Gray wares have a long history throughout Anatolia in general, and particularly at sites down the Ionian coast. The name can refer to any pottery intentionally fired in a reducing atmosphere and consequently having gray fabric. In the Bronze and Iron Ages, gray ceramics usually have a burnished surface that was produced by polishing; sometimes these were also slipped beforehand. In the mid-later 1st millennium BCE, potters in Ionia and the inland regions of Lydia and Phrygia often made gray ware vessels for table use with black or gray slip. Gray wares continued to be made into the early Roman period, in various shapes and techniques including on the wheel and in molds (especially moldmade bowls and lamps).
In late...
The fabric contains few fine black, rare medium white and frequent fine sparkling (silver mica) inclusions. There are medium to frequent rounded and thin voids visible in the core. The color is grey (10YR 5/1). The fabric is soft to fairly hard. The surface is smooth and the texture of the fresh break is rather smooth or irregular, depending on the quality. The surface is covered with thin, matt or semi-lustrous, dark grey (7.5YR 3/1) to black (7.5YR 2.5/1) slip.
Ephesian Gray Ware, Ephesian Grey Ware, Ionian Grey Ware, Ionian Gray Ware
Paphos/Nea Paphos (Cyprus/Western South Coast)