Page 281 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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jars. In reality, these represent only the most visible forms within the entire
assemblage. For discussion the assemblage may be broken into more general
groups, namely, cooking ware, glazed ware, burnished ware, plain, and
miscellaneous pottery.

Cooking Ware

The most distinctive cooking ware present in this range is shown in Figures 58e-i.
These are ridged, hole-mouth vessels of a sand-tempered red ware, with a trace of
buff exterior slip. Bibby (1973) noted that the prominent ridges on the exterior of
the vessels were made by finger pressure during construction, in contrast to the red
ridged wares of the Barbar n phase. These hole-mouths are considered diagnostic
of the occupation at Thaj in eastern Arabia and are defined by Bibby (1973) as his
type 2. This type does not provide a critical time marker, but points to pottery
links between Bahrain and Thaj during the late first millennium B.C.
Other cooking wares are dark-gray and reddish-gray jars with everted
rims shown in Figure 58a and b. Gray wares seem to be a distinctive member of
this time range and extend into the Sasanian period. Other notable forms are large
ridged vessels of a similar gray ware. These latter forms are not illustrated but
are included in the graphic presentation (Figure 55). A final representative from
the Achaemenid-Seleucid-Parthian levels is the straw-tempered, buff ware jar 58d.

Fig. 56. Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Pottery.

a. 519.E; straw-tempered, buff ware.
b. 519.BM; cream slip on straw-tempered, buff ware.
c. A519.AON; cream slip on sand-tempered, red ware with Barbar grits.
d. A519.APZ; cream slip on sand-tempered, dark, reddish gray ware
with Barbar grits.
e. 518.P, Pit 1, Level 3g; sand-tempered, gray ware.
f. 518.P, Pit 1, Level 3g; sand-tempered, greenish-buff ware, with
Barbar grits.
g. 518.T, Pit 1, Level 3k; sand-tempered, red ware with Barbar grits.
h. 518.P, Pit 1, Level g; fine sand-tempered buff ware.