Cycladic Marble Kandila

Culture: Cycladic

Period: Early Cycladic I, 3000-2900 B.C.

Material: Marble

Dimensions: 20 cm x 24 cm

Price: Sold

Ref: 2050

Provenance: French private collection, acquired before 1973. Comes with French antique passport.

Condition: Neck broken, small chips, but all lug handles intact. One large, impressive 5000 year-old stone vessel.

Description: Very large marble stone vase from the early period of the Cycladic culture with hemispherical corpus and four pierced lug handles. The heavy vessel stands on a slender high foot. In the early Bronze Age, inhabitants of the Cyclades processed white marble into the famous idols and these stone vessels which form has remained unique. The exact function of a “Kandila” (for their similarity they are called after the hanging lamps in Greek churches) is up until today a mystery. Fact is that their production required an enormous workload. The marble block was not hollowed with metal tools, but with stones, bones and wooden tools. Most of the scientists assume that Kandilas were used for ritual purposes.