Dipper with High Loop Handle

Middle Cypriot, c. 2000–1650 BCE · Probably Red Polished or Red Slip ware; White Painted not excluded · Handmade

A hemispherical bowl with a round base and a thin rim, chipped around much of its circumference. From the rim springs a large loop handle of round section that arches out and returns to the lower body, so that it projects well beyond the bowl and would lie almost level when the vessel rests on its base.

The surface is pale buff and heavily worn. Irregular red patches cling to the outside of the bowl and to the handle, especially along its upper curve, and darker grey staining marks the far end of the loop. The red survives in blotches, with no clear lines or bands.

Commentary

This is a dipper: a small bowl on a long loop handle, used for drawing liquid from a larger jar. The shape is well attested in Middle Cypriot tombs. The closest parallel is a Red Polished III dipper in the British Museum, with a hemispherical body, round base and a high loop handle rising from the rim to the body, dated Middle Cypriot I–II [1]. The Swedish excavations at Lapithos recorded a Red Polished IV deep bowl with a round base and a high handle from rim to body [4].

The ware is the open question. The piece has been listed as White Painted, but the red on its surface survives as blotches, with no trace of the linear patterns that White Painted potters used. That pattern of loss fits a red slip worn back to the pale clay, as on Red Polished or Red Slip ware, more readily than a painted design. A ladle in the Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, catalogued as Red Slip or Black Slip and dated Middle Cypriot II–III, shows the slipped option; it was also acquired in Cyprus in the 1960s [2]. A White Painted bowl with a high looped handle from Leondari Vouno in the Fitzwilliam Museum shows that the painted ware used the form too [3]. Examination of the fabric at a break, and of the surface under magnification, should decide between these readings.

The date is given broadly as Middle Cypriot, c. 2000–1650 BCE, the span in which Åström placed the wares concerned [5]. A Red Polished or Red Slip attribution would favour the earlier part of that range. Ladles with a similar loop were also made in the Late Cypriot period in Plain White and Base Ring wares, so a later date cannot be ruled out on shape alone, although the Middle Cypriot parallels and the group with which it was collected favour the earlier date.