This is a two-handled wheel made miniature amphora of the Black-on-Red style. The handles extend from the rim to the shoulder. The base of the object shows that it was wheel made. The vessel has is painted with shiny red slip with matte dark brown-black details. The small open-lipped rim is painted black on the outer edge and the handles also have a black painted detail, which has been worn away through use. The neck is decorated with six concentric circle designs that resemble "bullseyes". One of the circles is much thicker than the others; while at first glance this may seem like the artist made a mistake, little "checks" and incongruencies are a common artistic trait of Cypriot decoration during this time period and easily distinguishes it from the austerely geometric Mycenaean art of their contemporaries (The Art of Cyprus, pg. 104). Below the circles there is a thick dark band indicating the end of the neck and the beginning of the shoulder. The body of the vessel is decorated with six more "bullseye" sets of concentric circles - three on each side. They are not exactly evenly placed, speaking to the "free-field" style of the Iron Age. Below these designs there is a series of thin dark bands that encircle the rest of the vessel's body that are also of the free-field style (not exactly even and showing clear signs of little mistakes). Both the motif and the red and black color scheme suggest that this vessel dates to either the Cypro-Geometric period (850-750BC) or the Early Cypro-Archaic period (750-600) of the Iron Age (The Art of Cyprus, pg. 166). Comparanda: Cesnola Collection 1995.10.89, 1995.10.78, 1995.10.88. Overall the condition of this object is fair. Most of the paint from the the rim and handles has worn away but used to be painted black and there is a one large chip from the body of the vessel that reveals a low quality, coarse fabric.

This amphora was donated to the National Hellenic Museum by Drs. Andreas and Vivian Kodros on July 23, 2002. The deed of gift claims that the vessel was acquired from "Cypriot excavations," but does not specify which excavations.

After his death in 2002, the National Hellenic Museum acquired copies of the export papers for ancient artifacts that Dr. Kodros collected on his trips to Cyprus. It is assumed that the museum has the correct export paper to be assigned to this object, but without the object's original registration number it is not possible to match the artifact with the export paper. It is likely that this specific object had the original S.R. #3290, which is described in the export papers as an "Iron age painted miniature amphora with two horizontal handles, 750-700BC."

If this is indeed the same object, then it was exported from Cyprus on August 11, 1958. There were numerous Iron Age excavations in Cyprus during the 1950s (Archaeology in Cypus, 1958, A.H.S. Megaw). It is not possible to determine which excavations this artifact was obtained from without further research, but it was exported legally.

The paperwork suggests that the object dates to 700-750BC and I agree with that assessment (M. Bush).

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