An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c16.s6.1

v1.c16.s6.1

Whereas in the Megalithic culture of the Deccan and s. India [4.17.8-11] the Black-and-red Ware forms a distinctive diagnostic trait [11.15.3], its wide spatial and chronological distribution in other cases [4.13] discourages any belief in its having been anything more than a pottery-making technique, which produced vessels black in the interior and on the exterior top and red on the exterior body. Experiments with similar ware from Egypt, where it is called the black-topped ware, have shown that the body of the pot was first rubbed with red ochre and then burnished, whereafter the dry pot was placed upside down in the kiln with the top buried in a layer of saw-dust. The portions which did not receive any air in the kiln, i.e. the top and the interior, turned black in the reducing condition of the kiln and the part exposed to air, i.e. the exterior body, turned red in the oxidising condition (Coles, 1973, p. 152). Other techniques however are also possible.