Amphoroid Krater

White Painted III Ware amphoroid krater or storage container. Very elongated oval body, slightly raised ring base, outer sides quite smoothed into body of vessel, very tall, concave neck flaring out to wide flattened rim, slightly downturned; opposing horizontal loop handles on shoulder, very thick, round in section, extending out from the body.

Very light beige clay with many small and medium inclusions in brown, black and white.

Translucent white slip or slurry? Decoration in matte black paint (rather translucent) consists of horizontal bands in varying widths. Narrow band inside upper neck, wide band at top inside of neck and onto rim, narrow black band on center of rim, outer edge and on edge of rim, wide black band at top of neck and partly onto underside of rim, set of narrow black bands (3 cm.) on neck, spirally made, very wide black band on lower border (3.5 cm.), 3 narrow bands on upper shoulder, wavy band at mid-body which doesn't extend between the loops of the handles, 2 wide bands with narrow spirally-made bands between them at mid-body (below handles), 4 narrow encircling bands on lower body; black on handles, very elongated "moustache" pattern outlining them and extending below, well down onto the lower body.

Wheelmade. Few dents noted; flattened area at mid-body with a "ghost" or shadow which is the result of proximity of another vessel in the kiln during the firing process. Tooled base.