Minyan Ware - Forms and Styles

Forms and Styles

Minyan Ware is a form of monochrome burnished pottery produced from extremely fine or moderately fine clay. Varieties of Minyan Ware entail Yellow, Red, Gray, and Black (or Argive). Open forms such as goblets and kantharoi are the most common shapes in all types of Minyan Ware. Goblets and kantharoi are technically evolved versions of the Bass bowl and kantharos of the Early Helladic III Tiryns culture.

Gray Minyan Ware, specifically, has angular forms that may reflect copies of metallic prototypes. However, such a theory is difficult to substantiate given the fact that metallic objects from the Middle Helladic period are rare and metallic vessels are almost non-existent. Yet, the angular forms of this particular pottery style may in fact be derived from the common use of the fast potter's wheel. "Ring stems" (or highly ribbed pedestal feet) are an important characteristic of Middle Helladic II and Middle Helladic III Gray Minyan Ware in central Greece. Of course, this characteristic is also present on Middle Helladic III Yellow Minyan Ware goblets from Corinth and the Argolid. During the final phase of the Middle Helladic period, shallowly incised rings more or less replaced goblet feet and "ring stems" in northeastern Peloponnese.

Minyan Ware from the Middle Helladic I period is decorated in the form of grooves on the upper shoulder of kantharoi and bowls. During the Middle Helladic II period, stamped concentric circles and "festoons" (or parallel semicircles) became a common characteristic of decoration especially on Black (or Argive) Minyan Ware.