Glazed ceramic bowl (01294)

BXM: 001294
Exhibition room: II.7 Aspects of public and private life

Date: 2nd half of the 12th c.

Dimensions (cm): 11 Χ 28,6 Χ11

Large, glazed ceramic bowl, which has a depiction of a bird pecking at a tendril incised in the layer of white slip (sgraffito).  Brown, painted, debased palmette motifs  vary the decoration.  The central decorative motif is depicted in the sgraffito technique, which combines incised decoration with touches of green or brown paint.  The dish probably comes from a shipwreck, as the coral-like substance covering its surface would seem to indicate. It is dated to the Middle Byzantine period and more specifically to the second half of the 12th century. In this period large bowls and flat plates, used as common serving dishes for food and not as individual tableware, predominated.