Primeval Varnish Ceramic
Urfirniskeramik was a ceramic style in Bronze Age Greece . The name was coined by the German archaeologist Adolf Furtwängler , who first discovered this ceramic during excavations together with Heinrich Bulle in Orchomenos between 1903 and 1905. The term “Urfirnis” is also common in other languages.
The original varnish ceramics are single-colored, handmade, thin-walled vessels. They have a hard and shiny surface. This was not achieved, as the name Urfirnis suggests, with a glaze, but with the application of a clay slip containing iron oxide . For this purpose, the clay containing iron oxide was finely ground in a mortar , mixed with water and applied to the previously polished vessel. The subsequent firing process took place at temperatures below 800–850 ° C. Here, sintered iron oxide and formed from the firm, shiny, metallic-lustrous surface. Depending on the thickness of the slip application, a red over violet, red-brown or blue-black or yellow or dark olive-green ceramic was obtained. This process made costly polishing to reduce the porosity unnecessary, as the primordial varnish closes the pores.
The primeval varnish ceramics first appeared during the Bronze Age in the Early Helladic (FH II, 2650–2200 BC) or in the Early Cycladic (FK II, 2700–2200 BC). For this reason, it can also be used for dating. Common ceramic molds were Saucieren with or without handles, Schnabel cans , Askoi , water jugs and containers of the so called type Depas Amphikypellon , slender cylindrical vessels with long, narrow handles. They were used from the first appearance until the end of the Early Helladic Period (around 2000 BC). During this time, the vessels of this style hardly changed.
However, a very similar ceramic was already produced during the Middle Neolithic , which is also known as primeval varnish ceramic.
literature
- Alan John Bayard Wace , MS Thompson: Prehistoric Thessaly , Cambridge 1912, p. 21
- Lily A. Bonga: Late Neolithic Pottery from Mainland Greece, ca.5,300-4,300 BC , May 2013, p. 305 ( online )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heinrich Bulle: Orchomenos I. The older settlement layers , Munich 1907, p. 15
- ^ Carl Blegen : Korakou: a prehistoric settlement near Corinth , Boston and New York 1921, pp. 6-8 ( online )