General Information

Several distinct styles of painted pottery occur in Cilicia during the Late Bronze Age: Red-slipped, red-edged, and Banded Decoration; Wave Line Painted Ware, and Cross-Hatched Painted Ware (Kozal 2018). Cross-hatched, the most common of the classes, is largely confined to Western Cilicia, and disappears at the end of the Late Bronze Age. Both the Red-slipped and Wave Line styles appear across Cilicia and continue into the Iron Age at Kilise Tepe, Kinet Höyük, and Mersin-Yumuktepe (Ünlü 2018). 

The various Cilician painted styles that emerge in the Late Bronze Age have notably simpler designs than the Syro-Cilician Middle Bronze Age painted wares. The shift from the earlier, more complex designs seems to occur during the LBA I, when Cilicia was still politically independent. In the LBA II, the region was folded into the Hittite Empire, giving that empire access to Mediterranean ports and maritime trade, and also creating stronger ties between Cilicia and Central Anatolia. Both factors may relate in some way to the changes in decorated pottery styles (Ünlü 2018). 

Given the simplicity of the designs, it is difficult to trace any sort of stylistic development. Potters may have found inspiration from imported Mycenaean wares or the painted styles from neighboring regions, e.g., Aphrodisian wares, Southern Central Anatolian wares, or Syro-Palestinian wares. 

Vessels are for the most part wheel-made with only rare examples made by hand, carry some degree of surface treatment, and are well-fired. The decoration is red/brown/reddish-brown in color, usually done in paint rather than slip, and is often sloppy. Designs are generally on the vessel’s upper exterior, but sometimes appears on the central body or the inside. Shapes include both open and closed forms, including jars, neck-kraters, pitchers, bowls, plates, jugs, cups, and some specific Hittite forms. 

At most sites, painted vessels are made in the same local fabric used for the local plain ware, indicating local production. However at Kilise Tepe, petrographic analysis showed a distinction between the fabrics of the painted plain ware vessels, in both the Late Bronze and prior, Middle Bronze periods.*

* This description was written by Katherine Carlton, as part of a project for a course at Boston University in Fall 2025: AR 590, Life Is A Bowl, taught by Professor Andrea M. Berlin.