Bronze Age-inspired Nippled Ewer from Akrotiri (LCIA, 2nd millennium BCE)
This hand-built jug draws its form from a distinctive Bronze Age prototype discovered at Akrotiri on Thera, dating to the Late Cycladic I period, before the volcanic eruption. Plain and undecorated, it reproduces the sculptural form of the original vessel, whose rounded body and subtle breast-like swell evoke both the female body and the silhouette of a pregnant woman.
Such vessels are often associated with domestic ritual, libation, and complex Cycladic symbolism. Their shape may have expressed ideas connected with femininity, protection, fertility, and communication with the divine, reflecting the close relationship between everyday life and ritual practice in prehistoric Aegean culture.
Crafted in glazed stoneware and fired at 1150°C under mixed oxidising-reducing conditions, the jug was shaped using the traditional coiling technique.
Dimensions H : 34–35 cm, max L : 20 cm