Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/307

 CERAMICS IN CYPRUS. 281 first attempts were made with the point ; in the former case other methods were added as time went on, but incised decoration was never completely superseded. Beside the vases belonging to this latter class the cemetery of Alambra yielded another series, on which the decoration was carried out by the application of a dark brown, nearly black, earth upon a bright red clay, like that of a modern flower-pot. 1 The designs are purely geometrical (Fig. 210). This vessel, too, has a handle, in the making and fixing of which some proficiency is betrayed. It took time to learri how to model and attach a handle. The potter began by leaving bosses of clay either at the insertion of the neck or at other points on the body, and piercing them to receive a reed or string by which the vessel could be hung up to a nail. The bottle, no doubt from Alambra, reproduced in our Fig. 2 1 1 was thus FIG. 210. Jug with painted decoration. From Cesnola. 2 suspended. It shows the more ancient style of geometrical ornament in perfection. Upon another example (Fig. 212), the handle is shown in its infancy ; no hand could grasp it ; it is but a ring for a cord. In this as in all other very ancient specimens of Cypriot pottery, the walls are very thick. One of the strange things about the oldest kind of Cypriot earthenware is its often complicated and fantastic shape. Some vases have two necks (Fig. 213) to one body, while others (Fig. 214) have several bodies to one neck. In another example (Fig. 215) the long neck has a large hole contrived on one side of it for the introduction of liquids. When this bottle was used to 1 This brown earth is still the object of a considerable trade in Cyprus ; it is called terra <tombra in the Lingua Franca. 2 Cyprus, p. 408. VOL. II. O O