Glossary Pottery and vessels
Sherd
Also called: potsherd
A broken piece of pottery; most of the pottery found on excavations and surveys is recovered as sherds.
Complete pots survive mainly in tombs. Settlements yield sherds, and a great deal of what is known about Cypriot pottery comes from counting, weighing and analysing them. A sherd's broken edge shows the fabric, which is why sherds are the usual material for laboratory study of where pots were made.
Sherd counts are used to compare wares. At Kalopsidha, for example, Plain White Wheel-made made up 1,072 sherds, about 1.1 per cent of the total, and studies of Black-on-Red and White Painted sherds from the Levant have been used to test which were made in Cyprus. See Plain White ware.
Related terms
Where it appears
- Combed Ware
- Red-on-White Ware
- Plain White Ware
- Triple Crossing Lines
- Black-on-Red Ware
- Pottery Kilns and Firing in Ancient Cyprus
- Wavy Lines
- Red Polished Philia Ware
- Village Life in Late Bronze Age Cyprus
- White Slip Ware
- Base Ring Bull Vessels
- Base Ring Figurines (Astarte Type)
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