An (un-)usual cooking pot from Qantir/ Piramesse

In his magisterial 1998 publication of the Ramesside pottery from site Q I at Qantir/Piramesse, David Aston defined a small group of vessels as ‘black-slipped’ and ‘burnished black-slipped’. The vessels in this group are not only unusual for their general appearance, but also for one particular vessel shape: a carinated restricted bowl with lug handles – the only vessel ever republished since. While a reassessment of the bowl by the author in 2019 did not confirm the ‘burnishing to a high gloss’ of the vessel, both the shape and the surface treatment remain rare. The discovery of a much more complete specimen of such a vessel during the 2016 excavations at Qantir/Piramesse makes it worthwhile to return to this peculiar type.