A preliminary petrographic analysis of Cypriot White Slip II ware

Samples of Late Bronze Age White Slip II ware from Cyprus were analysed usi ng optical and scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy and wavelength dispersive analysis. The slip has a novel granular nature and th e coarser aggregates are impressed into the outer surface of the body, indi cating that it was applied to a moist surface before the vessels were fired . It has a consistent mineral assemblage (Mg-chlorite + illite-smectite + s phene + anatase/rutile + -albite) which is very similar to that of hydrothe rmally layered zones associated with copper orebodies in the Throodos Massi f which were mined in antiquity. Our analysis suggests that the raw materia l for the slip was not found at the ground surface, because the alteration assemblage is unaffected by oxidation and copper carbonate or iron staining . It may, therefore, be a by-product of sub-surface ore extraction.