Aswan Bichrome Fine Ware
Egypt/Upper Egypt
1st century CE-5th century CE
Roman, Byzantine
General Information
The ABFW is a tableware and sporadically appears in the early imperial period in Syene. An increase in popularity can be observed in the middle imperial period before it became one of the most common tablewares in late antiquity. In the imperial period the repertoire of shapes is limited to beakers, plates, and cups of which the latter dominate the repertoire. In the Roman period the vessels of this ware have a dull plain slip that was applied in a thin layer. In late antiquity this ware also appears in various shades of red, but the rim is always clearly differentiated in color. In late antiquity mainly cups/bowls and plates were produced in ABFW, however, the cups/bowls dominated. The repertoire also included shapes influenced by the Mediterranean as well as independent Egyptian shapes but the local shapes are more common. In late antiquity the ABFW vessels were decorated. Rouletting was by far the most popular. Some vessels have a horizontal groove and a small percentage was painted.
The bichrome coloring is characteristic for the ABFW. The rim area of these vessels is covered with a dark slip that usually differs considerably from the rest of the slip. The dark slip of a few pieces reaches beyond the center of the vessel. The bichrome coloring has been interpreted as the result of stacked firing: the rim of a vessel becomes darker than the body due to greater heat exposure. However, several late antique vessels exhibit splatters and fingerprints on the body in the same dark color as the rim of the vessels and likely occurred during production. These splatters and fingerprints indicate that the darker colored rim was intentionally decorated with a differe...
