Photos of Beautiful Fine Ancient Minoan Kamares Ware Pottery

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Photos of the Beautiful Fine Ancient Minoan Kamares Ware Pottery from Phaistos Palace Crete. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams. (TIP – use the icons below the slideshow for thumbnail photos and info)

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Photos of Fine Ancient Minoan Kamares Ware Pottery

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Photo of exquisite Minoan Kamares ware pots and pottery.

Kamares ware is distinctive type of Minoan pottery produced in Crete during the Minoan period around 2100 BC. Due to the fineness of Kamares ware academics believe that Kamares ware was a prestige artefact, possibly used as an elite table-ware.

It is a high-quality pottery thanks to the introduction of the potter’s wheel into Crete. kamares ware typically has designs of white, red and blue on a black field and the designs often include abstract floral motifs.

Kamares Ware From Phaistos

Fine examples of Kamares ware made in Phaistos can be seen at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum including ridged cups, small, round spouted jars, and large storage pithoi jars, on which combinations of abstract curvilinear designs and stylised plant and marine motifs are painted in white and tones of red, orange, and yellow on black grounds.

Kamares Ware Egg Shell Pottery

The Kamares ware style was often elaborate, with complex patterns on pottery of eggshell thinness. This small drinking cup shows a simple version. Sets of cups and jugs have been found, and it has been suggested that these may have been used in ritual, though Kamares pottery presumably also graced the dining tables of the First Palaces.

A typical Kamares Ware shape is that of a tea cup. This Kamares ware is called “eggshell” because it is so thin requiring supreme skill in its manufacture. Typical Kamares ware patterns were series of horizontal wavy lines in orange running parallel around the cup.

Geometric Kamares Ware Designs

The decoration also includes abstracted plant motifs in white and orange. On beaked spouted jugs abstract design motifs are typical, with pairs of spiral-ended forms linked to oval shield-like shapes decorated with orange bars arranged in diagonally placed patterns. The spout points up like a bird’s beak, an impression enhanced by the protruding eye.

All photos can be downloaded as editorial royalty free images. Property Rights belong to the relevant museums.