Glossary Pottery and vessels
Wishbone handle
A handle that rises above the rim of a bowl and splits into two prongs, like a wishbone, typical of Late Bronze Age Cypriot bowls.
The wishbone handle is a loop set just below the rim, with its top drawn up into two horns. It gives a firm grip on a round-bottomed bowl and is one of the easiest ways to recognise Late Bronze Age Cypriot pottery abroad.
It is standard on White Slip "milk bowls" and appears on Base Ring bowls too. Both were exported widely, and a hemispherical bowl with a wishbone handle is found at almost every excavated Late Bronze Age site on the Levantine coast.
Related terms
- Lug
A small knob or tab of clay on the wall or rim of a vessel, used for gripping, for tying on a cover or, when pierced, for hanging.
- 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.