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  Highlights of the Collection: Prehistoric Terracottas
  Donkey (AN1888.623) Back to previous page
 

Donkey (AN1888.623)Rough figure clearly recognisable as a donkey with panniers on its back. The legs are in the form of two thick columns, the feet of which slope downwards from the donkey's left to its right. This shows that it was originally fixed, facing sideways, on the sloping upper body of a pot. Two crude human figures, modelled to the same scale, were acquired along with the donkey and may have come from the same vessel.

This is the earliest clear representation of a donkey known from Cyprus. Despite its crudeness, it succeeds in capturing very well the impression of a donkey resigned to the burden it is forced to carry. Donkeys were probably introduced to the island as pack animals during the Early Bronze Age, in the later part of the 3rd millennium BC.

 
   
  Other Details:
Red Polished III, c. 2000 BC. No provenance.
Vassos Karageorghis, The coroplastic art of ancient Cyprus, vol. I, p. 122 no. 15a.
   
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