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CHAPTER 13: Hemispherical Bowls
- Texas A&M University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
# C H A P T E R 13 Hemispherical Bowls Berta Lledó Small vessels of this shape are cataloged as cups in other publications. The difference between “bowl” and “cup” is not clear, however, since the two nomenclatures are partly based on different uses, and there is no clear division between smaller “bowls” and larger “cups.” With sizes ranging widely but gradually through representational examples of almost every size, where does the researcher draw an arbitrary line? It would seem, rather, that the shape or form is more important in the classification. In this case, readers can find with ease all examples of hemispherical vessels and from cataloged measurements make whatever distinctions they choose. Hemispherical bowls (HB) are homogeneous in shape, having basically similar body profiles: the sides sweep outward and then rise vertically to the rim (Figs. 13-1 and 13-2 with Pl. 18). The wall is rounded only on its lower part, near the bottom, but rises in a more or less straight line. In the catalog below, only two body shapes are differentiated: those whose upper walls rise straight up, without a curve; and those whose upper walls rise with a slightly convex curve. As with the flared bowls (chapter 12), we follow here the traditional glass typologies begun by Lamm and by Riis and Poulsen: Type I bowls are free-blown and Type II molddecorated . Each type is further divided into subtypes A, without trailed decoration, and B, with trailed decoration. As with other bowls, in this category the bottom can be plain, or simple (subtype 1), or with a looped base (subtype 3), but the solid ring base, common among the flared bowls as subtype 2 (chapter 12), is present here on only one piece (HB 32). The bottom otherwise can be convex, flat, or with a shallow kick, but it is always convex inside. The single example with a pronounced kick is, again, HB 32. Based on these general characteristics, 113 fragmentary hemispherical bowls have been identified, none intact or even completely restored. A complete profile can be reconstructed, however, for 33 of the bowls. On 14 of the bowls, the side profile is known but the bottom is missing, but in these cases the piece always preserves at least the beginning of the bottom ’s curve. On 8 the rim does not actually join the rest of the body and bottom, and on 44 only the rim and a part of the body are preserved. The numbering system used with these bowls is based on their rims. Each hemispherical bowl, represented either by a more or less complete profile or by fragmentary sections of a rim with any remaining wall fragments, has been assigned an HB number. In spite of their homogeneity in shape, the bowls have a wide range of sizes. Rim diameters vary from 6.5 to 19 cm, with the most common measurement being between 11 and 15 cm. Heights range from 5.2 to 15 cm. Bottom diameters are difficult to estimate accurately, but they seem to range between 4 and 15.2 cm. The walls are, like most of those in the Serçe Limanı glass, from 0.4 to 3 mm thick, but the most frequent thickness is 1–2 mm. The predominant basic colors are amber (37) and yellowgreen (31), in their different intensities (light, standard, and dark). Purple is also common (14), but green (8) and blue- 162 part v: bowls suggests that some of the glass fragments were broken into even smaller pieces after being put on board, perhaps tamped down to take less space. This is the case for bowls such as HB 44, 54, 65, 96, and 97, all concentrated in N3 and N4 but with some scattered fragments elsewhere in the cargo area. Efforts directed at learning if there was also some color distribution in the cargo resulted in the conclusion that there was none. All the colors seemed randomly mixed. Forty-six of the bowls, or 41 of the total, were decorated with trailed threads of a deep-colored, opaque glass, generally green or blue-green but on rare occasions purple. The trails vary from 0.5 to 3 mm wide, with the exception of that on HB 30, which has a thread 7 mm wide. Most of the applied decoration was made with glass of a fair (40) or poor (38) quality; less than a quarter of the bowls (22) have threads of good quality, as noted in...