Pithos

Pithos is the Greek name of a large storage container. The term in English is applied to such containers used among the civilizations that bordered the <a href="/facts/Mediterranean_Sea/Vr2pzVbM">Mediterranean Sea</a> in the <a href="/facts/Neolithic/wRS0Bnh4">Neolithic</a>, the <a href="/facts/Bronze_Age/c09qWcTt">Bronze Age</a> and the succeeding <a href="/facts/Iron_Age/mpQYShI0">Iron Age</a>. Pithoi were used for bulk storage, primarily for fluids and grains; they were comparable to the drums, barrels and casks of recent times. The name was different in other languages; for instance, the <a href="/facts/Hittites/jqG8LbLK">Hittites</a> used harsi-.
Secondarily, discarded pithoi found other uses. Like the ceramic bathtubs of some periods, the size of a pithos made it a convenient coffin. In <a href="/facts/Middle_Helladic/rpGnsvHQ">Middle Helladic</a> burials in <a href="/facts/Mycenae/FXGtmBkF">Mycenae</a> and <a href="/facts/Crete/VSqxTU9u">Crete</a>, sometimes the bones of the interred were placed in pithoi. The ancient <a href="/facts/Iberians/tdjNJ61l">Iberian</a> culture of <a href="/facts/El_Argar/62AWfnlg">El Argar</a> used pithoi for coffins in its B phase (1500–1300 BC).
The external shape and materials were approximately the same: a ceramic jar about as high as a man, a base for standing, sides nearly straight or generously curved, and a large mouth with a lid, sealed for shipping.
Jars of this size could not be handled by individuals, especially when full. Various numbers of handles, lugs, or some combination thereof, gave a purchase for some sort of harness used in lifting the jar with a crane.
Pithoi were manufactured and exported or imported over the entire 
Mediterranean. They were used most heavily in the Bronze Age <a href="/facts/Palace_economy/KcdfWeuo">palace economy</a> for storing or shipping wine, olive oil, or various types of vegetable products for distribution to the populace served by the palace administration. Consequently, they became known to the modern public as pithoi when western <a href="/facts/Classical_archaeologist/6PjMHNIT">classical archaeologists</a> adopted the term to mean the jars uncovered by excavation of <a href="/facts/Minoan_civilization/bBEWlPrP">Minoan</a> palaces on <a href="/facts/Crete/VSqxTU9u">Crete</a> and Mycenaean ones on mainland <a href="/facts/Greece/lqHw8bTB">Greece</a>.
The term has now been adopted into the English language as a general word for a storage jar from any culture. Along with this universality has come a problem of distinguishing the smaller pithoi from other types of pottery. Many ceramics are not any easily classifiable shape. If they were used for transportation or storage, they are likely to be called pithoi, even though they are not the size of the palace pithoi, and even though the forms might well have fit other types. Reconciliation of pre-classical pottery types with classical types has long been a problem of classical archaeology.

Pithos open-in-new

Pithos