Terracotta lentoid flask

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A sign that may be in the undeciphered Cypro-Minoan script was engraved near the base of the handle before firing. There is little evidence for direct contact between Crete and Cyprus when the syllabic script Cypro-Minoan was first adopted around 1500 B.C. The transference of Minoan script to Cyprus from Crete probably occurred at a site on the coast of Syria, where both Cypriots and Minoans had active commercial relations.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art