A delivery from the depths of the sea…

As part of the exhibition series titled “New Acquisitions / New Approaches”, a prominent display case in the museum’s reception area welcomes visitors, introducing them to some of its most interesting new and old antiquities.

Objects either recently acquired and presented for the first time to the scholarly and general public, or retrieved from the storage shelves to be exhibited under a new approach, following a restoration process, a new interpretation, or based on new scientific data. In 2018 Mrs. Elisavet Papanikolaou-Lazaridou donated to the Museum a large clay amphora (Inv. no. ΜΘ 30857), reportedly originating from the marine area off Torone in Chalcidice. It is a large Mycenaean storage/transport stirrup jar (FS 164) of the Late Bronze Age (LH IIIA2–IIIB)—a unique example of its kind in the Museum’s ceramic collection—likely used for the storage and transport of plain or perfumed oil. Its surface, encrusted with marine organisms, indicates that the vessel lay for years in a calm, dark marine environment, i.e., in deep waters.

If its (alleged) origin from the bay of Torone is correct, it represents the northernmost example of this type of amphora in the Aegean. In that case, one may wonder whether its deposition at sea is linked to an event of the Mycenaean period—for example, an as-yet unknown shipwreck, or anchorage, or forced jettison of cargo due to rough seas—or whether it resulted from a secondary displacement in later times, with the amphora perhaps carried there entangled in fishermen’s nets.

What do petrographic and chemical analyses indicate regarding its probable origin and production center? Can a hypothetical maritime route be proposed based on studies of navigational channels in the prehistoric Aegean? Which coastal sites of the Late Bronze Age in the Toronean Gulf might have served as the final destination or an intermediate stop along this hypothetical route?

Ultimately, it is almost inevitable that an archaeological find not originating from a secure excavation context—such as this amphora—raises more interpretative questions than it provides clear answers…