DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49517#0555
POTTERY
449
The decorations on such of these wide-mouthed pots as are decorated usually consist
of rows of dots made with a notched edge, which may have been slightly curving. If the
edge was curving, the effect would have been obtained by rocking the notched edge, and
indeed on the concave part of the neck the rows of dots could hardly have been produced
with a straight edge. The dotted decoration on the W. J. bowls and jugs was made in the
same way. It is of importance to note that this method of decoration is used on the Bkt. J.
pot (3, above) which occurs in K 334, and on the B. C. R. J. pot (8, above) occurring in
K 420. Thus this method of decorating pottery was known at any rate from the time of
those two subsidiary burials.
The coarse red wares take the place of the so-called “smooth coarse” wares of certain
periods in Egypt and Nubia, both in their forms and general character as cheap wares. The
term “smooth coarse” was originally applied by me to the class of rough vessels found in
the Predynastic Period — the class which Professor Petrie called “rough-faced” ware.
In the Middle Predynastic Period, the S. C. ware differs from the R. P. only in not having
the thick red wash, and in being smoothed instead of polished. The clay was mainly Nile
mud mixed with tibn (finely chopped straw, probably taken from ass’ dung). In baking,
the bits of straw were burnt out of the surface, giving the appearance called “straw-
marked” and justifying Professor Petrie’s term of “rough-faced”; but the surface had
been pebble-smoothed (not polished) previous to the baking, and is, in fact, a smooth and
not a rough surface. I prefer the term S (mooth) C(oarse), rather than R(ough) F(aced),
because in my terminology R means red and F means fine-grained, while S. C. cannot be
confused with anything else. The matter is one of importance for tomb-card records made
in the field.
In the C-group graves, a very similar ware is found with a coarse texture, black in the
break, and with a smoothed, straw-marked surface, but always externally a light red color,
whereas the predynastic S. C. is more often brown. This ware also is made of Nile mud,
probably with an admixture of some mineral binding-material like the keriak used by mod-
ern potters at Kerma (p. 425).
Quite different from this “smooth coarse” ware is the coarse red-brown ware without
straw-marks which appears in the Late Predynastic Period, not as an unfinished form of a
finer ware, but as a cheap traditional imitation of better vessels, made especially for the
burial. This coarse red-brown ware continues to be used for traditional-ceremonial pots
during the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom. It is the ware used for the small
offering cups and saucers found in such numbers in the temple-dump of the Mycerinus
temple and in both offering chapels and burial chambers in the mastabas. In the period
between Dynasties VI and XII, the greater part of the pottery, which is only traditional-
ceremonial, reproducing a degeneration of the fine forms of the Old Kingdom, is made of
this coarse red-brown ware.
In the Nubian graves at Kerma, however, the true S. C. ware of the Nubian C-group
reappears, but not in any great numbers. Ten or a dozen of these S. C. vessels scattered
from the Nubian tumulus K LV through K Cem. M to K Cem. N, were decorated with
the characteristic incised patterns of the C-group S. C.1 The forms were the same as those
of the C-group in most cases, but several jars (K M 15:7 and K 5604:8) were of the wide-
mouthed types R. P. J. CXXI-CXXV found rather frequently in the Nubian tumuli, in
1 As given in Nub. Arch. Sur. Report 1909-10, Pl. 33, pp. 118-138 (C. M. Firth).
449
The decorations on such of these wide-mouthed pots as are decorated usually consist
of rows of dots made with a notched edge, which may have been slightly curving. If the
edge was curving, the effect would have been obtained by rocking the notched edge, and
indeed on the concave part of the neck the rows of dots could hardly have been produced
with a straight edge. The dotted decoration on the W. J. bowls and jugs was made in the
same way. It is of importance to note that this method of decoration is used on the Bkt. J.
pot (3, above) which occurs in K 334, and on the B. C. R. J. pot (8, above) occurring in
K 420. Thus this method of decorating pottery was known at any rate from the time of
those two subsidiary burials.
The coarse red wares take the place of the so-called “smooth coarse” wares of certain
periods in Egypt and Nubia, both in their forms and general character as cheap wares. The
term “smooth coarse” was originally applied by me to the class of rough vessels found in
the Predynastic Period — the class which Professor Petrie called “rough-faced” ware.
In the Middle Predynastic Period, the S. C. ware differs from the R. P. only in not having
the thick red wash, and in being smoothed instead of polished. The clay was mainly Nile
mud mixed with tibn (finely chopped straw, probably taken from ass’ dung). In baking,
the bits of straw were burnt out of the surface, giving the appearance called “straw-
marked” and justifying Professor Petrie’s term of “rough-faced”; but the surface had
been pebble-smoothed (not polished) previous to the baking, and is, in fact, a smooth and
not a rough surface. I prefer the term S (mooth) C(oarse), rather than R(ough) F(aced),
because in my terminology R means red and F means fine-grained, while S. C. cannot be
confused with anything else. The matter is one of importance for tomb-card records made
in the field.
In the C-group graves, a very similar ware is found with a coarse texture, black in the
break, and with a smoothed, straw-marked surface, but always externally a light red color,
whereas the predynastic S. C. is more often brown. This ware also is made of Nile mud,
probably with an admixture of some mineral binding-material like the keriak used by mod-
ern potters at Kerma (p. 425).
Quite different from this “smooth coarse” ware is the coarse red-brown ware without
straw-marks which appears in the Late Predynastic Period, not as an unfinished form of a
finer ware, but as a cheap traditional imitation of better vessels, made especially for the
burial. This coarse red-brown ware continues to be used for traditional-ceremonial pots
during the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom. It is the ware used for the small
offering cups and saucers found in such numbers in the temple-dump of the Mycerinus
temple and in both offering chapels and burial chambers in the mastabas. In the period
between Dynasties VI and XII, the greater part of the pottery, which is only traditional-
ceremonial, reproducing a degeneration of the fine forms of the Old Kingdom, is made of
this coarse red-brown ware.
In the Nubian graves at Kerma, however, the true S. C. ware of the Nubian C-group
reappears, but not in any great numbers. Ten or a dozen of these S. C. vessels scattered
from the Nubian tumulus K LV through K Cem. M to K Cem. N, were decorated with
the characteristic incised patterns of the C-group S. C.1 The forms were the same as those
of the C-group in most cases, but several jars (K M 15:7 and K 5604:8) were of the wide-
mouthed types R. P. J. CXXI-CXXV found rather frequently in the Nubian tumuli, in
1 As given in Nub. Arch. Sur. Report 1909-10, Pl. 33, pp. 118-138 (C. M. Firth).