Cypriot terracotta tripod

What you see

What you see

A terracotta tripod, 17.8 cm high and 14.7 cm in diameter. According to the museum's description, the lozenge and checker motifs evoke the openwork of bronze furnishings, and two of the three legs have figural motifs: a man between two fish, and another between two small quadrupeds. The record classifies the object under "Vases". This page has no photograph: the museum has an openly licensed (CC0) photograph, but it is not included here yet. Source 1.

What the record says

The record dates the tripod "ca. 1050-950 BCE", to the period "Cypro-Geometric I" and to Cypriot culture. All the geography fields are empty: it gives no place of manufacture and no findspot. According to the description, the decoration associates the piece with four-sided bronze stands that were made on Cyprus at the very end of the Bronze Age and that combine indigenous and Aegean iconography, and decorated ceramic tripods also preserved features that were adopted in Attic Geometric pottery. Source 1.

Resemblance is not use

The museum compares the decoration with bronze stands. That is a comparison of decoration, not evidence that the tripod served the same purpose or was made in the same workshop. The record does not say what the tripod was used for, and this page does not guess.

Placement on the timeline

The period name in the record, "Cypro-Geometric I", is the Geometric period of Cyprus with a numbered subdivision, and the range of about 1050-950 BCE lies wholly inside the Geometric period of the Department of Antiquities' table, 1050-750 BCE; its start is the same as the start of the period. The tripod is therefore placed in the Geometric period, per the museum. The Department of Antiquities page cited here could not be opened for checking on 24 October 2026; the details from it follow notes taken from that page at an earlier stage and were not re-checked. Sources 1, 2.

Where it is now

Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, record 74.51.437, from the Cesnola Collection (purchased by subscription, 1874-76). On 24 October 2026 the record page stated "Not on view". Source 1.