DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4759#0013
Xll POTTERY OF CYPRUS.
•
The commonest forms, all indigenous, are a globular bottle with long neck and
handle, a plain bowl, a cooking pot on feet, and a two-handled globular
amphora, besides composite and abnormal varieties. None of these vases have
any kind of base except the cooking-pots. The influence of metal prototypes is
often apparent both in form and decoration.
The incised patterns, when they occur, are scratched in deeply before firing,
and often filled in with white ; the patterns, which tend to become more and
more elaborate, consist of zigzags, wavy lines, chequers and lozenges, net-work
patterns, and concentric circles. Ornament in relief is applied in the form of
strips of clay, often worked up into rude figures or patterns. Many tombs or
even cemeteries, as at Alambra, Agia Paraskevi, and elsewhere, contain no other
form of pottery ; but though these are undoubtedly earlier than the mixed
tombs, the red ware in a degenerate form continues long afterwards.
This degeneration is exemplified in a small class of black slip ware
(C 86-99), which is covered with a thin dark lustreless slip, flaking off easily.
The ornamentation, which is seldom absent, is generally in the form of incised
straight and zigzag lines combined in various ways. The forms are much the
same as in the red ware, but with more frequent suggestion of metal or leather
prototypes.
An interesting class is formed by the black punctured ware (C 100-105), m
which the clay is black throughout, without a slip, but partly polished. Most of
these vases are small jugs with a narrow neck, swelling body, and small foot,
and they are ornamented with punctured dots, irregularly distributed. In
Cyprus they are mostly found in the early cemetery at Kalopsida, but they also
occur sporadically at Enkomi. The special interest of this ware is that it is
found in Egypt under such circumstances that it can fairly be dated, which is
not the case at Enkomi, where the finds are isolated, and no evidence as to date
can be obtained from the concurrence of other pottery. But in Egypt it occurs,
notably at Khata'anah, in conjunction with flint chips and scarabs of the twelfth
and thirteenth dynasties (2100-2000 B.C.).1 This local Cypriote variety is
probably an imitation of the Egyptian, and certainly pre-Mycenaean in point
of date.
Of the remaining fabrics the most conspicuous is that termed by Prof. Myres
the "base-ring" ware (C 106-174; Plate I.), which is distinguished from other
Bronze Age types by the invariable flat-ringed base. The clay is dark and of
fine texture, with thinly glazed surface. The ornament is sometimes incised,
more often in relief or painted in matt-white, the patterns being exclusively of a
basket or network type. The reliefs, when they occur, consist of scrolls or raised
seams curving over the body, obviously in imitation of the seams, of a leather
bottle; they sometimes end in a leaf ornament (cf. C 138), and at other times
1 There are some examples in the Egyptian Department of the Museum. A somewhat similar ware
also found in Egypt (e.g. at Kahun) is apparently of late Neolithic date. See Hall, Oldest Civilisation of
Greece, p. 69 ; J.U.S., xi., pi. 14 ; Myres in Cyprus Mus. Cat., p. 38 ; J.HS., xvii., p. 145 ; andjburn:
Anthrop. Inst., xxxiii., 1903, p. 3S6.
•
The commonest forms, all indigenous, are a globular bottle with long neck and
handle, a plain bowl, a cooking pot on feet, and a two-handled globular
amphora, besides composite and abnormal varieties. None of these vases have
any kind of base except the cooking-pots. The influence of metal prototypes is
often apparent both in form and decoration.
The incised patterns, when they occur, are scratched in deeply before firing,
and often filled in with white ; the patterns, which tend to become more and
more elaborate, consist of zigzags, wavy lines, chequers and lozenges, net-work
patterns, and concentric circles. Ornament in relief is applied in the form of
strips of clay, often worked up into rude figures or patterns. Many tombs or
even cemeteries, as at Alambra, Agia Paraskevi, and elsewhere, contain no other
form of pottery ; but though these are undoubtedly earlier than the mixed
tombs, the red ware in a degenerate form continues long afterwards.
This degeneration is exemplified in a small class of black slip ware
(C 86-99), which is covered with a thin dark lustreless slip, flaking off easily.
The ornamentation, which is seldom absent, is generally in the form of incised
straight and zigzag lines combined in various ways. The forms are much the
same as in the red ware, but with more frequent suggestion of metal or leather
prototypes.
An interesting class is formed by the black punctured ware (C 100-105), m
which the clay is black throughout, without a slip, but partly polished. Most of
these vases are small jugs with a narrow neck, swelling body, and small foot,
and they are ornamented with punctured dots, irregularly distributed. In
Cyprus they are mostly found in the early cemetery at Kalopsida, but they also
occur sporadically at Enkomi. The special interest of this ware is that it is
found in Egypt under such circumstances that it can fairly be dated, which is
not the case at Enkomi, where the finds are isolated, and no evidence as to date
can be obtained from the concurrence of other pottery. But in Egypt it occurs,
notably at Khata'anah, in conjunction with flint chips and scarabs of the twelfth
and thirteenth dynasties (2100-2000 B.C.).1 This local Cypriote variety is
probably an imitation of the Egyptian, and certainly pre-Mycenaean in point
of date.
Of the remaining fabrics the most conspicuous is that termed by Prof. Myres
the "base-ring" ware (C 106-174; Plate I.), which is distinguished from other
Bronze Age types by the invariable flat-ringed base. The clay is dark and of
fine texture, with thinly glazed surface. The ornament is sometimes incised,
more often in relief or painted in matt-white, the patterns being exclusively of a
basket or network type. The reliefs, when they occur, consist of scrolls or raised
seams curving over the body, obviously in imitation of the seams, of a leather
bottle; they sometimes end in a leaf ornament (cf. C 138), and at other times
1 There are some examples in the Egyptian Department of the Museum. A somewhat similar ware
also found in Egypt (e.g. at Kahun) is apparently of late Neolithic date. See Hall, Oldest Civilisation of
Greece, p. 69 ; J.U.S., xi., pi. 14 ; Myres in Cyprus Mus. Cat., p. 38 ; J.HS., xvii., p. 145 ; andjburn:
Anthrop. Inst., xxxiii., 1903, p. 3S6.