Cycladic "sauce boat," Early Bronze Age Aegean, ca. 2700–2200 BCE.
Based on prototypes from Syros, this medium-sized vessel has a full, rounded body rising from a low foot, drawn upward and sideways into a long lateral spout that seems to tilt in the act of pouring. The piece earns its presence through shape alone: the quiet tension between the swelling terracotta exterior and the dark interior, visible only when one looks inside, or when the light catches the rim.
Vessels of this type circulated across the Aegean world of the third millennium BCE. Related examples have been found at sites across the Cyclades, including Phylakopi on Melos, while comparable forms are known as far east as western Anatolia. Used for pouring liquids — perhaps oil, perhaps wine, perhaps something offered rather than consumed — the form remains both functional and sculptural.
Dimensions : H 10 cm, W 14 cm approx.