Semitic Museum No. 1995.10.577
Red Slip Flask
Date: Cypro-Geometric

Form: Phoenician Red Slip Ware "pilgrim" flask.Lentoid body with one side flatter than the other, narrow neck flares at the junction with the body and towards the rim also, rounded edge, very narrow interior diameter at the body junction; opposing vertical handles, circular in section, pointed inside, flattened outside, from mid-neck to high on the disk.

Fabric: Well-levigated grey-beige clay (7.5 YR 7/4 pink) with an orange tinge, black and red as well as some shiny inclusions. Fabric quite friable.

Decoration: Thick red slip (10R 4/6). Vertically placed concentric circle decoration, especially on one side, in white? which is now worn-off; matt black circles might also have been present at one time.

Technical/Manufacturing: Wheelmade in one piece (wheel marks visible inside the body, on one side much more than the other) with the neck being pierced or thrust through the chosen top of the sphere; much additional clay added around the neck/body junction. Two small pointed depressions, 2 cms. apart, pushed inside the body (visible on interior view photo and group one), were probably made by a narrow split stick that was thrust through the neck and used to enable the potter to smooth and hold the interior of the neck as it was being shaped/attached to the body. Vertical burnishing on the body and neck. Spauling.

Remarks: Provenance Amathus per Cesnola. Very good example of a Phoenician Red Slip flask; better and earlier than 1995.10.576. Sample taken for Petrographic analysis by Amelie Beyhum, 1999, results forthcoming. A common Phoenician import to Cyprus, occuring unchanged in shape from 1050 to 850 B.C., so thus is a rather poor chronological indicator.

• Publication: None. On exhibition Semitic Museum Ancient Cyprus 1997 - , see the Trade Case, Mediterranean Hub, within the exhibit on the Semitic Museum's website.
• Comparanda SM: 1995.10.576 which has a separate entry, is slightly later in date, though still falls within the 850 B.C. time frame.
• Comparanda Elsewhere: Bikai 1987:6, Plate I and Plate III, object number 18 from Amathus, with traces of black concentric circle decoration; this author feels that Plate II.8 is a closer parallel due to the everted rim of the flask.