Minoan vase carved from rock-crystal, from Zakros on Crete, c. 1450 BC. The collar includes gilded ivory discs and the handle is made from rock-crystal beads strung on bronze wire.
Minoan vase carved from rock-crystal, from Zakros on Crete, c. 1450 BC. The collar includes gilded ivory discs and the handle is made from rock-crystal beads strung on bronze wire.
15 comments
Artefact found in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
Incredible. So beautiful.
Just awsome 🙂
What kind of stone is the vase itself? Looks beautiful
Damn that’s awesome
It’s incredible. How does something like this survive for 3,000 years?
Minoan civilization: the first advanced civilization in Europe.
Now that’s how i like to drink my raki
Quartz is almost unbreakable but I had no idea it was used to make vases in Minoan Crete. Just stunning.
(I would also make a raki joke if someone hadn’t beat me to it already but pretend I did).
Damn someone really wanted to impress his/her friends in 1450 BC Crete.
Blows my mind this exquisite thing was created 3,500 years ago.
this artefact is 3500 years old, crazy
Unimaginable how many earthquakes it has survived.
Wow! I can’t imagine how this was made. Like, how does one chip out the inside of a vase and not have the whole thing come apart in your hands, especially with more primative tools?
As far as I know, this chrystallined layer and it’s even more refined shiining+transparent sublayer was mined out completely before the Roman occupation of Greece. Some remaining ancient texts described it as a marvellous super-elite material. I can be wrong though.
Thanks for posting!