Glossary Pottery and vessels
Coarse ware
Everyday pottery made from gritty, heavily tempered clay, mostly cooking pots and storage vessels with little or no decoration.
Coarse wares make up much of any settlement assemblage but are rarely illustrated. Their thick, open-textured clay stands up to heat and heavy use, and potters often chose particular clays for them: Bronze Age Cypriot cooking pots were made from non-calcareous clays that resist cracking in the fire.
From the island's first pottery onwards potters kept coarse and fine wares apart. In the Neolithic, coarse and plain monochrome pottery far outnumbers the decorated Combed ware, and the Philia assemblage included coarse wares for cooking beside its fine Red Polished pottery.
Related terms
- Fine ware
Pottery made with care from well-prepared clay, with thin walls and finished or decorated surfaces, mainly for serving, drinking and display.
- Temper
Material such as sand, crushed rock, chaff or ground-up pottery that a potter mixes into clay to make it easier to shape and less likely to crack.
- Ware
A class of pottery defined by a shared fabric, surface treatment and way of making, such as Red Polished or White Painted ware.