| Brief Description |
This pottery water jar, or amphora, is decorated in the Bichrome II style, and dates from the Cypro-Archaic I period, 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 lower body and upper neck of the amphora are restored from fragments. It has a ring base with an inverted piriform body. There is an obvious junction of the lower and upper body parts of the amphora evident at the mid-section. Two vertical handles run from the shoulder to rim and are rectangular in cross-section. The neck is outwardly tapering to an everted, flat rim.
The amphora is decorated with a matt buff slip, as well as a brown and orange matt and red paint. The lower body has two thick brown bands which enclose three thinner red bands. The upper body has two sets of three brown and two red alternating bands which enclose twenty-two concentric circle groups. Around the shoulder are twelve concentric circle groups. Around the neck and body junction are two thin brown bands which enclose one thick, red band. Around the neck two thin red bands enclose eight concentric circle groups. There is one brown band below the rim and another around and on the rim. The rim has filled-in semi-circles around its top. The handles go from the rim to the shoulders. The sides and bases of the handles are painted with cross-hatching along tops. All concentric circle groups made up of ten to eleven circles.
|
