Frying Pan from Syros
Unknown (Cyclades, Kampos group) · c. 2700-2400 BC
A flat, shallow disc of grey clay with a raised rim and a forked handle looks so much like a kitchen utensil that archaeologists nicknamed these objects frying pans, though nobody believes they were used for cooking. The underside is the decorated face: three stars, rows of dots, a running spiral and zigzags are stamped and incised into the surface, and the rim and handle carry more spirals and zigzags. Part of the rim is missing and the surface is chipped, but the design remains crisp. Held up, it is about twenty-two centimetres across.
The object belongs to the Early Cycladic culture of the third millennium BC, the same island world that produced the famous white marble idols, and to the group of finds named after the cemetery of Kampos. It was probably found on the island of Syros. What frying pans were for is still debated: filled with water they could have served as mirrors, or they may have been drums, or ritual vessels placed in graves. Their spirals and stars may represent the sea and the sky. The Louvre acquired this example in 1937.
Did You Know? Filled with a little water, the polished disc may have served as a mirror, one of several guesses about what these objects were for.
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