Stirrup Jar
3757, Stirrup Jar, Late Helladic IIIB; c. 1300-1200 B.C.
Culture: Mycenaean
Material: terracotta
Dimensions: h. 6 in 15 cm
This stirrup jar, named for the shape of its handles, is from Mycenae. Flourishing in the second millennium B.C., the Mycenaean culture predates Hellenistic Greece and is the source of many Greek myths. In the 1870s, the capital, Mycenae, was discovered by Heinrich Schliemann, a businessman turned amateur archaeologist of whom Freud was a great admirer. Vases similar to the one in Freud’s collection were unearthed in great numbers from Mycenae, and are typical of the culture.