Marble footed cup

Technical Analysis: Ultraviolet-induced visible luminescence examination, optical microscopy


This carinated open vessel of white marble with a cylindrical stem and a bell-shaped foot is nearly intact with only minor losses at the rim and edge of the foot, and on the two interior fissures that run diagonally from the rim. The side walls flare up and out and the mouth ends in a pointed rim. The bell-shaped conical foot has a wide, flat standing edge and a shallow concave cavity at its underside. The surface is well-preserved and smoothed to nearly a polish. This type of vessel is briefly discussed by Getz-Gentle and its closest parallel in size and from an excavated context comes from Apeiranthos on Naxos.(1) Within the Stern Collection of Cycladic Art, L.2022.38.129 is another type of footed cup that resembles a small footed bowl.


Some accretion is noticeable on the underside of the rim, where the cup meets the base, and on the foot. The fine scratches on the surface may be due to aggressive cleaning in modern times.


Georgios Gavalas and Wendy Walker


(1) Getz-Gentle, Pat. 1996. The Stone Vessels of the Cyclades in the Early Bronze Age. pp.164-67, pl. 91d, 99-101, University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. It is mentioned as L41, p. 295, pl. 91d, 100f, figs. 90g and 94, and its closest parallel in size is L40 ApeiranthosNaxos AM 894 described on p. 295; See also Rambach, Jörg. 2000. Kykladen I, Die Frühe Bronzenzeit Grab- und Siedlungsbefunde. p. 114, pl. 48.6 and p. 147, 2., Bonn: R. Habelt; and see Gavalas, Giorgos. 2018. “The Stone Vessels”, in Renfrew, Colin, Olga Philaniotou, Neil Brodie, Giorgos Gavalas and Michael J. Boyd, eds. 2018. The Marble finds from Kavos and the Archaeology of Ritual, The sanctuary on Keros and the origins of Aegean ritual practice: the excavation of 2006-2008, Vol. III. pp. 306-309, fig. 4.27, Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaelogical Research, University of Cambridge.