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Pottery Summary

BODY SHERDS are chosen to illustrate the following summary of the fabrics as well as bodily sizes, curves and transitions.  Most material is of a single fabric, low-fire, moderately well-levigated, often somewhat micaceous, and usually friable.  This impasto varies greatly in appearance.  The surface may be burnished or unburnished.  Color typically ranges from dark grey through muddy orangish brown to bright orange and may also have a yellow-brown tinge.  Each usually has a fairly smooth, very fragile surface.  Butter-burnished impasto may be either grey or a muted brownish orange.  The range in thickness, i.e. the scale of the pot, is great, from the heaviest utility ware to medium-range jars and bowls to thin-walled cups and jars, each of which can be burnished or coarse in surface.  Variation, particularly in color may be due to firing (by kiln or conflagration), soil conditions, even surface treatment and perhaps clay and inclusion.  A more refined impasto occurs in distinct grey and pale orange wares.  Orange ware normally has a good if not glossy surface at least on one side.  Grey ware preserves a poor surface and a friable, chalky interior.  Buccheroid is a highly burnished, usually dark grey ware related to buccheroi in its varieties.  Finally, there is a group of extremely well-levigated (though apparently not high-fire), perhaps more hellenizing, wares, which range in color from buff to pink-orange.  These may be painted in black or red.  The modest amounts of bucchero/buccheroid and buff wares are kept in their entirety; impasto, orange and grey wares in small samples.  Samples are also kept of a coarser heavy-duty impasto usually orange in color.  This coarse ware is used mainly for heavy utility vessels, also for moderately large jars.

RIMS are divided into 8 groups: I-VIII.

I. Plain rins from small, more or less open shapes without lips, in effect the flat or round edge of thee wall itself:

A. Probably from small, deep bowls or cups with splaying, gently curved, but relatively vertical walls in the manner of a kotyle for example; or from vases with very high lips, e.g. chalices.

B. From small, ovoid jars with walls curving gently in above to a wide mouth, thus to form a vague shoulder; or from bowls with walls curved slightly up and in.  The udges of the former may be flattened.

C. From bowls or fine jars with curved walls not turned inward significantly.

D. Suggesting a shallow cup, bowl, or dish with the wall bent sharply up and

back to a plain rim which is thin and rounded at the edge.  These are probably footed or stemmed.

E. Probably from shallow dishes or plates, also footed or stemmed, with the rim often set off in some manner, primarily to project downward.

F. Indeterminate plain rims.

II. Plain rims from large, more or less open vases.

A. From ovoid jars whose mouths are open to different degrees, and some of whom have well-defined shoulders set off in the manner of biconical vases.  The rims are in 4 basic groups: Shoulders normally receive horizontal ribbing.

B. From wide-open shapes with splaying walls.

C. From shallow dishes or plates

III. Rims curving gently up from an ovoid body, probably a jar, so as to form a rudimentary neck and render the shape a kind of bottle.  These could in a few cases belong to bowls with flaring rims.  Three basic types are observed:

IV. Ovoid, shouldered jars or cups with well-defined collar lips.

V. Lips clearly everted from a globular to ovoid body.  The enormous variety is broken down into three tendencies, often mixed but divided according to predominant forms:

A. With the transition from body to lip an angle, the lips straight possibly with some swelling at the edge; the angle may also be rounded within.

B. With angular transition and a lip whose straight sides splay outward to form a molding; the edge may be rounded but often preserves a blunt, bevelled face.

C. Lips with the inner and/or outer contour curved so that they seem to curl back, sometimes without a sharp break from the body, and sometimes to with a rounded molding.

B and C appear to belong to jars with globular to ovoid bodies whose wide, arching shoulders surround a constricted mouth.  B's often suggest large pots, but some are small and well-formed.  C crowns 1 large and 1 delicate vase.  A seems to belong to deep cups or globular, wide-mouth jars.

VI. Heavy coarse-ware rims, usually enlarged III's or IV's.

VII. Probably belong to lids.  These are frequent, and are all saved.

VIII. Mescellaneous.  Unusual and interesting.

HANDLES: I. tubular: A. coarse; B. fine; C. compound.

II. strap

BASES: I. flat-bottom: A. heavy; B. moderate; C. fine.

II. low footed: A. straight; B. hollowed.

III. stemmed.

Addendum to Pottery Summary

T25 Material

Body sherds are chosen to illustrate the following summary of fabrics as well as the variety of sizes, curves and transitions.  Most of the material is of IMPASTO fabric (low fire), which varies in appearance: It may have a burnished to an unburnished surface; the color ranges from dark grey through a muddy brown to a bright orange.  The surface is usually fairly smooth.  Better burnished impasto may be either grey or brown-orange in color.  Variation, particularly in color, may be due to firing (by kiln or conflagration), soil conditions or even surface treatment.

The range of thickness, i.e. the size of the pot, varies from the heaveist utility ware to medium range jars and bowls to thin walled cups and jars.  The surfaces of each may be burnished or coarse.

A more refind IMPASTO appears in the distinct pale orange ware, which usually has a good, if not glossy surface on at least one side.

BUCCHERO is a fine, highly burnished black material in a variety of small shapes.  BUCCHEROID is a highly burnished, usually dark grey ware related to bucchero in variety.

There is a small amount of the extremely well levigated ware, which is buff in color.  These have traces of black and red paint.

The small amounts of bucchero/buccheroid and buff wares have been kept in their entirety; impasto and orange ware in small samples.  Samples are also kept of a coarser, heavy duty impasto which is usually orange in color, and used mainly for heavy utility vessels and moderately large jars.

Rims are divided into five groups following groups I-VIII set out in the preceeding pages of

I. Plain rims from small, more or less open shapes without lips, in effect the flat or round edge of the wall itself:

II. Plain rims from large, more or less open vases.  Larger version of IC.

V. Lips clearly everted from a globular to ovoid body.  The enormous variety is broken down into three tendencies, often mixed but divided according to predominant shape.

VA

VB

VC this type of rim seems to be the predominant type in this material

VI. Heavy coarseware rims, usually enlarged VA's.

VIII. Miscellaneous: unusual and interesting

Handles   I. Tubular: A. coarse; B. fine

II. Strap: A. coarse; B. fine

Bases      I. Flat bottomed: A. heavy; B. moderate; C. fine.

II. Low footed: A. straight; B. hollow (ring foot)

III. Stemmed: A. coarse; B. fine.

Rectangle 22 Material

BODY SHERDS are chosen to illustrate the following summary according to fabric as well as bodily sizes, curves and transitions.  Most of the material is of IMPASTO fabric, varying in color from dark grey through muddy brown to bright orange.  The surface may be burnished or unburnished.  The range of thickness, i.e. the scale of the pot, is not as great as with the T25 material; there are fewer large heavy coarseware pieces, and the size range from medium to small storage jars (globular and ovoid) to smaller jars and bowls and footed cups.  A more refined impasto occurs in distinct grey and pale orange wares in smaller amounts.  Orange ware normally has a good if not flossy surface on at least one side.  Grey ware preserves a poor surface and a friable chalky interior.

The modest amounts of BUCCHERO/BUCCHEROID and find BUFF WARE have been kept in their entirety.  Some examples of heavy coarseware have also been chosen.

RIMS have been divided into four groups following the typology in

I. Plain rims from small, more or less open shapes without lips; in effect the flat or round edge of the wall itself.  Types A,B,C,D,E.

II. Plain rims from large more or less open vases.  A,B.

V. Lips clearly everted from a globular to ovoid body.  A,B,C.

VI. Heavy coarseware rims, usually enlarge IV's or V's.

HANDLES

I. Tubular ----A. coarse, B. fine

II. Strap ------A. coarse, B. fine

BASES

I. Flat bottomed A. heavy, B. moderate, C. fine

II. Low footed

III. Stemmed

Agger Extension Material

BODY SHERDS are chosen to illustrate the following summary according to fabric, bodily sizes, curves and transitions.  Most of the material is IMPASTO, although there is some gray ware and some orange ware.  (See of this pottery summary for description of the fabrics.)  There is a great amount of heavy coarse ware, more than in either Rectangle 22 or T25.  Shapes in this area are limted to storage jars, mostly without handles, of medium to small size, large coarse ware vessels and a small number of small bowls.  The modest amounts of bucchero and buff ware have been kept in their entirety.

RIMS (following the typology on of this summary) are of the following categories:

I. Plain rims from small, more or less open shapes without lips; in effect the flat or round edge of the wall itself.

II. Plain rims from large, more or less open vases.

IV. Ovoid, shouldered jars or cups with well-defined collar lips.

V. Lips clearly everted from a globular to ovoid body.

VI. Heavy coarse-ware rims, usually enlarged III's or V's.

VIII. Miscellaneous.  Unusual and interesting.

HANDLES

I. Tubular: A. heavy; B. moderate; C. fine

II. Strap

BASES

I. Flat-bottomed: A. heavy; B. moderate; C. fine.

II. Stemmed: A. heavy; B. fine

Agger II. Fossa. Cut 3, E-F 9-11 and Cut 4, E-F 9-15.

Pottery Summary

Addendum to LRL Book 1, 1980.  Representative Pottery Box VIII.

This material is of particular interest, since much of it is distinctive.  The fabric is unusually homogeneous: very coarse with breaks often curiously jagged from the large inclusions, but the surfaces are carefully smoothed; color is grey-black or a pale orange-brown, often both, with one on the interior the other on the exterior.  Shapes are often unorthodox.  Execution is careful but in some respects irregular as though the wheel employed were slower than that used for the pottery typical of Poggio Civitate.

All material is boxed, much for eventual cataloguing.  It is hoped that further progress can be made toward recovering a full profile.

Most sherds seem to belong to pots, which tend to largish.

RIMS

Few fit neatly into the typology of Bouloumie-Marique (1978).  Among these are two resembling her shape N:

1. Very large

2.

Most common are pots with a globular or ovoid body and a rim which is not as distinct from the body as in Bouloumie shape M, and tends to form a simple "collar," somewhat outcurving, around a wide mouth:

3. Very large. 3 joining pieces

4.

5.

6.

7. In 2 joining pieces

8. small

9. small

Two pots have bodies that curve inward to a simple lip:

10. 2 joining fragments

11. groove-rimmed (shape L) with the ribbing extremely well-articulated into "steps."

BASES

12. With considerable portion of a fairly attenuated ovoid (?) body.

The only other well-attested shape seems to be a bowl with simple lip, mostly large.

13. A.

B.

14. Barely curving, irregular, 2 joining pieces

15. Irregular.  Perhaps hand-made.

16. With thickened lip.

17. Small. 2 joining fragments

One hollow conical foot, narrow and irregular.

18. In a finer orange fabric.

19. Pot with delicately offset, conical (?) shoulder.  Bagged with similar sherds.

In what seems to be a conventional Murlo impasto:

20. Groove-rimmed pot, very sharply articulated with upright incipient collar lip.

Body sherds and (4) fragments from cylindrical handles are boxed with numbered pieces.

Addendum to LRL Book 1, 1980.  Representative Pottery Box VI: Agger extension (Agger II).  Cut 5, Dark Burn

BODY SHERDS are chosen to give a fairly representative sample of the varieties of impasto and of the scale of the vases in question.  Bucchero is bagged in its entirety with the other bucchero body fragments from AG-X; fine buff body sherds are bagged in their entirety in this box, together with those in fine grey ware.  Fine wares represent a small fraction of the material.  Impasto is predominant, and the range of thickness, coarseness and coloration is more less than described above in the initial summary.

RIMS suggest a clearer picture.  The vast majority belong to storage and/or cooking pots, whose typological distribution seems to be characteristic of the site as a whole.  I follow the classification of Bouloumie-Marique.  Most frequent are pots with everted rims, rolled or simple (m, m2), the full range of sizes, which is enormous, is represented with emphasis on the medium size.  Not far behind come the groove-rimmed pots of shape L, and here the number of relatively small examples is noteworthy.  Flaring rims of shape J are also well-represented, though they are at most only one third as frequent as those of shape L; here too some are rather small.  Medium to small pots with collar rims (kept in their entirety) are well-represented an exhibit a number of interesting versions in coarse as well as delicate form.  Anomalous rim fragments document unusual pots: a large, unusually

open and non articulated pot of type m2; a delicate and small version of the type - perhaps actually a cup or bowl - with an offset shoulder; a pail-like pot with a rolled rim; and large pots similar in form to shape L but not grooved; and a fairly large pot close to shapes m2 and J but with a grooved shoulder.

Surprisingly infrequent are rims of bowls, cups and plates of impasto.  The only type which recurs with any frequency is that common to shapes A-C, with inverted rims.

BASE fragments reinforce the above picture.  Nearly all belong to flat-bottomed pots in the full range of sizes, though some of the smaller ones must belong to bowls or cups.  A small number belong to low-footed or stemmed plates or cups.

HANDLES are not frequent.  Most are typical of the handled versions of the utility pots noted above.  Noteworthy are a great, coarse strap handle and a single double-handle appropriate to a pitcher; also a fragment of a cooking-bell.

Descriptive Attribute Value(s)
Document Type Trench Book Entry
Trench Book Entry Date 1980-08-02
Entry Year 1980
Start Page 370
End Page 395
Title Pottery Summary
Trench Book LRL I:370-371
Trench Book LRL I:372-373
Trench Book LRL I:374-375
Trench Book LRL I:376-377
Trench Book LRL I:378-379
Trench Book LRL I:380
Trench Book LRL I:380-381
Trench Book LRL I:382-383
Trench Book LRL I:384-385
Trench Book LRL I:386-387
Trench Book LRL I:388-389
Trench Book LRL I:390-391
Trench Book LRL I:392-393
Descriptive Attribute Value(s)
Is Part Of
Vocabulary: DCMI Metadata Terms (Dublin Core Terms)
LRL I info
Vocabulary: Murlo
Descriptive Attribute Value(s)
Contributor
Vocabulary: DCMI Metadata Terms (Dublin Core Terms)
L. Ron Lacy info
Vocabulary: Murlo
Subject
Vocabulary: DCMI Metadata Terms (Dublin Core Terms)
Coverage
Vocabulary: DCMI Metadata Terms (Dublin Core Terms)
Iron age info
Vocabulary: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Open Context References: Iron age hub
Temporal Coverage
Vocabulary: DCMI Metadata Terms (Dublin Core Terms)
Creator
Vocabulary: DCMI Metadata Terms (Dublin Core Terms)
Anthony Tuck info
Vocabulary: Murlo
Suggested Citation

L. Ron Lacy. (2017) "LRL I (1980-08-02):370-395; Pottery Summary from Europe/Italy/Poggio Civitate/Agger/Agger 11/1980, ID:417". In Murlo. Anthony Tuck (Ed). Released: 2017-10-04. Open Context. <https://opencontext.org/documents/044f76e1-6594-4abc-91c8-fa7b15f20331> ARK (Archive): https://n2t.net/ark:/28722/k2d50x876

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