Harvester Vase

The Harvester Vase is a Late Bronze Age stone rhyton, dating to about 1550 to 1500 BC, found at Hagia Triada, an ancient "palace" of the Minoan civilization in Crete.

A band of relief running around the widest part of the vase depicts marching men, and has variously been interpreted as a harvest celebration, a religious procession, or a military scene.

[3] It is made from steatite[4] in the form of an ostrich egg; this was a rare and exotic object in the Bronze Age Mediterranean, used to make rhyta.

[12][3] Hood wrote that the main body of the "rank and file" carry "curious three-pronged poles" over their shoulders and have "bag-like objects" around their knees.

[14] Dieter Rumpel considers the practicability of the three-pronged implements for the various agricultural tasks proposed for them, and concludes that they would not work.

[17] The site of Hagia Triada was excavated from 1902 by the Italian School of Archaeology at Athens, under the directorship of the archaeologists Frederico Halbherr and Roberto Paribeni [de].

[18] The Harvester Vase was discovered during experimental excavations in 1902,[4] in the northern part of the palace's west wing, in a room with alabaster covering its walls and floor and with benches along its sides.

[22] A replica of the vase, made by the Swiss artist Émile Gilliéron around 1907–1908 and donated by the archaeologist Gisela Richter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York reconstructs the total height at 18.4 cm (7.2 in).

Wide view, showing figures around the singers
Wide view from a cast in the museum, the singers at right
Close-up shot of the shoulder of the vase, showing numerous closely-packed figures with open mouths
The sistrum player (right) and cloaked singers
Photograph of Minoan ruins
Find-spot of the Harvester Vase at Hagia Triada