New Zeeland - Geometric Bowl at the Otago Museum

[10/26/2003] This Bowl can be found at the Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand. It dates back to the 8th century B.C., during the Geometric Period in Greece. This Period was called that way, because pottery made back then was usually decorated with designs that are geometric in shape.

On the lower half of the bowl, between the handles, there is a step design, and on the rim checkerboards, swastikas and hatched columns. The swastika is an old motif, found in both Eastern and Western societies at different times.

If you look carefully you may find where the painter of this bowl started decorating the rim. The pattern repeats: first a swastika, then two vertical lines, followed by a hatched column, two more vertical lines, a checkerboard, and two vertical lines again, another hatched column, two more vertical lines, and we're back to another swastika.

Now, in a much worn area near one of the handles you'll find the pattern is broken: two checkerboards are too close to each other. That's probably where the artist started and finished decorating the rim - painting by eye, and just misjudging the space needed for the pattern.