Pylos Combat Agate
| Pylos Combat Agate | |
|---|---|
The Pylos Combat Agate. Photograph by Jeff Vanderpool, Courtesy of the Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati | |
| 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 |
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 discovered in 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". The quality of the work anticipates later developments as far ahead as the Classical era of a millennium later.