General Information

Phrygian Gray Utily Ware is the standard ceramic ware for storage vessels made on the central Anatolian plateau for much of the 1st mill. BCE. Vessels are fairly coarse in texture, with a smoothed but otherwise untreated exterior, and completely gray, from section to exterior. The gray is fairly dark, and changes very little across this long stretch of time, ranging from Munsell 2.5Y 4/1 to 2.5Y 7/2 (Stewart 2010, p. 147). In all periods, storage vessels sometimes carried a gray wash on the exterior. The color can vary, tending to dark gray in earlier Phrygian times and light gray in the Hellenistic period (Stewart 2010, p. 148).

At Gordion vessels of this ware were abundant from the 9th/8th c. BCE (Early Phrygian) through the Hellenistic period. In Middle Phrygian times (6th-5th c. BCE) most of these vessels were small and medium in size. Storage vessels had base diameters of 6-15 cm and rim diameters of ~40 cm. The relatively small size suggests that these vessels could be readily moved, if needed (Dusinberre, Lynch, and Voigt 2019, p. 178, table 6). This portability sets the Household Ware vessels apart from the much larger coarse pithoi, whose size and immobility were more suited for long-term storage.

This unburnished ware was used to make sizable forms for basic household use, including large storage jars and large trefoil mouthed jugs. Some of the jugs had self-slipped exteriors and necks slipped on interior and exterior, giving a lovely metallic sheen. Most have an interior diameter at the neck of 10–12 cm, and vertical strap handles (occasionally inscribed, usually at the base of the handle, and/or burnished). Many have an added ridge at the base of the neck and grooves on the shoulder, perhaps to evoke metal vessels. Three jugs found at Gordion have cutaway spouts, generally with a slightly narrower neck diameter and, again, an added ridge at the base of the neck that imitates metalwares.

The high quality of these light gray vessels and their glossy surface strongly recalls silver. Contemporary silver vessels have not been found at Gordion, but the site’s wide range of elaborately decorated Middle Phrygian bronze vessels, and the somewhat later and smaller silver vessels excavated from such sites as İkiztepe, suggest a lively and ongoing tradition in metal at the same time as these Middle Phrygian gray ceramic vessels.

* this description comes from Dusinberre, Lynch, and Voigt 2019, pp. 171, 178.

Vessels of this ware are made of clay that was only partially levigated. Abundant grits along with other inclusions were probably partially added temper and partially naturally occurring. A certain amount of voids indicates the presence of added lime or organic temper. All vessels were fired in a reducing atmosphere, and are gray throughout.

Gordion (Turkey/Central)