Stamnos (vessel) in the museum of Mycenae
Four-handled stamnos of the late Mycenaean period, decorated with a figural painted scene. It is a spherical vessel with a conical bottom and a flat narrow base. The neck is cylindrical, relatively short and wide, and concludes in a simple rim. The four horizontal handles are cylindrical in section. Two of them are placed on the shoulder (reconstructed) and the other two are placed in between, underneath the rim. The vessel bears painted decoration in brown color. It consists of clusters of consecutive brown stripes forming two metopes. Continual spirals surrounding the shoulder are depicted on the first, smaller metope, underneath the neck. Four successive stripes separate the first from the second metope, which is wider and covers the middle of the vessel around its greatest circumference. The second metope contains a scene of horses that appear to protect colts from birds. The vessel was most likely a grave offering.