Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription

What you see

What you see

A pale clay amphora, 57.8 cm high, with two handles, a short neck and a pointed base. Between the handles, three lines of a painted Phoenician inscription. The photograph is the museum's own collection image, shown without cropping or reconstruction.

What the record says

The collection record dates the amphora to the 6th-5th century BCE and classifies it as Cypriot. According to the catalogue, the top line gives the name Baalpilles, probably the owner, and below it the name Yaton with the title “inspector”. The word “probably” belongs to the record itself: identifying the owner is a proposal, not an established fact. Source 1.

An inscription is not a certificate of origin

The script is Phoenician, the vessel is catalogued as Cypriot, and the record names no findspot. The three statements do not contradict each other: the amphora itself shows that Phoenician writing appears on objects classified as Cypriot, and writing on a vessel tells us about whoever wrote on it and how it was used, not necessarily where it was made. This page therefore keeps the three apart: the catalogue's cultural classification, the language of the inscription, and a findspot that was not recorded.

Where the object is now

The amphora belongs to the Cesnola Collection, purchased by subscription in 1874-76, and is held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as record 74.51.2300. On 22 October 2026 the record stated that the object was on view in Gallery 171 at The Met Fifth Avenue; display changes, and the official record is the current source. The exact findspot does not appear in the record and is not supplied here.

Its place in time

The period scheme on this site describes the southern Levant. The date “6th-5th century BCE” overlaps in years with the late Iron Age and the Persian period of that scheme, but the vessel is Cypriot and the Levantine period names do not describe it. The object is therefore not placed on the timeline and is shown by its source date. When a scheme for Cyprus is defined on this site, it can receive a place there with a documented basis.

How to read the photograph

The photograph is enough to identify the shape of the vessel, but the letters are too small to read on screen. The reading given here is the catalogue's reading, not an independent observation. To check it, go to the original record and to the publications of the Cesnola Collection.