Glossary Pottery and vessels
Burnishing
Also called: burnish, burnished
Rubbing the surface of an unfired pot with a smooth pebble, bone or tool to compact the clay and give it a sheen after firing.
Burnishing presses the fine clay particles flat so that the fired surface reflects light. It is done when the pot is leather-hard or nearly dry, often over a slip, and the strokes of the tool can sometimes still be seen as faint facets or streaks.
The word "polished" in Cypriot ware names usually means burnished. Red Polished pots were slipped and then burnished with a pebble, and the same finish on a surface fired dark gives Black Polished ware. Burnished juglets from Syria and the Levant also reached Cyprus in the Middle and Late Bronze Age.
Related terms
- Slip
A thin coat of fine clay mixed with water, brushed or dipped over a pot before firing to give it a smoother surface and a different colour.
- Leather-hard
The stage in drying when clay is firm enough to hold its shape but still damp enough to be trimmed, joined, incised or burnished.
- Black Polished ware
An Early and Middle Bronze Age Cypriot ware like Red Polished in shape and finish but fired black all over, made in much smaller numbers.
- Reduction firing
Firing pottery where oxygen is scarce, which turns iron-bearing clay grey or black; with plenty of air (oxidising) the same clay fires red or buff.
Where it appears
- Neolithic and Chalcolithic Wares
- Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware
- Red-on-White Ware
- Combed Ware
- Monochrome Ware
- Red Polished Ware
- Black Polished Ware
- Coarse Wares, Pithoi and Cooking Pots
- Ugarit and the Levant
- Grey and Black Polished, Stroke Polished and Polychrome Wares
- Red Slip Ware
- Decoration Techniques
and 32 more compendium pages