General Information

Cilician Late Bronze Age Cross-Hatched Painted Ware (CRPW) consists of wheel-made, well fired beige/brown vessels, most often jars and bowls with square rims, painted with dark red or brown cross-hatched patterns on the exterior, and herringbone or stripes on the handles. CRPW is a distinctive ceramic tradition of western Cilicia, primarily identified at Mersin-Yumuktepe, Kilise Tepe, and Soli Höyük, dating to approximately 1400–1200 BCE. It is one of several new painted pottery styles to appear in this region at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Others include Wave Line Painted Ware and Red-slipped Painted wares.

To date there is little petrographic data, but their distribution suggests that CRPW vessels were a regional phenomenon. Vessels are concentrated in western Cilicia; in eastern Cilicia, for example at sites such as Sirkeli Höyük, fewer examples have been found. The pattern suggests production by specialized potters who employed standardized methods, and may reflect a degree of regional cohesion and cultural identity, rather than centralized production or large-scale export.

Following the handmade and two-color traditions of the Middle Bronze Age Syro-Cilician Painted Ware, the Cross-Hatched Painted Ware represents the Late Bronze Age shift toward wheel-made production, monochromatic red-slip, and geometric decoration. The transition represents a significant technological and stylistic shift, reflecting changing production practices and perhaps also a new relationship between local or regional powers in Cilicia and the central authority of the Hittite state.

Cross-Hatched Painted Ware may share fabric similarities with Cilician Late Bronze Age Plain Ware and Cilician Wave-Line Painted Ware, though these relationships remain unconfirmed. Cross-Hatched and Wave-Line wares differ in painting technique and geographic spread, with cross-hatched vessels typically painted only red while Wave-Line Painted Ware vessels generally carry two colors of painted decoration.*

* This description was written by Sage Fuller, 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.

The cross-hatched red painted pottery from Yumuktepe has been described by Sevin and Köroğlu as having beige-colored fabric (5YR 6/6; 7.5YR 7/6) with light brown paint (10R 5/8) designs on the exterior, consisting of cross-hatching, rim slashes, and herring-bone or striped design on the handles.

Yumuktepe, Mersin (Turkey/Eastern Mediterranean)