WHAT IS THE MINYAN WARE?

A distinctive Middle Helladic pottery – a gray or yellow wheelmade ware of high quality first appearing at Troy VI and in Greece c. 19th century bc. It was the first wheelmade pottery to be produced in Middle Bronze Age Greece. It was ancestral to Mycenaean pottery, and may represent a movement of new peoples into the Aegean area, the first Greek speakers. Traditionally it has been associated with an apparently violent end to the Early Helladic culture, c. 2000–1900 bc, and the arrival of Greek-speaking peoples in the Aegean. The term was coined by Heinrich Schliemann. The ware had a soap-like feeling and its forms were modeled after metal objects.

WHAT IS THE LARNAX?

1. A Minoan-Mycenaean clay or terra cotta coffin. This kind of coffin, resembling a rectangular wooden chest, enjoyed a brief popularity in the eastern Greek region c. 530-460 bc. The sarcophagus was often crudely painted on the sides with funerary or religious scenes. “Clazomenian” examples were painted in imitation of contemporary vase styles. 2. The term was also used for a closed box, seen in a royal tomb at Vergina, and in art. 3. A bathtub made of a fabric containing straw.

WHAT IS THE KYLIX?

A Greek stemmed drinking cup or chalice, usually made of clay or metal. The term was originally used for a cup of any form, but modern scholars restrict it to shallow two-handed stemmed forms. This wide-bowled drinking cup with horizontal handles was one of the most popular pottery forms from Mycenaean times through the Classical Athenian period. There was usually a painted frieze around the outer surface, depicting a subject from mythology or everyday life, and on the bottom of the inside a painting often depicting a dancing or drinking scene.