Polis Pottery

We were excited to read the recent article by Christiana Kelepeshi and Jelena Živković in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences titled “Reassembling the pieces, reassessing the picture: an analytical study of medieval pottery (mid. twelfth–sixteenth c.) from Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus.” The article is a study of 50 sherds sampled from the area of E.G0 at Cyprus and primarily associated with a domestic structure to the north of the so-called “North Basilica.”

The sherds represented a range of common types of pottery present at the site: Incised Sgraffito Ware, Brown and Green Sgraffito Ware, Plain-Incised Sgraffito Ware, Slip-Painted Ware, and Green and Brown Painted Ware as well as various coarse and cooking wares. This analysis produced for types of fabrics with the authors named 1, 2, 3, and 4. 

Fabric 1 comes, predictably, from the Paphos region and Fabric 2 derives from the area around Lapithos along the northern coast of Cyprus. Both of these are known ceramic production sites in the Medieval period and locates Polis at the intersection of two significant areas of ceramic distribution. Fabric 3 is an Aegean ware fabric present in tables wares at Polis and Fabric 4 is a coarse ware which may be local or derived from somewhere in the central part of the island with access to the Troodos mountains.

In some ways, the results of this analysis is not particular surprising. From the 12th to 16th century, we would expect the inhabitants of Polis to buy pottery from local producers and the broader Aegean world. The known workshops at Paphos and Lapithos invariably occupied a significant share of the market for table wares. Coarse and cooking wares might be either more local to Polis in manufacture or come to the island as transport or specialized vessels associated with other goods.

Over the next few years, we have plans to extend our work at the site of Polis into the Medieval period. Much of this will focus on dating the Medieval phases of the two basilica style churches at the site. The churches at Polis — and the city itself (ancient Arsinoe) — are particularly interesting because they continued to be adapted and used for over 500 years.