Archaic finds at Knossos

The bronze vase (Heraklion 2460) shown in Plate 2 and Fig. 1 was found in 1936 by workmen digging to lay pipes beside the main road between A. Ioannis and Teke (Knossos Survey no. 10). With it were the black-figure fragments shown in Plate 3 a. The find was briefly noticed in JHS lvi (1936) 150. The late T. J. Dunbabin had intended to publish the pieces but had written a detailed description of the bronze vase only, which I have drawn upon below.The bowl is 0·216 in diameter and 0·043 high, but the exact curve of the lower part is not certain. The bowl is made in one piece, with a slight inset at the edge. Over this fits the upper part. This is 0·218 in diameter (0·118 the inner diameter); its height from the inner edge is 0·04, from the outer edge 0·02. It carries two cast swing handles. The attachments for them are 0·046 long, smooth inside, and on the outside decorated with three heavy ribs of beading. The ‘scotiae’ between are marked by pairs of lines. The handles themselves are 0·086 wide, circular in section but flattened on the inside and outside, and with two beaded knobs. Between the handles are two gorgoneia: present widths 0·106 and 0·103. The faces are very broad. The eyelids are strongly marked and thicken at the edge, giving the impression that they are rolled back slightly from the staring eyeballs. There is an almost circular depression round the eyes which is only slightly shallower at the corners. The ridge of the eyebrows is very firm and a ridge runs vertically up the forehead like a tall bud. The nose is not, in its upper part, unduly broad; the fleshy part broadens very much at the base, leaving a considerable depression above it, slanting obliquely downwards. The cheek-bones are high, the angles of the jaw-bone very strongly marked and the chin consists of two bony prominences with a depression between.