Levantine pottery kernos from Bab edh-Dhra (“Sodom”)
C73£700.00
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A rare hand-formed pottery kernos vessel with four bowls supported by hollow stems above a hollow ring base. Each of the four receptacles are pierced (but not interconnected directly) so that liquid would run out into the base if filled, presumably to give the impression of a libation being miraculously imbibed from a bowl which cannot be filled.
Kernoi have been found at numerous sites in the Mediterranean including Cyprus and the Cyclades but it is thought that the shape was introduced from the Near East. Bab edh-Dhra on the Eastern shore of the Dead Sea has produced very similar kernos vessels in significant numbers and it likely that this example originates from the same site. Bab edh-Dhra is thought by some scholars to be the site of the infamous Biblical city of Sodom.
Culture
Levant, Bab edh-Dhra, late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age, c. 3300-2350 BC
Size
14.8 x 15 cms
Condition
Repaired from large fragments with some areas of restoration
Provenance
Ex. deceased estate, Cambridgeshire, UK; collection mostly acquired on the UK art market prior to 2000.
For further reading on kernos vessels and examples of kernoi from Bab edh-Dhra, please see: Andrea Bignasca, 2000; I kernoi circolari in oriente e in occidente, a copy of which is available online here: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/151098/1/Bignasca_2000_I_kernoi_circolari_in_Oriente_e_in_Occidente.pdf
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