| Brief Description |
This pottery water jar, or amphora, is decorated in the style of White Painted IV ware, and dates from the Cypro-Archaic I period which was 750 BC to 600 BC.
The amphora is one of a large collection of ceramics from Cyprus, donated to the Museum by Dr George Sleight. It was excavated from Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus by Dr Sleight, who lived in Cyprus and worked as Principal of the Morphou Teachers College. Later he became first Assistant Director and then Director of Education in Cyprus. After his retirement in 1956, Dr Sleight became Education Minister for Sierra Leone where he remained until at least 1961.
The amphora has been restored from fragments. It has a ring base with an inverted piriform (pear-shaped) body. Two horizontal handles are set vertically just below the shoulders and are cylindrical in cross-section. The piece has a high, straight neck with a thick, everted (turned outward) rim.
The amphora is decorated with a mat beige slip decorated with dark brown paint. The base ring is painted brown, as are the tops and sides of the handles; here, the paint extends onto the body. Around the mid body, interrupted by the handles, are one thin band and six concentric circle groups in brown. A thick band of brown is at the junction of the body and neck. The neck is divided into two panels by a band of eight thin, vertical lines. Each panel is filled with two sets of four concentric circle groups forming two inverted “L”s; these enclose a motif composed of wavy and straight vertical lines and a vertical, cross-hatched lozenge chain. There are a further two bands of paint around the upper neck. The top and inside of the rim is brown. All the concentric circle groups are made up of five circles.
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