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Materials & Wares
Iron Age Pots and Potters |
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The pottery of Iron Age Cyprus, unlike the pottery of the Cypriot Bronze Age, was mass produced in a standard range of shapes and wares. Potters often took considerably less care with their work and as a result the finished products were more homogenous and frequently flawed in minor ways (many of these manufacturing details are included in the description pages for individual objects). | ||
| Iron Age Cypriot pottery was none the less colorful and often elaborately painted with geometric or figural motifs. Intricate "Free-field" compositions graced juglets and jars. Ubiquitous concentric circles were applied to jars, juglets, bowls and kraters using multiple brushes. Finer wares like plates, bowls and jugs were made on the fast wheel, while larger forms like amphoras, amphoroid kraters and pithoi were built with a combination of techniques: wheel throwing, hand coiling or molding. | |||
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In the 1920s and 1930s Einar Gjerstad, director of the
Swedish Cyprus Expedition, undertook a pioneering study of the decorated
pottery of Iron Age Cyprus. The pottery in our collection illustrates
the variety of wares defined by Gjerstad. Most of it was taken intact
from tombs, just like that exhibited in the Bronze Age Case (see the
Semitic Museum web site for the Ancient Cyprus exhibit and case
details). The plans accompanying the Archaeology pages show how tomb
design changed during the Iron Age, as did the forms of pottery.
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© The President and Fellows of Harvard University
For information or comments, please contact The Semitic Museum
URL: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic/Cesnola/ MatWaresIAPotters.html
Last Modified: 11/15/99