Fine Ware

For the first time at Assiros, fine ware was equally common as or even more common than coarse. The predominant fine ware shapes of the Phase 1 assemblage remain wishbone-handled bowls and cut-away-neck jugs, just as they had been in the Bronze Age and the earlier Iron Age. Two varieties of wishbone-handled bowl can be distinguished. There are large examples with a single handle or a pair of handles rising high above the rim and smaller bowls with a pair of handles which extend horizontally from the rim. The first type is clearly the descendant of the Bronze Age form and the largest probably have two handles, as does the enormous example found shattered on the pavement to the east of the northern apsidal building (P178) which measures nearly 50 cm across the rim and has a capacity of nearly 25 litres. The majority probably had only one handle (P193) which can have a simple flat or hollowed (P282) end. Other handles were elaborated into schematic horse heads, of smaller size as known from Phase 2 (P25) or larger (P178). The handles on the second form are angular with triangular or circular cut-outs. In some cases the wishbone form is scarcely recognisable. Unfortunately three of the bowls which were probably in use at the time of the destruction have no indication of the handle form, whether vertical or horizontal, they once had (P295, P375, P301). Three more bowls can also be associated with the Phase 1 floors (P178, P193, P350).

Decoration on these forms of wishbone-handled bowl usually takes the form of slashing on the rim and either side of the handle(s) or the shallow grooving well illustrated on P178. One fragment of a large and elaborate handle (P452) has fine herring bone incisions in addition to the normal slashing and another has a row of neat jabs along the edge of rim and handle (P175) and the unusual feature of vertical pattern burnish on the interior. Other bowl types can be recognised. One is similar in shape to the wishbone-handled bowl with angular horizontal handles, but has a more or less rounded handle along and level with the rim (P228 from the upper floor of the northern apsidal building,). A second, represented only by small sherds, (and easy to confuse with Early Bronze Age forms) has a small pierced or unpierced ledge lug at the rim of a shallow splaying bowl. The capacity of these different bowl types ranges from 1 to 3 litres (P193, P228).

Sherds from other varieties of bowl include one with an attached spout and hole pierced through the rim and one with thickened everted rim. One fragment represents a shallow dish, with a diameter as reconstructed of 60 cm. Even though distortion of the rim may have exaggerated this, it was still an exceptionally large example of a type not recorded so far in the Macedonian Iron Age. Another unique piece is probably from a tripod bowl (P454). This has a single ? leg attached to the side of a conical bowl with flat-topped rim. The leg is carried up to the rim where a slight lug has been formed. One possible dipper was recognised (P379). This had a flat- topped rim and round handle rising above it.

The cut-away-neck jug is well represented in this phase with large parts of nine examples surviving on the floor levels. They range in size from P244 which is c 10 cm high with a capacity of 0.2 litres and a simple sloping rim to others which must have been c 35-40 cm in height with a capacity of c 3-4 litres when complete (eg. P165). The majority have sharply angled rims which in some cases are pinched in to form a trefoil shape.

Although nine in ten of the vertical handles in the sherd sample are plain, only three of the ʻcompleteʼ vessels have plain handles (P244, P377, P380). Not enough of the handle of a fourth is preserve to determine its form. Two more (P165, P367) and two large neck fragments which probably represent vessels in use at the time of the destruction (P154, P227) have a very distinctive facetted angular twisting applied to the upper part of the handle. This is regularly found on fragments (P11) and some of the handles reused as weights which were found on the lower floor of the northern apsidal building. One large neck and handle fragment (P79) has twisting which extends down the whole length of the handle in the manner more typical of Phase 2, and a small knob at the highest part. Similar smooth twisting can be seen on a small fragment while another has a handle with square section which tapers upwards. One handle found in the handle group could belong to a jug but unusually it is set below rather than at the rim. The bases of these cut-away neck jugs may be flat or slightly hollowed (P165, P379), a feature not seen in Phase 2 levels.

Decoration apart from the twisting is rare and usually carried out with fine incision or slashing on the rim handle or shoulder. Patterns formed include pendant triangles. Grooving is used to emphasise the rim of P79 while one handle fragment has punched dots along the rim and another neat grooves forming a tree pattern on the outer surface.

Very few sherds can be assigned with certainty to the four handled jar which was typical of both Bronze Age and earlier Iron Age levels. One large fragment with thickened rim, nipple on the shoulder and a row of neat jabs just above it, could belong to this type, as could also a thickened rim sherd, a flattened vertical handle in the ʻhandle groupʼ and a large body sherd with a nipple.

Jars with collar necks and two horizontal handles are represented by three more or less complete examples. The neck may be splaying (P345), everted (P152) or sharply angled (P331). A large fragment, probably from this kind of vessel, has a slashed rim and a flattened knob on the shoulder (P196). One of the reused handles with a very sharp-edged twist is from a large closed vessel, perhaps of this type. An exaggerated conical knob (P204) is also most likely to belong to a large jar of this type.

No example of a cantharos was recovered from this Phase, but the presence of several handle fragments suggested that it was an usual form. Three of these represent the pistol grip type, either plain or grooved, while two plain high swung handles could either belong to this shape or to high handled mugs.

Funnels similar to that found complete in Phase 2 were identified amongst the sherd material. One piece was large enough for this to be certain (P382) while two more in fine ware could also be from pedestal bases or lids as could a coarse ware sherd. Another fragment was probably from a small lid.

 

Coarse ware

Although about half of the sherds counted in the sample (below) were of coarse ware, only four complete vessels were recovered, and only two others which can be restored on paper. Thus it is difficult to know how far the coarse ware shapes familiar in Phase 2 have gone out of fashion, though certainly new shapes were introduced.

Three vessels from the northern apsidal building can be classed as one- handled jars but all are quite small and lack the everted rim typical of Phases 4-2. P380 has upright sides and only a slightly everted rim. P422 has a relatively narrow mouth and an angular nipple just below the rim opposite the handle. The smallest of the three (P163), with a relatively well burnished surface has slight grooving on the handle to simulate twisting and a row of jabs around the base of the handle. There are similar jabs around the shoulder with an irregular horizontal groove on either side. A rim fragment which could be from this type has neat impressions on the rim and an additional row lower on the neck. The two-handled jar with everted rim and handles set on the shoulder is represented by fragments only.

Several fragments from a cooking pot with stand were found in the northern apsidal building, but it is not clear whether this was part of its furniture. It differs little from its Bronze Age predecessors and may reflect a tradition continuing from that period, although no complete example was found in any of the earlier Iron Age phases. A large necked jar with four knobs on the shoulder but apparently no handle (P177) was found on the lower floor in the same building. This was made in a coarse but well burnished fabric and has quite a deep narrow neck and a simple flat base. Two pierced sherds represent strainers. One is an upright rim with a diameter of c 24cm and the other a flattened base.

Several miniature vessels were found in deposits of this phase, all in a rather coarse clay. Two are complete miniature jugs (P150, P374), another is an accurate version of a one-handled jar, complete with slashed rim (P151) Only the lower body of the fourth, a deep jug or jar, is preserved (P191). A large fragment of another of these tiny vessels (P14) comes from a straight sided-jar, but need not have been complete at the time of the destruction.

A number of sherds with a distinct shoulder seem to belong to the ʻThasosʼ class^[59], though it is not clear whether these belong to this phase or are survivals from the underlying levels. One is a rim but the others are only body sherds from necked bowls or jugs. Channelled ware is not found in this level and presumably no longer made^[60].

 

Wheel-made grey ware

Wheel-made pottery is nowhere common in Iron Age Macedonia, but at Assiros it seems much rarer than in the Axios valley, for example^[61]. 236 feature and body sherds in grey ware were recovered in total from the Phase 1 levels, more than for all the previous phases together. Most of these sherds were from carinated one-handled cups with horizontal grooving though a few came from closed vessels.

 

Pithos

Pithos sherds are common, especially in the main room of the northern apsidal building and in the yard area to the north, but only a few bases were noted in addition to the two pithoi in situ on the lower floor and the three on the upper floor. This makes it unlikely that that bulk storage was a primary function of this complex. The pithoi have the tall narrow ovoid shape typical of the period with peg bases and heavy, flat-topped rims while handles and decoration are both very rare.

 

Sherd sample

The following observations are based on an assessment of a sample of the sherds from 88 baskets from 7 different contexts in this phase. Well over 10000 sherds were counted, of which 12% were features or carried decoration. The areas selected for this sample include three well defined contexts: the interior of the northern apsidal building, the abundant material trodden into the surfaces of the alley to the south and the cobbled yard to the east. The Phase 1 levels immediately to the south where the southern building had once stood and to the west and part of the yard area to the north have also been selected as part of this study. Although these units must contain some earlier pottery which is not immediately recognisable (unlike Mycenaean, for example) no attempt has been made to exclude burnished wares which seem to have more in common with those used in earlier periods.

As already noted, in contrast to the earlier Iron Age, the pottery of this period, both coarse and fine, is thinner walled and harder fired often with a rather sandy fabric. As a result it is often brittle and fragments into many small pieces. Coarse ware is less frequent than in earlier periods so that coarse and fine body sherds are present in approximately equal numbers in each of the contexts. The relatively large proportion of pithos sherds from the interior of the northern building reflects the fact that two pithoi had been set in the lower floor and three in the upper. Crushed and shattered, their fragments were spread throughout the building.

Among the coarse feature sherds were a surprisingly large number of fragments of cooking stands (15%). As usual, simple rim fragments form the majority of the features (37%), and another 8% were clearly everted. The use of slashing or finger-impressed decoration was slightly more common than in Phase 2, accounting for 1 in 8 of the coarse jar rims. Few rims could be specifically assigned to the one-handled jar and only one from the two-handled version. The frequency of detached handles, principally vertical, indicates, however, that coarse jars with vertical handles are still a regular part of the repertoire. Base fragments of the simple flat form are well represented, while flattened and raised flat types are less common. Nipples and finger-impressed decoration (apart from that used at the rim) are perhaps a little more common than in Phase 2 though the numbers of examples are very small (6 and 16 respectively).

In the fine ware, bowl rims remain the most frequent type (>27%) and most of these should come from wishbone-handled bowls. Only a few carried the handle scars on the rim but handles themselves were a little more common than in Phase 2 and may reflect the resurgence in popularity of the two handled form. Occasional examples of bowls with basket handles were also noted. Cut-away-necked jugs remain a popular closed shape (8% of features) while collar necked jars and 4-handled jars are still be standard (>5% each). There are, naturally, quite large numbers (6%) of tiny rim fragments from jars of different types but few are large enough to measure their diameter and thus gain a fair indication of the shape to which they belong. There are also three examples of cantharos jars with high handles. Detached handles are well represented and as usual vertical types predominate. One in ten are twisted, usually with a well defined angle to each facet of the twist. Bases are particularly common (18% of features). These are predominantly flat but there are also smaller numbers of flattened and ʻraised flatʼ types as well as a single example of a pedestal base, though curiously none of the hollowed type represented in the whole vessels.

Pithos sherds in this sample (excluding the sherds of vessels broken in situ) accounted for about 10% of the total number of sherds, but included only three bases. Stray Mycenaean and comb-incised Bronze Age sherds are still surprisingly frequent (four in a thousand and one in a thousand respectively), but this reflects the number brought up to this level through pit digging. The wheel-made grey class is still rare but perhaps a little more common than previously (> four in a thousand). Iron Age incised sherds remain very rare.

 

Relationship to other sites

The range of pottery in this phase at Assiros, unsurprisingly, matches that from Saratse (Perivolaki)^[62] and is broadly comparable with that from Schichten 7-4 at Kastanas, assigned to the 8^th and 7^th centuries by the excavator^[63], but no precise match seems possible. In the same way there are similarities to the pottery from the upper stratum of the Toumba and the lowest of the Table at Vardaroftsa (Axiochori)^[64] and other central Macedonian sites. The pottery recovered from the Pre-Persian levels at Olynthos has rather different characteristics, notably long knobbed handles^[65]. At Vergina cut-away-neck jugs and bowls with rim handles are both characteristic^[66] but other features there are unknown at Assiros. At all these sites, regional preferences are just as important as chronological differences in determining the character of the late Iron Age pottery at each. The limited number of wheel-made grey sherds match the whole vessels published from the Chauchitsa cemetery^[67] and found at other sites in Central Macedonia still unpublished.