Internet Archaeology 4. Perkins. 4.2.1

4.2 Catalogue of fine wares

4.2.1 Bucchero

Four different bucchero fabrics were identified. All were quite fine and reduced to a dark grey or black

Forms	Types
Bowls	Type 1, Type 2, Type 3
Chalices	Type 1
Kantharoi/Kyathoi	Type 1
Kotyle?	Type 1
Plate	Type 1

Bowls

Type 2

Plain rim with carination. Date 6th century.

Type 3

Small angular footring, cf. Perkins and Walker 1990, fig.27.10. Date 6th-5th century.

Chalices

Type 1

Various sherds of chalice (Rasmussen 1979, 95-101). These sherds do not include handles and so have been classified as chalices rather than kantharoi. Date mid 7th-mid 6th century.

Kantharoi or Kyathoi

Type 1

Sherds of strap handle from Kantharoi or Kyathoi. The illustrated example is decorated with two impressions of a rosette with a dot in the centre within a circular stamp at the base of the handle.

Fig. 10. Kantharos or Kyathos type 1
© P Perkins 1997

Between and above these are three horizontal rows of square dot impressions and the edges of the handle are lined with two rows of similar impressions. The occurrence of stamping on a kantharos suggests a date in the second half of the 7th century for this sherd. The date range for the other sherds is between the second half of the 7th and the third quarter of the 6th century (Rasmussen 1979, 101-10, 138).

Kotyle?

Type 1

Small footring with a steeply rising wall. The exterior is decorated with a horizontal row of horizontal ´S´ shaped impressions at the narrowest point (cf. Rasmussen 1979, 138, fig.120, fig 415, 10i) and a band of horizontal or oblique incised lines above which may be the base of rays.

This scheme of decaration suggests that the sherd may be a kotyle of Rasmussen type a or b rather than a cup (Rasmussen 1979, 92-4). Part of the footring is broken away revealing a series of oblique and horizontal incisions made in the bowl of the vessel to key it to the footring at the time of manufacture. Date: second-third quarter of the 7th century.

Plate

Type 1

Shallow carinated plate with overhanging angular profile. The shape is paralleled in impasto, cf. Fig 4.3.1.22. Dating is uncertain; bucchero plates only seem to occur in the 5th century (Rasmussen 1979, 124), but the parallel in impasto suggests a date in the late 7th to early 6th centuries.

View database of Bucchero finds