Well-reserved shallow plate with two small "loop" handles. Buff slip (or possibly no slip) with dark brown painted details- wheel-made Bichrome ware. The two-handles indicate that it is an Iron Age object. The inside of the dish is simply decorated with one small circle near the center of the dish and two large concentric circles halfway between the center and the rim. The rim and handles are both painted dark brown. Like most dishes of this time period, the outside and bottom of the dish are the most ornately decorated. The thick bands of paint on the handles extend to the outside of the plate and overlap with a series of concentric circles encircling the plate. The concentric circles consist of a thick band of dark brown followed by three very thin and evenly-spaced bands and completed by one more thick dark brown painted band. The base of the dish is bichrome with dark brown and red paint. The base is decorated with four triangles with criss-cross/hatchmark (rectilinear) designs. The tips of the triangles connect with another series of concentric circles of dark brown. Inside the dark brown circles there is one thick circle of red paint. The design is completed with small thin concentric circles of dark brown all the way to the center of the base. This is the only piece in the collection that sports a "rectilinear" motif. Comparanda: 1995.10.780, 1995.10.749.

This object was donated to the National Hellenic Museum by Drs. Andreas and Vivian Kodros on July 23, 2002. The deed of gift claims that the vessel was acquired from "Cypriot excavations", but does not specify which excavations.

After his death in 2002, the National Hellenic Museum acquired copies of the export papers for ancient artifacts that Dr. Kodros collected on his trips to Cyprus. This object has no marking for its original site registration number, so it is not possible to connect it with a specific export paper. There are two likely options: Dept. of Antiquities document No. 3400 lists S.R. 3261 as an "Iron age Bichrome plate, 850-800BC" and Dept. of Antiquities document No. 5473 lists S.R. 4388 as an "Iron Age bowl". Either of these could be correct, but it is most likely S.R. 3261.

There were numerous Iron Age excavations in Cyprus during the 1950s and 1960s (Archaeology in Cypus, 1958, A.H.S. Megaw). It is not possible to determine which excavations this artifact was obtained from without further research, but it was exported legally. The resources in Karageorghis' ARCHAEOLOGY IN CYPRUS 1960 -1985 might be helpful to look at in order to narrow down which site this artifact might have come from.

The paperwork suggests that the object dates to the Iron Age and I agree with that assessment.

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