Pithos

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Pithos (plural pithoi) is the ancient Greek word (πίθος, πίθοι) for a large storage jar of a characteristic shape. Originally used by western classical archaeologists to mean the jars uncovered by excavation in Crete and Greece, it has now been taken into the English language as a general word for a storage jar from any cultural horizon^[1].

Although the word is Greek, many of the pithoi if the ancient Mediterranean were not manufactured by persons speaking some form of Greek; for example, they are known from Crete and the Levant in non-Hellenic contexts. Many pithoi were excavated in the Palace of Knossos and the ancient shipwreck of Uluburun. The Ancient Iberian culture of El Argar also used pithoi for burials in its B phase (1500-1300 BCE).

According to Gerhard Koebler following Julius Pokorny, pithos is from Indo-European *bheidh-, "pot", better known in its Latin form as the fiscus where the funds are stored.^[2] Anything could be placed in a pithos; however, they were used primarily for grains, seeds, wine, and oil. They were commonly associated with administrative and trade centers, which shipped, kept or received large quantities.

Pithoi were almost universally of ceramic, an ideal material that kept out water, dirt, insects and rodents. Most were as tall as or taller than an ancient human being. The base was flat so that they could be placed in rows in a storage magazine or lined up along any convenient hallway or walkway, or even on the stairs. Lugs or more rarely the more breakable handles were located on the upper sides for ease in handling. Some pithoi were set into holes in the floor. They were handled with ropes. Some vases display raised decorative ropes.

The utility of a pithos for storage unfortunately was all too easily turned to the advantage of an enemy, who had only to knock over a pithos full of oil and touch a torch to it to produce a major conflagration. Most of the palaces of the Bronze Age Aegean were burned at one time or another in just this way.

On a more positive note, the extensive surface area of a pithos was a tempting field for decoration. The best decor was reserved for table and service ware, but most pithoi have some kind of pattern or scene, most often raised and arrayed in bands around the jar.

Like the ceramic bathtubs of some periods, the size of a pithos made it a most convenient coffin, especially where wood was in short supply. There is evidence of Middle Helladic burials in Mycenae and Crete where the bones of the interred have been placed in pithoi.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ The word is to be found in Webster's Third International Dictionary
2. ^ But not everyone accepts this derivation. For example, if the qe-to of Linear B is pithos, then the origin is probably not from the root stated (Ventris and Chadwick note this problem in the second edition of Documents in Mycenaean Greek; look in the index under Pithos).

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Wine Shapes	Krater • Kylix • Oinochoe • Skyphos • Psykter • Kyathos • Rhyton • Kantharos
Perfume Shapes and Wedding Shapes	Lebes Gamikos • Loutrophoros • Epinetron • Alabastron • Aryballos • Lekythos
Funerary Shapes and Cultic Shapes	Lekythos • Loutrophoros • Phiale
Storage Shapes	Amphora • Hydria • Lebes • Pithos • Stamnos • Pyxis
Techniques	Red-figure • Black-figure • Bilingual pottery • Six's technique • White ground
Painters	List of Greek Vase Painters• Amasis Painter • Exekias • Pioneer Group • Douris
Special Topics in Greek Pottery	Typology • Kalos inscription • Symposium • Kerameikon • Corpus vasorum antiquorum • John Beazley • Panathenaic Amphorae