Glossary Pottery and vessels
Tankard
A tall, wide-mouthed jug with a single handle, used for serving or drinking, typical of Middle and early Late Bronze Age Cyprus.
Archaeologists use "tankard" for a jug whose mouth is almost as wide as its body, so it could be dipped into a larger container or drunk from directly. It sits between a jug and a mug in form.
In Cyprus it is best known in Bichrome ware, where the tankard is one of the most prominent shapes, and in Middle Cypriot White Painted and Late Cypriot Plain White. The site treats it with other pouring vessels on the jug page.
Related terms
- Trefoil mouth
A jug mouth pinched in from the sides into three lobes, like a clover leaf, making a channel for pouring.
- Open and closed shapes
The basic division of vessel forms: open shapes have a mouth as wide as the body, closed shapes narrow to a neck or small opening.