Red Polished Jug with Concentric Circles and a Squared Side-Spout

Early Cypriot III to Middle Cypriot I, c. 2100–1850 BCE · Red Polished ware · Handmade, incised and white-filled

A handmade jug with a round base, a full globular body and a tall cylindrical neck ending in a wide, flat, everted rim. A strap handle, incised with lattice, runs from the rim to the shoulder. Roughly opposite the handle, on the shoulder, stands a hollow squared attachment pierced through its front face by a round hole, with a small incised circle at each upper corner. Incised rings surround the bases of both the handle and the attachment.

The body is laid out in vertical zones: ladder bands and cross-hatched bands separate large incised concentric-circle medallions, at least four in all. The neck carries groups of horizontal lines and small hatched panels. The red slip is burnished, but much of it lies under a pale lime crust. A small applied knob on the front of the rim is broken.

Commentary

The burnished red slip, handmade build and lime-filled incision identify this jug as Red Polished ware of the kind usually labelled Red Polished III. It belongs to the long series of round-mouthed jugs that were the most common closed shape in Early and Middle Cypriot tombs. The round base, which gives the jug no standing surface, is a trait of Early Cypriot III and later [3], and the heavy concentric circles framed by ladder and lattice bands match the incised repertoire of the Early Cypriot III and Middle Cypriot I tombs of the north coast. A date of about 2100–1850 BCE follows from these features. Without a tomb context a narrower date is not possible.

The feature that sets this jug apart is the squared attachment on the shoulder. It is most probably a side-spout, a second opening set on the shoulder of a jug alongside the main mouth. Morris illustrates a Red Polished jug with a cutaway-beak spout and a side-spout, decorated with "deeply incised circle motifs typical of the Dhenia region" [1], and that combination of a side-spout with heavy circles is close to this piece. The squared section and the pierced front face are unusual, and the top edges are irregular, so the upper part may be lost. Other readings are possible, including a stylised modelled element or a small attached container. A physical check of whether the hollow opens into the body would settle the question. The purpose of side-spouts is also uncertain. One suggestion is that they allowed a jug to be filled or poured from without using the main mouth.

Heavily drawn concentric circles, multiple plastic additions and baroque surface treatment are hallmarks of the pottery of Deneia in the Ovgos valley and of the neighbouring Lapithos sphere [2]. The Deneia cemeteries were plundered over many generations, and their pots are now scattered in collections worldwide [2, 6]. This jug is in a style associated with Deneia and Lapithos, but a find-spot cannot be proved. Comparable jugs include a Cesnola jug in the Metropolitan Museum with a shoulder attachment and concentric circles [4] and a Red Polished III juglet with incised circles in Leiden [5].