2,600-Year-Old Greek Wine Cup May have Oldest Depiction of Constellations



An ancient Greek wine cup long thought to depict a random assortment of animals in a hunting scene, may actually have the earliest known depictions of star constellations, a new study shows. The cup may provide clues regarding ancient knowledge of astronomy in Greece.

The wine cup, which is currently on display at the Lamia Archaeological Museum, dates back to 625 BC, and was originally discovered near a temple in the acropolis of Halai, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Thebes, Greece. The piece of pottery, which is known as a skyphos, depicts a bull, a snake, a hare or small dog, a large dog, a scorpion, a dolphin, and a panther or lion.

The remains of the acropolis of Halai

The remains of the acropolis of Halai, Greece. (


“My dad raised me on astronomy, and to me, the snake, rabbit and dog together looked like constellations,” Mr Barnes told Live Science. “That group jumped out at me.”




Allegory of Summer

‘Allegory of Summer’ by Jerzy Siemiginowski-Eleuter ( Wikimedia). The lion, symbolizing the constellation of leo (and summer), is seen in the sky.

“If my proposal is correct, not just constellations but seasonal groupings, then that might suggest that they did in fact demarcate [set the boundaries] of the seasons of the year by associations with constellations,” said Barnes. “That's something we know they did later and had pretty good reason to suspect they also did in this more archaic period, but we hadn't been able to show it yet.”

Featured image: A two-handled wine cup may hold some of the earliest Greek depictions of the constellations. Here, a bull, snake, rabbit/small dog and large dog decorations. (John Barnes)

By April Holloway


angieblackmon's picture

What a great catch though! I mean this piece has been sitting somewhere for years and having a fresh pair of eyes never seems to hurt!


love, light and blessings


Actually the constellations depicted on the Lascaux cave walls date to 15,000 BC both by C14 testing of the pigments and also by archaeoastronomical superposition. See the Society of Interdisciplinary Studies write up and

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