The principal pattern decorating this very ancient
vessel may represent the tree of life, a motif
which still appears throughout the Near East
today. Imagine the hands that shaped it so long
ago, and drew quick patterns in the still-wet
clay; or the hands that filled it with some
desirable commodity--cosmetics, perfume, rare
balm. We can almost picture the person who
purchased the vessel, used its contents, and was
buried with it. When we hold this lovely amphora
today, it is like a key that opens a hundred
doorways through which the imagination might
pass into a long-forgotten world.
- (P.2295)
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