Frying pans

Last updated
"Frying pan" with running spiral decoration, Early Cycladic I-II (ca. 2700 BC). From Syros? Frying pan Syros Louvre CA2991.jpg
"Frying pan" with running spiral decoration, Early Cycladic I–II (ca. 2700 BC). From Syros?
Frying pan (NAMA 4974) from the National Archaeological Museum Athens, drawing by Christos Tsountas in 1899 Cycladic pan NAMA 4974.png
Frying pan (NAMA 4974) from the National Archaeological Museum Athens, drawing by Christos Tsountas in 1899
The same frying pan with incised decoration of a ship. Early Cycladic II, Chalandriani, Syros (Keros-Syros culture, 2800-2300 BC) Cycladic "frying pan" with ship.JPG
The same frying pan with incised decoration of a ship. Early Cycladic II, Chalandriani, Syros (Keros-Syros culture, 2800-2300 BC)

Frying pans is the descriptive nickname for a type of Early Cycladic II artifacts from the Aegean Islands around 2700-2200 BCE. They are flat circular disks with a "handle", and usually made from earthenware, but sometimes stone (Frying pan (Karlsruhe 75/11) is an example). They are found especially during the Cycladic Grotta-Pelos and Keros-Syros cultures. Their purpose remains unknown, although they are usually interpreted as prestige goods.

Contents

One side is usually undecorated, and the main zone is surrounded by a raised rim; this is usually regarded at the top side. The other side, regarded as the reverse, is usually slightly wider and highly decorated by incision in the clay, evidently with considerable care, and sometimes using wooden stamps for repeated motifs. [1]

They have been found at sites throughout the Aegean but are not common: around 200 have been unearthed to date, all but a handful in pottery. They are usually found in graves, although they are very uncommon grave goods; the rarity of these objects has contributed to the difficulty in identifying their true purpose. [2]

Description

Frying pans typically resemble skillets (hence the name frying pan ) in that they have a diameter of 20 to 28 cm (7.9 to 11 in), a raised lip and a handle. However, all the decoration tends to be on the outside rim and on the base. The decoration is stamped or incised. The motifs are mostly geometrical, with some vegetal or fish designs. Boats with oars are sometimes represented. [1] The handles vary a great deal (more so on the mainland).

Two types of "frying pans" are distinguished. One the so-called "Kampos type" is Early Cycladic, characteristically with its straight side decorated with incised lines framing spirals; its rectangular handle with a crossbar; the main circular field commonly decorated with incised running spirals around a central star (ref. Dartmouth). The other is the "Syros type" with a concave undecorated side, and a two-pronged handle; decoration of main circular field with stamped concentric circles or spirals, often accompanied by incised depictions of longboats or what is sometimes interpreted as female genitalia. [3]

Common patterns and designs on these "frying pans" include:

Proposed functions

Proposed functions of "frying pans" vary widely, but some of the more common theories include scrying mirrors, home decorative item, drums, religious objects, or salt pans. No "frying pan" found yet shows any physical wear from being used as a cooking utensil (ex: an actual frying pan).

The plate interpretation is fairly neutral, as a plate could be anything from a decorative object to a religious one. It is unlikely that they are actual cooking utensils, as there is no signs of food or fire, and they are usually found in burial contexts. The drum theory is unlikely as one would expect a drum to have holes around the edges so that the hide could be stretched across it. Furthermore, with many of the handles found on these objects, it would be very hard for the drummer to hold the artifact in the style suggested. [4]

Prehistoric mirrors often have decorated backs, but are usually bronze mirrors or made of other reflective materials, although proponents of the mirror theory suggest that filled with water or oil, these objects could function as mirrors. A 2009 study concluded, via experimentation, that the frying pans work effectively as mirrors when filled water or olive oil. The use of olive oil was found to be particularly effective, especially if the oil is darkened with pigment. [5] Olive oil is generally believed to have been too rare and expensive to be used for this purpose in the early Cycladic period, though recent discoveries on the island of Keros of a large pyramid, complex plumbing systems, and highly advanced metallurgy suggest that olive oil may not have been as rare as was once believed. [6] [7]

It remains undetermined if they served some symbolic or religious purpose, but their presence in graves suggest they could have. Given the frequent depiction of female genitalia, it has been suggested that they could have been receptacles for libations as part of some kind of fertility rite. [7]

A further possibility was raised by Christos Doumas in 1993, who suggested that they were used to process sea salt. Doumas connected the issue of trade and exchange of goods before the invention of money with this, proposing that salt might have served as a valuable material, while leaving no archaeologically detectable traces. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyclades</span> Greek island group in the Aegean Sea

The Cyclades are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the archipelago forming a circle around the sacred island of Delos. The largest island of the Cyclades is Naxos, however the most populated is Syros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cycladic culture</span> Bronze Age culture

Cycladic culture was a Bronze Age culture found throughout the islands of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea. In chronological terms, it is a relative dating system for artifacts which is roughly contemporary to Helladic chronology and Minoan chronology (Crete) during the same period of time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aegean art</span>

Aegean art is art that was created in the lands surrounding, and the islands within, the Aegean Sea during the Bronze Age, that is, until the 11th century BC, before Ancient Greek art. Because is it mostly found in the territory of modern Greece, it is sometimes called Greek Bronze Age art, though it includes not just the art of the Mycenaean Greeks, but also that of the Cycladic and Minoan cultures, which converged over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Archaeological Museum, Athens</span> National museum in Athens, Greece

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world and contains the richest collection of Greek Antiquity artifacts worldwide. It is situated in the Exarcheia area in central Athens between Epirus Street, Bouboulinas Street and Tositsas Street while its entrance is on the Patission Street adjacent to the historical building of the Athens Polytechnic university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minoan pottery</span> Pottery from Bronze Age Crete

The Minoan civilization produced a wide variety of richly decorated Minoan pottery. Its restless sequence of quirky maturing artistic styles reveals something of Minoan patrons' pleasure in novelty while they assist archaeologists in assigning relative dates to the strata of their sites. Pots that contained oils and ointments, exported from 18th century BC Crete, have been found at sites through the Aegean islands and mainland Greece, in Cyprus, along coastal Syria and in Egypt, showing the wide trading contacts of the Minoans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keros</span> Uninhabited island in Greece

Keros is an uninhabited and unpopulated Greek island in the Cyclades about 10 km (6 mi) southeast of Naxos. Administratively it is part of the community of Koufonisia. It has an area of 15 km2 (6 sq mi) and its highest point is 432 m (1,417 ft). It was an important site to the Cycladic civilization that flourished around 2500 BC. It is now forbidden to land on Keros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koufonisia</span> Municipal unit in Greece

Koufonisia are a small island complex and a former community in the Cyclades, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Naxos and Lesser Cyclades, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 26.025 km2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cycladic art</span> Pre-Greek artistic tradition

The ancient Cycladic culture flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from c. 3300 to 1100 BCE. Along with the Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures. Cycladic art therefore comprises one of the three main branches of Aegean art.

A frying pan is a pan used for cooking, also known as a skillet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akrotiri (prehistoric city)</span> Bronze age archeological site on Santorini

Akrotiri is the site of a Cycladic Bronze Age settlement on the volcanic Greek island of Santorini (Thera). The name comes from the nearby village of Akrotiri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaeological Museum of Naxos</span>

Archaeological Museum of Naxos is a museum in Naxos Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phylakopi</span>

Phylakopi, located at the northern coast of the island of Milos, is one of the most important Bronze Age settlements in the Aegean and especially in the Cyclades. The importance of Phylakopi is in its continuity throughout the Bronze Age and because of this, it is the type-site for the investigation of several chronological periods of the Aegean Bronze Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keros-Syros culture</span>

The Keros-Syros culture is named after two islands in the Cyclades: Keros and Syros. This culture flourished during the Early Cycladic II period of the Cycladic civilization. The trade relations of this culture spread far and wide from the Greek mainland to Crete and Asia Minor.

The Cycladic frying pan is a ceramic item from the Bronze Age Cycladic civilization. It dates to the early Cycladic period, between the 28th and 23 centuries BC. The frying pan derives from grave 74 of Chalandriani cemetery on the Cycladian island of Syros. It was discovered in 1889/90 during excavations led by Christos Tsountas, along with other pottery and was first published by Tsountas in 1899. With the inventory number 4974, the frying pan is now kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The purpose of the frying pan is unknown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frying pan (Karlsruhe 75/11)</span> Bronze Age Cycladic artifact

The Cycladian frying pan is an ornately decorated stone object of the type nicknamed as frying pans, from the Bronze Age Cycladic civilization. It dates to the Early Cycladic period, between the 27th and 24th centuries BC. The find spot is unknown, except that it originated on the Cycladic island of Naxos. The item derived from an illegal excavation and was acquired in 1975 by the Baden State Museum in Karlsruhe. On 6 June 2014 it was repatriated to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frying pan (Paros 2136)</span> Bronze Age Cycladic artifact

The Cycladic Frying pan is a ceramic object from the Bronze Age Cycladic culture of the Kampos type. The frying pan of the Early Cycladic period derives from grave 3 of the small cemetery of Kampos on the Cycladic island of Paros. It was discovered alone in autumn 1924 in the excavations led by Irini Varoucha and was first published in 1926. It is displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Paros with the inventory number 2136. The purpose of Cycladic frying pans is not known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grotta-Pelos culture</span> Dating system used for part of the early Bronze Age in Greece

The Grotta-Pelos culture (Greek: Γρόττα-Πηλός) refers to a "cultural" dating system used for part of the early Bronze Age in Greece. Specifically, it is the period that marks the beginning of the so-called Cycladic culture and spans the Neolithic period in the late 4th millennium BC (ca. 3300 BC), continuing in the Bronze Age to about 2700 BC. The term was coined by Colin Renfrew, who named it after the sites of Grotta and Pelos on the Cycladic islands of Naxos and Milos, respectively. Other archaeologists prefer a "chronological" dating system and refer to this period as the Early Cycladic I (ECI).

The Kastri culture refers to a "cultural" dating system used for the Cycladic culture that flourished during the early Bronze Age in Greece. It spans the period ca. 2500–2200 BC and was named by Colin Renfrew, after the fortified settlement of Kastri near Chalandriani on the Cycladic island of Syros. In Renfrew's system, Kastri culture follows the Keros-Syros culture. However, some archaeologists believe that the Keros-Syros and Kastri cultures belong to the same phase. Others describe this period as the Early Cycladic III (ECIII).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phylakopi I culture</span>

The Phylakopi I culture refers to a "cultural" dating system used for the Cycladic culture that flourished during the early Bronze Age in Greece. It spans the period ca. 2300-2000 BC and was named by Colin Renfrew, after the settlement of Phylakopi on the Cycladic island of Milos. Other archaeologists describe this period as the Early Cycladic III (ECIII).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saliagos</span>

Saliagos is an islet in the Greek island group of Cyclades. It is the first early farming site and one of the oldest settlements of the Cycladic culture.

References

  1. 1 2 Hood, Sinclair, The Arts in Prehistoric Greece, 1978, Penguin (Penguin/Yale History of Art), ISBN   0140561420, p. 33
  2. John E. Coleman, Frying Pans of the Early Bronze Age Aegean Archived 2016-04-17 at the Wayback Machine , American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 89, (1985), pp. 191-219.
  3. "Prehistorical Archaeology of the Aegean: Lesson 4: The Early Cycladic Period". Dartmouth.edu. Department of History, Dartmouth College. 2000. Archived from the original on 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2022-04-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. Coleman, John E. (1985). "Frying Pans of the Early Bronze Age Aegean". American Journal of Archaeology . 89: 191–219. doi:10.2307/504325. JSTOR   504325. S2CID   193065982.
  5. Papathanassoglou, D. A.; Georgouli, CH. A. (2009). "The 'frying pans' of the Early Bronze Age Aegean: An experimental approach to their possible use as liquid mirrors". Archaeometry . 51 (4): 658–671. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.2008.00421.x. ISSN   0003-813X.
  6. Daley, Jason. "Researchers Uncover Ancient Greek Island's Complex Plumbing System". Smithsonian . Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  7. 1 2 3 Horst, Katarina; Steinmann, Bernhard; Hattler, Claus (2011). "Spiegel oder Spendenschale?" [Mirror or donation bowl?]. Kykladen: Lebenswelten einer frühgriechischen Kultur[Cyclades: living environments of an early Greek culture] (in German). Karlsruhe: Darmstadt: Primus Verlag. pp. 100–107. ISBN   978-3-86312-016-0. OCLC   772670052.