Pylos Combat Agate
| Pylos Combat Agate | |
|---|---|
The Pylos Combat Agate | |
| Material | Agate |
| Size | 3.4 centimetres (1.3 in) |
| Created | 1450 BCE |
| Period/culture | Aegean Bronze Age |
| Discovered | 2017 Pylos, Greece 37°01′41.6″N 21°41′45.4″E / 37.028222°N 21.695944°E |
| Discovered by | Sharon Stocker and Jack L. Davis |
| Place | Pýlos, Greece |
| Location | |
Location of discovery | |
The Pylos Combat Agate is a Minoan sealstone of the Mycenaean era, likely manufactured in Late Minoan Crete. It depicts two warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat, with a third warrior lying on the ground. It was recovered in 2015 during the excavation of the Griffin Warrior Tomb near the Palace of Nestor in Pylos and is dated to about 1450 BCE. The seal has come to be known as Pylos Combat Agate.
The 3.4 cm seal is noted for its exceptionally fine and elaborate engraving, and considered "the single best work of glyptic art ever recovered from the Aegean Bronze Age". Agates demonstrating this level of mastery and expressiveness were not thought to have been produced before the Classical Age, some 1,000 years later.