Quite a Thin Slip!

Thinned slip on the inside of Reperto 658

First of all, this vessel is upside down. The orifice of the vessel is resting snuggly against a black drop cloth hanging over a small table.

This rather large vessel measures 54cm at its widest point, and the orifice has a rim diameter of 33cm. If it were complete with its pedestaled base, and right side up, it would likely measure about a meter in height. What is particularly interesting about this vessel, and the purpose of this short blog post, is the color.

All vessels in the Hut 12, Mokarta repertoire (the topic of my dissertation) are covered in a reddish slip, a slurry of clay, kind of like paint, added to vessels before firing them. What stands out here is the difficulty the potter faced with slipping the inside. As can be seen in the image, the striations and discoloration shows that the potter likely wiped the slip onto the surface. Unfortunately for the potter, reaching the inside of such a large vessel without knocking it over or breaking the rim was quite a job. The discoloration toward the bottom of the vessel's walls (the top of the picture) is a thinned area. The potter tried to slip the inside, but he didn't do a very good job at it. Don't get me wrong, the vessel is massive and takes a lot of skill, but reaching into it is difficult!

Looking at the vessels of Hut 12 so far, I have not seen this kind of thinned slip. This is the first vessel I have seen it on, and this is the last vessel I have to analyze. Many of my readers may not find this very fascinating, but I could stare at this vessel for hours and still come back later for more.