Cypriot large dish (early Iron age – Cypro-Geometric I): 1050 – 950 BC

A two handled dish, intended to be hung up, face to the wall, when not in use: which is why the back (an unusual sunburst pattern) is more decorated than the front. Notice a partial paint-fingerprint of the maker on the front surface. The dish was a new form in Cyprus, deriving from resurgent Greece. Ethnic Greeks now dominated Cypriot society and preserved aspects of the vanished Mycenaean civilisation. This is the common Bichrome-ware, which was coated in white slip and painted in 2 colours (see back). It grew out of the Proto White Painted ware of the 12th century. Cypriot Iron age pottery was made on the potters wheel, like the Mycenaean ware that had been imported and then made on the island, and unlike most native styles from the bronze age. However very large objects such as large Kraters were built up from coils first.  Shapes became more standardised and mass produced and it is thought men took-over pottery production from the women.

Hinged display to show both sides