Ancient Cookware from the Levant - An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective - Gloria London
6. Manufacturing Technique for Cypriot Red Clays
Ancient Cookware from the Levant - An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective - Gloria London
Gloria London [+]
Independent Scholar
Gloria London received her Ph.D from the University of Arizona. She is the author of Ancient Cookware from the Levant (2017, Equinox), Traditional Pottery in Cyrpus (1989, Philipp von Zabern), creator of a video Women Potters of Cyprus (2000, Tetraktys), and co-creator of the Museum of Traditional Pottery in Ayios Dimitrios (Marathasa), Cyprus.
Description
To shape pottery with coils and turning requires an interrupted manufacturing technique with drying intervals to allow the clay to slightly harden before more work is carried out. The turntable is used preliminarily to shape a flat bottom. Coils were added and pulled up or thinned with a split cane tool. Each stage of work varied in time, but during the height of the pottery-making season, when the air is dry and hot, it is possible to start and finish pots in one day. Cypriot potters who coil build coarse wares from local clays provide an ideal model for the study of ancient potters who hand build ceramic containers.