
ALT My photo shows the front of a warm-yellow coloured Minoan clay flask, hand painted in black with a frontally depicted octopus. The flask is 27 cm (about 10.5 inches) in height. There is a spout at the top with a small handle at either side. The octopus is swimming diagonally with writhing tentacles covering the whole surface of the flask. It stares out at the viewer with wide, almost cartoon-like eyes. Each of the eight writhing arms are lined with suckers. Between the tentacles are motifs denoting the seabed, such as sea urchins, tritons and small rocks with seaweed”. Minoan decoration depicting sea motifs is known by scholars as the ‘Marine Style’. The flask was excavated in 1903 at a Bronze Age settlement site at Palaikastro. The Palaikastro excavations, carried out between 1902 and 1906, were run by R. Bosanquet and R.M. Dawkins from the British School of Athens. Flask on display at Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Heraklion.



































