Dark faced burnished ware or DFBW is the second oldest form of
pottery developed in the western world the oldest being
Dotted wavy line pottery from Africa.
It was produced after the earliest examples from the independent
phenomenon
A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried W ...
of the
Jōmon culture in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and is predominantly found at archaeological sites in
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
southwest
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
Mellart, James, ''The Neolithic of the Near East'', p. 64, Scribner, 1975.
/ref> and Cyprus. Some notable examples of dark faced burnished ware were found at Tell Judaidah
Tell Judaidah (Tell al-Judaidah, Tell Judeideh) is an archaeological site in south-eastern Turkey, in the Hatay province. It is one of the largest excavated ancient sites in the Amuq valley, in the plain of Antioch. Settlement at this site range ...
(and nearby Tell Dhahab) in Amuq
The Amik Valley ( tr, Amik Ovası; ar, ٱلْأَعْمَاق, al-ʾAʿmāq) is located in the Hatay Province, close to the city of Antakya (Antioch on the Orontes River) in the southern part of Turkey. Along with Dabiq in northwestern Syria, ...
by Robert Braidwood
Robert John Braidwood (29 July 1907 – 15 January 2003) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist, one of the founders of scientific archaeology, and a leader in the field of Near Eastern Prehistory.
Life
Braidwood was born July 29, ...
as well as at Ras Shamra
)
, image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg
, image_size=300
, alt =
, caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit
, map_type = Near East#Syria
, map_alt =
, map_size = 300
, relief=yes
, location = Latakia Governorate, Syria
, region = ...
and Tell Boueid. Other finds have been made at Yumuktepe
Yumuktepe (or Yümüktepe) is a tell (ruin mound) at within the city borders of Mersin, Turkey. In 1936, the mound was on the outskirts of Mersin, but after a rapid increase of population, the mound was surrounded by the Toroslar municipality ...
in Mersin
Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and district governorates: Akdeniz, Mezi ...
, Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
where comparative studies were made defining different categories of ware that have been generally grouped as DFBW. It is thought to have come as a development of White Ware
White Ware or "Vaisselle Blanche", effectively a form of limestone plaster used to make vessels, is the first precursor to clay pottery developed in the Levant that appeared in the 9th millennium BC, during the pre-pottery (aceramic) neolithi ...
and takes its name from the often dark coloured choice of clays from which it is made. Vessels are often coarse, tempered with grit or sand, burnished to a shiny finish and made with a variety of clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay parti ...
s in different areas. The grit or sand is thought to have made the vessels easier to fire and the burnishing made them less permeable
Permeability, permeable, and semipermeable may refer to:
Chemistry
*Semipermeable membrane, a membrane which will allow certain molecules or ions to pass through it by diffusion
*Vascular permeability, the movement of fluids and molecules betwe ...
and suitable for heated liquid substances. Later examples are usually finer and more carefully burnished and decorated. Designs included rounded, inverted or straight sided bowls with plain rims, some with basic handles under the rims along with ring bases in the later pieces. Decorations included incised or impressed chevrons or motifs with pattern burnishing appearing in later periods. Other types of pottery were produced around the same time including coarse impressed ware, dark faced unburnished ware and washed impressed ware but these were less prevalent.
DFBW has long been considered the forebear of the more polished examples such as ancient Greek pottery
Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has ex ...
.
References
{{Reflist
External links
dark faced burnished ware
from Tell Judaidah
Tell Judaidah (Tell al-Judaidah, Tell Judeideh) is an archaeological site in south-eastern Turkey, in the Hatay province. It is one of the largest excavated ancient sites in the Amuq valley, in the plain of Antioch. Settlement at this site range ...
in the plain of Amuq - Bryn Mawr College
Lebanese pottery
Syrian pottery
Ancient pottery