When viewing ceramic vessels one usually thinks of their practical functions; however, in the art of the shaft tomb culture numerous recipients of simple shapes, almost spherical, circles and cylinders, served as efficient pictorial surfaces. In them it is possible to see the work of potters who were also, most likely, excellent painters. The bowl before us shows elaborate decoration and very fine workmanship.
A central depression is seen in the base, indicating the use of a natural mold, like the rigid shell of a fruit, to make the bowl. A cream engobe was applied to it and the outside was also painted with a solid yellowish cream color. Over this chromatic base the artist proceeded to draw designs in red and brown, without mixing; in the areas painted with these two colors it is possible to see a highly liquid paint with variations in tones, hence the brown comes to be seen as black and red is sometimes perceived as orange or dark red; in general the appearance is close to a watercolor.
The painter used brushes of different thicknesses; the pattern of the composition are elongated and sinuous red-colored shapes; they are stylized snakes with triangular heads and figurative eyes; for the latter, circular areas were left in the yellow base color and brown spots were painted on them. One of those heads is located right in the central depression of the bowl, which marks the center of the image and perhaps was the initial stroke; all the snakes converge on it. The snakes come together in an intricate asymmetrical arrangement; in most cases, if we follow the undulations of the bodies to the extremes one reaches another head, so that they are two-headed snakes.
Each snake is surrounded by a very thin brown line, with a middle section of the base color. Without the possibility of correction by the painter, these details demonstrate the mastery of their artistic execution. In the areas that the snakes cover one sees two types of brown asymmetric designs, with a rounded outline and some pointed ends: five are cross-linked and the rest, the most numerous, have inside them rounded amorphous motifs in the base color. The composition is surrounded by three straight brown lines, the ones at the end show triangular shapes; they are followed, near the mouth of the vessel, by three other zigzag lines, the center one is thick and red.
In my opinion, the image described is a cosmogram, it embodies an idea of the cosmos culturally constructed by the people of the shaft tombs; art thus gives concrete form to an eminently conceptual reality. The fantastical two-headed snakes symbolize the underworld ocean, the lower level of the structure of the universe that holds and surrounds the Earth's surface; I believe that the cross-linked motifs show earth, consolidated and organized, like islands that are inhabited by humans and everything created by the gods; while the designs with amorphous elements inside, but also brown, evoke a muddy ground, an intermediate material between earth and the chaos of the primeval maritime environment. By chromatic association, it is possible that the wide zigzag line is equated with the two-headed snakes and therefore the connotation of water and earth is repeated in the nearby fringes of the opening of the bowl.
The interior of the recipient has signs of wear, although we do not know what was put inside, we have clear notions of the importance of its symbolic content. This image, which contains major components of the cosmos, may depict a creation myth. The functions of the bowl transcend practical ones, surely it was used in a sacred ritual context.
When viewing ceramic vessels one usually thinks of their practical functions; however, in the art of the shaft tomb culture numerous recipients of simple shapes, almost spherical, circles and cylinders, served as efficient pictorial surfaces. In them it is possible to see the work of potters who were also, most likely, excellent painters. The bowl before us shows elaborate decoration and very fine workmanship.
