Cylindrical to conical neck, flaring to plain, short, outwardly thickened rim. Rounded shoulder. Vertical loop handles, oval in section with grooves on top, attach asymmetrically to upper neck/rim and shoulder. Wheel-ridging from shoulder downward. Thin coating of pitch painted inside and over lip in wide bands, but a few sprayed spots below.
Fabric, firing, and surface description
SCA Fabric 2: Brownish red fabric fired slightly darker at surface to grayish brown. Slightly coarse, hard; granular break and gritty surface texture; uncommon, tiny to small, moderately well sorted, mostly rounded to subrounded, white and off-white particles (calcareous and quartzitic); rare isolated medium angular lime chunks; rare tiny dark bits (dark red, gray?); abundant small golden (and a few silver?) micaceous flakes, many flattened on both surfaces. Traces of wet-smoothing around neck to mouth. Patches of excess clay pressed flat around upper neck and rim; one irregular blob of clay inside filling indentation at lower attachment of handle. Eastern Aegean/western Asia Minor.
Preservation comment
Three joining sherds (699+720+1323) preserve 85% of rim and neck, both handles, and part of shoulder to upper wall. Slight, very sparse abrasion with minor pitting and scoring; somewhat worn breaks; thin, faint film of encrustation in patches. Post-depositional burning in clouds perhaps overlapping with smeared pitch.
“KTH1323+699+720 (Samos Cistern Amphora).” In Kenchreai Archaeological Archive, edited by J.L. Rife and S. Heath. The American Excavations at Kenchreai, 2013-2024. <http://kenchreai.org/kth/kth1323>