This elegant vase, with its bird-shaped body and vertical neck, comes from Skyros, probably from a grave, and is the product of a local workshop. Vases of this kind were formerly thought to be of Cypriot inspiration or origin, but recent evidence points to an Aegean provenance. Their precursors should be sought in the small, bird-shaped vases that were made during the 12th c. BC in Mycenaean Greece. The earliest Mycenaean examples had no spout, which is a distinctive feature of the later bird-shaped vases. Bird-shaped vases were used for libations and are found as grave goods and more rarely as ritual vessels in sanctuaries. Those found in Mycenaean graves were associated mainly with child burials; this kind of association apparently ceased in the Early Iron Age, when such vases occurred in graves of both children and adults, but only wealthy ones.