Insect Geometry 



earthenware shell hardly as large as a 

 cherry-stone and embellished on the outside 

 with a tiny milled pattern. This little gem 

 of ceramics is an ellipsoid truncated at one 

 end. When the structure stands alone, its 

 accuracy of form is perfect. 



But the potter's ware does not end with 

 this. The place of refuge discovered in 

 some crevice in a sunny wall is a valuable 

 site, where the whole family will take up its 

 abode. More preserve-jars are therefore 

 fashioned, sometimes arranged in a row, 

 sometimes collected in a group. Though 

 constructed according to a fixed type, the 

 ellipsoid, the new structures depart, some 

 more, some less, from the ideal model. 

 Welded together, end to end, they lose the 

 smooth nipple of the ellipse and replace it by 

 the sudden truncation of the barrel. When 

 they are joined lengthwise, the belly of the 

 barrel becomes flattened; when they are 

 massed together anyhow, they become al- 

 most unrecognizable. Nevertheless, as the 

 Agenia, unlike the Pelopseus, never covers 

 her collection of pots with a casing, her 

 work retains its distinctive features fairly 

 well, thanks to the thoroughness with which 

 the artist has stamped her trade-mark upon 

 it. 



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