Some Inscribed Iron-Age Vases from Cyprus

Abstract

MYREs, in his Handbook of the Cesnola Collection (pp. 58ff), distinguished a group of Cypriot vases of the Early Iron which he ascribed to what he called Bucchero Wares. In defining these wares, he states that range in time from the beginning of the Iron Age-where they succeed the wheelmade Red Ware of the Late Bronze Age -down to the eighth or seventh century, by which time they appear to have been as completely superseded by the Painted Red Ware. . He distinguished in this ware two groups: a) the True Bucchero with red clay throughout which he described as follows: standard fabric has a bright red clay of the same colour throughout, capable of receiving a high polish; and b) the Bucchero fabric with painted ornaments on a lighter clay. The fact that some of these vases bear inscriptions makes them especially interesting, and they are often referred to by historians and epigraphists. Gjerstad, in his classification of the geometric pottery of Cyprus, has included this group,2 but without any references to Myres' Bucchero Wares.