Vessel with deer and eye-like markings (Los Millares, Almería)

Los Millares (Almería), Calcolítico (Sala 7, vitrina 6)

Discovered in a tomb at Los Millares excavated by the Belgian archaeologist Louis Siret in the late 19th century, approximately a third of the vessel is missing and it is therefore incomplete. There were four perforations around the line of the fracture for the thread that was used to «stitch» the fragments that have since been lost. We know that this repair dates from the Chalcolithic period because after the archaeologist excavated the vessel he added the following note to his drawing of it: “There are 4 holes, 3 in the bottom and one on the side, to piece it back together.”

Siret himself restored the object soon after, using materials that were preserved in the latest intervention, carried out in 2010, because they formed part of the history of the piece.

We can therefore identify three interventions: the prehistoric repair, the restoration in the 19th century, and the 21st-century one when the restorers adopted the criterion of minimum intervention, respecting the previous repairs and improving the aesthetic finish.