User:Wikieditor1685/Kernos

Kernos
The Kernos (Greek: κέρνος or κέρχνος, plural kernoi)  is a type of pottery used in ancient Greece used for religious ceremonies or spiritual events. The Kernos is a most often in the form of a stone tray or ring of pottery with multiple vessels attached to hold offerings for various gods.

The earliest forms of kernoi were believed to be found in the Neolithic in stone, in the earliest stages of the Minoan civilization, around 3,000 BC, being produced as Minoan and Cycladic pottery. The Greek term is sometimes applied to similar compound vessels from other cultures found in the Mediterranean, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and South Asia. Adaptations of the Greek term appear in areas such as present day Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

Types, Shapes, and Meanings
Kernoi are traditionally created by hand, making them one of the more elaborately decorated and shaped types of pottery in ancient Greece.

The Duenos Inscription, one of the earliest known Old Latin texts, variously dated from the 7th to the 5th century BC, is inscribed around a kernos of three linked pots, of an Etruscan type.

Creation Process
Kernoi were made from a variety of materials. Common materials to create kernoi include clay, stone, marble, bronze, and terracotta. These materials corresponded with what was in abundance in areas of the Mediterranean.

The Kernos was produced and shaped by hand, leaving creative freedom up to the artist. This creative freedom also worked in tamdem with the intended use of the Kernos.

Frequent Uses
The Kernos was primarily used for religious purposes such as offerings and ceremonies. They held sacred materials including and not limited to various herbs, wine, and often the products of the current seasonal harvest.

Funerals were the most common type of ceremony where the Kernos was used. Eleusinian Mysteries utilized the Kernos and occasion, lamps in addition to the Kernos. Other types of vessels used for similar purposes includes the Lekythos, Philae, and Loutrophoros.

An example describing similar vessels includes a description from Athenaeus:

"A terracotta vessel with many little bowls stuck on to it. In them there is sage, white poppy heads, wheat, barley, peas (?), vetches (?), pulse, lentils, beans, spelt (?), oats, cakes of compressed fruit, honey, olive oil, wine, milk, and unwashed sheep's wool. When one has carried this vessel, like a liknophoros, he tastes of the contents"