Collection Item – Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities

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From:UC Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities

Name/TitleJar

About this objectThis Canaanite jar, or amphora, is made of pinkish-red clay and has the distinctive Canaanite piriform shape (pear-shape) with handles. Canaan was located in the Levant region of present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. It was also known as Phoenicia.

This type of jar begins to appear in the Middle Bronze Age, but most surviving examples belong to the Late Bronze Age. The amphora was the primary transport container in the ancient Mediterranean world from the Bronze Age down into medieval times. They were used to convey surplus wine and oil from Canaan to the harbours of New Kingdom Egypt, and from there to ports throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Egyptian reliefs actually detail the process of fermenting wine in sealed Canaanite jars as well as the off-loading of these jars at a custom house in Egypt.

The bottom of this jar has eroded, and there is a diagonal water stain, or 'tide-mark', probably from floating in a tomb. The outer surface and inside the mouth were covered in a cream slip, which has mostly worn away, along with the purplish-red decorative bands around the mouth, shoulder and below the handles. The handles are rounded and vertical, attached just below the shoulder.

Date Madeca. 1400-1200 BC

PeriodLate Bronze Age

Place MadeMiddle East

Medium and MaterialsCeramic: Pottery

Style and IconographyCanaanite

TechniqueMolding (forming)

MeasurementsHeight 280mm; Diameter ca. 175mm

Named CollectionThe James Logie Memorial Collection, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Credit LineDonated by M.K. Steven, 1975

Object TypeContainers

Object number159.75