making ritual loaves for the Temple. (The detail in scene iv on side A, of a basin by the side of the oven, strengthens this interpretation, as on early ovens small containers were often to be found half built into the façade, designed to hold water with which to moisten the bread in order to obtain a good crust). What of the other side? Desmond Morris puts forward several possibilities. If the bread theme is to be continued one could see the males active around circular ovens, this time seen in section each with its roof removed to reveal pyramid loaves baking inside. The long vertical stick on side B xiv is strongly reminiscent of the long baker's sticks used until recent times for placing bread in ovens in Cyprus. However, Morris wonders why ovens should be shown in side-ways view by the artist on one side of the vessel and in plan view on the other. Could two types of loaves be in production here, following the Egyptian model where women were responsible for producing day-to-day flat loaves while men alone were responsible for baking the sacred pyramid loaves? The male ovens do contain conical shapes it is true, but both flat and conical loaves are found on both sides of the vessel. There is no such neat division here. Could it be that, just as in Egypt today, women were resonsible for making the bread and men for baking it? This would not explain why ovens are seen also in the female scene.
The presence of the deer is puzzling. It has led to another proposal that side B might depict some kind of animal trapping with the circular enclosures representing traps or stockades, guarded by hunters. This is not entirely satisfactory.
Morris finds the interpretation put forward by Robert Merillees as more convincing, that the male side of the bowl could be taken as a depiction of metal production, specifically of copper leaching (see The Art of Ancient Cyprus, pp. 273-274 for a full discussion). However ingenious this interpretation, it still does not explain the presence of the long baker's stick or the stag. Another idea put forward by Vassos Karageorghis is that the scene relates to the production of pottery.