Back to top: Ceramic ware description Chaff Tempered (CH)
Description
- Basis for Definition: excavated in Phases 2-4 of the palace and strata above the palace.
- Identifying Attributes: much organic temper on exterior and interior, medium fired, some examples have signs of secondary burning. Vessels are large to medium jars and wide bowls.
- Clay Type: fine, uniform particle size, color buff to light orange, medium hardness
- Temper: large amounts of organic temper; vessels can also have mineral inclusions but these are not treated separately in the analysis.
- Firing: medium
- Firing cloud: none
- Carbon core: none
- Wall Thickness: 1-2 cm depending on vessel size
- Forms:
jars: size range: rim d ca 16-35cm
large deep bowls: size range: rim d ca 30-50 cm.
platters; size range: rim d ca 24-30cm.
- Surface Treatment: rough to coarsely wet smoothed
- Burnished: no
- Polished: no
- Decoration: can have incised and/ or rope decoration
- Comments: This ware is very common in the mid Akkadian through the end of the third millennium; it is, along with Wet Smooth (in ED III and early Akkadian strata), the ware that is used most frequently for the manufacture of large jars and bowls. It is made from the same paste as the Wet Smoothed ware except that 1) jar and bowl shapes are different, 2) the surface is coarser due to the addition of chaff and 3) the shapes have not been as finely smoothed leaving the chaff holes on the surface.