Early Cypriot Black Slip and Combed
Cyprus/Western Mesoria
2450/2400 BCE – 2300/2250 BCE
Philia
General Information
Description
Fine reddish yellow (7.5YR6/6, 5YR5/6) or yellowish brown (10YR6/4, 10YR5/4) fabric, medium-soft to medium-hard with a thick dark core and few to medium small to medium black, white and occasionally red inclusions. Open vessel interiors are often slipped red-brown (2.5YR5/6) and matt or lightly burnished. Exteriors are dark grey, dark brown or black and decorated with parallel or criss-crossing red-brown bands. The technique may in some cases have involved double slipping, with a black slip scraped away to reveal an underlying red slip, and in others a scraping or combing of a dark grey slip to reveal the underlying clay. In all cases the bands show fine parallel striations. Lighter coloured varieties occur, with a pale brown fabric and a red-brown surface crossed by light brown bands or a light grey surface with red-brown bands.
Nicosia, Ayia Paraskevi (Cyprus/Western Mesoria)
Philia Vasiliko (Cyprus/Western Mesoria)