In antiquity, there was a thriving trade between the peoples of Cyprus and Palestine. This charming vessel was perhaps exported from "the island of copper" carrying oil. The bold shape seems to convey the lively spirit of the people through whose hands it passed so long ago. We remember that these were individuals who laughed and sang, talked, argued and loved. In appearance they were similar to us, though their vision of the world was vastly different. This pot links us directly to that ancient world. Our hands rest where other hands did in Biblical times; the energy, the bond, is there to be felt. Who might have held it when it was new? Were the dreams and emotions that guided their lives so very different from our own? The vessel's graceful unadorned shape appeals as much to the contemporary eye as it did to the culture that created it. Such artifacts, ordinary enough in their own age, connect us in an intimate way with the world of the past. In its presence, the centuries melt away and the imagination sets out on a journey of discovery.