This storage jar—used to safeguard its contents when lifted, carried, transported, or stored—is covered with bright colors, strange figures, and decorative motifs in the sgraffito (incised) technique. Fanciful figures are engraved on its wide shoulders—a griffin (hybrid of an eagle and a lion) and three composites of humans and leopards with wings, one with a serpent for a tail. This last figure, shown as human down to the waist, offers a goblet of wine to the griffin. Though it is tempting to think that this amphora once held a locally produced wine, large jars such as this one could store a variety of liquid or dry goods, so that it is impossible to know with certainty how this one was used.

The haphazard application of yellow, green, and copper-colored slip give the amphora an almost casual appearance, which belies the function of its thick walls and broad, sturdy handles. In fact, the colors, their application, and the type of clay used contribute to identifying the amphora as Port Saint Symeon ware, also known as al-Mina ware (Arabic for “the Harbor”). Port Saint Symeon was located on the coast of the Frankish principality of Antioch (in modern-day Turkey), but related wares were also made in other towns along this busy coast. Production was widely distributed throughout all the cultures in the Levant over several centuries. However, when Antioch was conquered by the Mamluks, a Muslim caste of soldiers from Egypt, in 1268, production of this popular ceramic ware came to an end.

- S. Zwirn

N. P. Sevcenko, "Some Thirteenth-Century Pottery at Dumbarton Oaks," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 28 (1974): 353-60, fig. 1-8.

H. C. Evans, Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557), exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 23-July 4, 2004 (New York and New Haven, Conn., 2004), 398-399, no. 244.

S. Redford, "On Saqis and Ceramics: Systems of Representation in the Northeast Mediterranean," in France and the Holy Land: Frankish Culture at the End of the Crusades ed. D.H. Weiss and L. Mahoney (Baltimore & London, 2004), esp. 286, fig. 12.5, 12.6.

Lions, Dragons & Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages: Vessels for Church and Table, ed. P. Barnet and P. Dandridge, exhibition catalogue, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts Design and Culture, (New Haven, 2006), 180, no. 36.

G. Bühl, ed., Dumbarton Oaks: The Collections (Washington, D.C., 2008), 174, pl. p. 175.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)," March 23 - July 4, 2004.

New York, Bard Graduate Center, "Lions, Dragons, and Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table," June 12, 2006 - Oct. 15, 2006.

Purchased from George Zacos (dealer) by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, 1966;

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, D.C.