Stirrup jar

Stirrup jar
Linear B ka-ra-re-we, probably krairēwes from κραῖρα, "head, extremity, protrusion".[1]
Mycenaean stirrup jar
Two examples of Mycenaean stirrup jars
Minoan stirrup jar
MaterialCeramic
WritingAbout 10 instances of the LH/LM IIIB transport type have Linear B inscriptions.
CreatedLate Bronze Age, with an origin in the late Middle Bronze Age
DiscoveredEastern Mediterranean, especially Crete and mainland Greece
Discovered bySchliemann.
Classificationpouring vessel
CultureMycenaean Greece, Minoan Crete

A stirrup jar is a type of pot associated with the culture of Mycenaean Greece. They have small squat bodies, a pouring spout, and a second nonfunctioning spout over which the handles connect like a stirrup. During the Late Bronze Age, they were used in the export of oils, and are found in large numbers at sites around the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond.[2] The term "stirrup-jar" is a translation of German "Bügelkanne", the name assigned to them by Heinrich Schliemann who found the first instances during his excavations at Troy.

  1. ^ Chadwick 1974, p. 328
  2. ^ Schliemann, Heinrich (1892). Schliemann, Sophie (ed.). Heinrich Schliemann's Selbstautobiographie (in German). Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus. p. 97.