A match made in heaven?
Detail of body and lid - Allard Pierson Museum - Photo by Cees de Jonge
The lid and body have the same width, but not the same length. The lid is 8 centimeters longer than the body, whereas most lids fit their larnax bodies perfectly. The loops for fastening the lid to the chest also don’t match. They are normally located precisely above each other, which makes fastening them easier and more secure. Besides, the body of the larnax has an additional loop in the short side, while the lid does not.
The decoration is partially the same, but there are some differences. The lines on the lid are vaguer, thicker, more wavy and less neat than those on the body. It can be concluded that the decorations were painted by different artists. The difference in color is due to a difference in paint. For the lid, a matte red paint is used, but the body is painted in a more shiny red and brown. Both parts are made of pink clay with a grey core. However, the body has only a thin slip layer, whereas the layer on the lid is thicker and smoothed out very roughly.