Ancient Pueblan vs Ancient Greek pots ...

On my latest travels I visited Utah and Arizona in the United States. Among other incidental excitements (like the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and Bryce Canyon - wow!), I saw some of the pottery made by the Kayenta and Navajo peoples about a thousand years ago. I was reminded of other pots I’ve seen from Ancient Greece. 

Assuming you are as geeky as I am about such things, dear reader (Themis, my Boy with Two Heads, was a painter on terracotta as well as an athlete...), I thought you might be amused by a picture puzzle. Can you tell which of the pots in the pictures below are from what is now the USA, and which are from various periods in Ancient Greece and Etruria? I wouldn't have been sure of all of them if I hadn’t already known, so to speak. The explanations are below the last picture.

It's pleasing to know that human beings can make simple but elegant things whatever their culture.

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Captions:

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Large bowl about 35cms diametre, Kayenta? black on white, c900AD. Tusayan Museum, Arizona (link 1)

2

Barrel-shaped jug, Cyprus, c1000BC, terracotta decorated in white and black. British Museum.

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Jar in ‘white on red’ chequer pattern, Etruscan, made in Etruria about 700BC. British Museum.

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Large vessel about 30cms diametre, Kayenta? black on red, c900AD. Tusayan Museum, Arizona (link 2 - youtube amateur video of a very hurried visit with almost no pots shown, but worth a quick look for the timeline at about 1min 30 seconds in)

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Bowl or cup about 15cms diametre, Kayenta black on white, c900AD. Tusayan Museum, Arizona

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Bowl or cup, Cyprus ?1300BC, sometimes called a ‘milk bowl’, terracotta coated in white ‘slip’ and decorated with dark brown. Art Institute of Chicago

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Bowl or cup about 20cms diametre, Kayenta black on white, c900AD. Tusayan Museum, Arizona

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Large pottery cup, Minoan c1500BC, from Gulf of Mirabello in northern Crete. British Museum

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Pottery jug with dark on light decoration, Minoan c2000BC, found at Knossos in Crete. British Museum. (see this link for more sophisticated variant)

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Vessel about 30cms diametre, Kayenta? black on red, Tusayan Museum, Arizona

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Bowl, ?Cyprus ?800BC. British Museum

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Large bowl about 35cms diametre, Kayenta? black on white, c900AD. Tusayan Museum, Arizona

photographs all © Julia M Newsome

Two Heads: from Ancient Greece to Scotland ...

Does this sculpture remind you of anything? It seems the idea of the two-headed man is not only connected to my Boy with Two Heads!








This sculpture is by Peter Dowden. It is called 'Nippon ma hied'. We found him/them unexpectedly in the sculpture garden at Threave Estate in Dumfries and Galloway where we were daffodil hunting at the weekend.

narcissi in the woods at Threave Gardens, March 30th 2014

Then again, sculptures of people are not the only design features with two heads. Later, in a greenhouse, I saw one of Nature's own. It, too, echoes Ancient Greek motifs.

This fern is a tree fern from Australasia, but all ferns uncurl their new leaves in this way. Not always in perfect symmetry, however, like this one. 

The vase border motif is from 450BC. The complete vase (a volute-krater for mixing wine and water) is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue in New York and was painted in about 450BC in Attica, by a painter who has been given the memorable name of the Painter of the Woolly Satyrs ...

Please be in touch if you see any other two-headed statues anywhere. (Woolly Satyrs are probably beyond the scope of this blog..!)

all photographs ©JuliaMNewsome except the vase-border (detail from an Attic red-figure bell-krater by the Villa Giulia Painter, in the British Museum) and the volute-krater (Metropolitan Museum of Art).