88 THE POTTERY 



Where ornamentation occurs it consists either of very 

 faintly indented lines crossing diagonally and forming a 

 lattice pattern or of various groupings of small projecting 

 knobs, incised zig-zag and wavy lines, etc. 



A large quantity of the Melandra fragments belong to 

 this type. They are, for the most part, of coarse clay and 

 rough workmanship. Sometimes the surface seems to have 

 been polished to give it a slight lustre, but in general it 

 has the natural texture of the clay. In one or two frag- 

 ments at Melandra where portions of the vase have missed 

 proper firing the clay is a pale buff. The decoration in 

 almost all cases consists of the intersecting diagonal lines 

 faintly impressed in the clay by some blunt instrument 

 and showing rather as smooth markings on the rougher 

 sui-face of the clay than actual incisions (Plate IV., 2 & 6). 

 A few fragments have a band of more deeply impressed 

 parallel zig-zag lines (Plate IY.,9). Most of the fragments 

 are from open-moiithed jars, the sides of which are more or 

 less vertical and turn in to the foot almost at an angle. The 

 bottom of the vase is usually flattened without any base- 

 ring. The rims of these jars show much variety in the 

 angle and curve at which they turn outward from the vase. 

 Besides the jars there are examples of circular flat- 

 bottomed dishes, the bottom of which is decorated on the 

 outside with a faintly impressed line carried in loops over 

 the whole surface. These dishes have small projecting 

 handles ornamented with incised concentric circles 

 (Plate IV., 11 and lla). 



Two fragments of black ware are of somewhat different 

 character from the rest. Both surface and body are a deep 

 metallic black and the clay is very harsh in texture with 

 hard firing. The vases must have been fired in a true 

 " smother-kiln." One fragment is from the rim of a large 

 globular vessel with frilled pattern under the rim : the 



