General Information

Phoenician red slipped and burnished ware is identified by its golden-colored fabric and red glossy surface caused by a thick red burnished slipped. 

During the Iron Age, burnished (or polished) red slip was the most common approach to decorating table vessels throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Potters in Cilicia, Cyprus, and along the Levantine coast all produced vessels finished in this manner, e.g., Cilician LB-Iron Age Red Slip Ware, Cypriot Iron Age Red Slip Ware, Red slips have a long history in Levantine pottery in general; they are common throughout the Bronze Age in most locations as well, e.g., Canaanite MB-LB Red Slipped Ware. They remained popular in later eras as well, e.g., Cypriot Hellenistic red slip ware and all the various Hellenistic and Roman (and later) red-slip wares.

Two key ways to distinguish between vessels of these various traditions, periods, and locales are the specific shapes and types made, and the final finish of the slip. Slips could be left matte, hand or wheel-polished or burnished, or fired to create additional gloss. 

In the case of Phoenician Iron Age Red Slipped and Burnished Ware, slips were highly burnished and shiny. Shapes included plates, bowls, jugs, and juglets. Plates and bowls were generally thin-walled, with a string-cut disc base. Particular types of jugs include vessels with a trefoil mouth, long neck, and piriform body. Juglets had mushroom-shaped rims.

Achziv Ware; Samaria Ware