Reading Cypriot pottery

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   Step 1 · Pottery · 11 min read

   The Pottery of Ancient Cyprus

   An overview of Cypriot pottery from the Ceramic Neolithic onward, and why it underpins the island's chronology.

   The pottery made and used in Cyprus from the Ceramic Neolithic onward, the island's most abundant artifact class and the basis of its chronology.

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   Step 2 · Pottery · 5 min read

   Types of Ware

   How the ware names were built up, why they confuse, and the main families set out in order.

   The families of Cypriot pottery, grouped by clay, surface finish and decoration, from Neolithic Combed ware to Iron Age Black-on-Red.

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   Step 3 · Pottery · 11 min read

   Red Polished Ware

   Now the pots themselves: the red, burnished handmade ware that dominated the Early and Middle Bronze Age.

   Red Polished is the hand-made, red-slipped and burnished pottery that dominated Cyprus in the Early and Middle Bronze Age.

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   Step 4 · Pottery · 14 min read

   White Painted Ware

   A pale slip painted with dark matt geometric motifs, flourishing in the Middle Bronze Age as WP I to VI.

   The hand-made, pale-slipped Bronze Age pottery of Cyprus painted with dark matt geometric motifs, flourishing in the Middle Bronze Age as WP I to VI.

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   Step 5 · Tools & Technologies · 15 min read

   Pottery Kilns and Firing in Ancient Cyprus

   A step back to technique: open fires and pits until the Late Bronze Age brought the first kilns and the wheel.

   How Cypriot potters fired their wares, mostly in open fires and pits until the Late Bronze Age, when the first kilns and the potter's wheel appear.

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   Step 6 · Pottery · 13 min read

   Base Ring Ware

   Thin-walled, handmade Late Bronze Age pottery whose dark lustrous surfaces imitate metal, exported as jugs and juglets.

   The thin-walled, hand-made Late Bronze Age pottery of Cyprus with dark lustrous surfaces imitating metal, widely exported as jugs and juglets.

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   Step 7 · Pottery · 12 min read

   White Slip Ware

   Its companion at table: a thick white slip with dark painted decoration, mostly on hemispherical bowls, widely exported.

   The hand-made Late Bronze Age tableware with a thick white slip and dark painted decoration, mostly hemispherical bowls, widely exported from Cyprus.

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   Step 8 · Pottery · 15 min read

   From Bronze to Iron: Cypriot Pottery c. 1300–950 BCE

   Between c. 1300 and 950 BCE the handmade Base Ring and White Slip give way to wheelmade White Painted and Bichrome.

   The change in Cypriot fine pottery between c. 1300 and 950 BCE, from handmade Base Ring and White Slip to wheelmade White Painted and Bichrome.

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   Step 9 · Pottery · 11 min read

   Bichrome Ware

   Black and red paint on a light surface, first a Late Bronze Age export ware and later a long-lived Iron Age class.

   Bichrome is Cypriot pottery painted in black and red on a light surface, first a Late Bronze Age export ware and later a long-lived Iron Age class.

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    Step 10 · Pottery · 10 min read

    Black-on-Red Ware

    The route ends in the Iron Age: black geometric decoration on a burnished red slip, widely exported from about 900 BCE.

    Black-on-Red is a Cypriot Iron Age wheel-made fine ware with black geometric decoration on a burnished red slip, widely exported from about 900 BCE.

Start with The Pottery of Ancient Cyprus →