BackKouass type bowl from the ancient shrine at Gorham’s Cave
This type of ware takes its name from the archaeological site of Kouass in northern Morocco (near Asilah), where it was first recorded. Research has shown that these ceramic dishes were originally produced in the Punic (Carthaginian) pottery factories of the Bay of Cadiz. They would later also be produced in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula as well as on the northern coast of the Strait of Gibraltar.
It is a Hellenistic-looking tableware, inspired by the black-varnished ceramics from the Attic region of Ancient Greece and produced between the end of the 4th and beginning of the 2nd centuries BCE, when ceramics coming from the Italic Peninsula known as Campanian (as they originated in Campania) begin to dominate.
Kouass-type ceramics are of a reddish-chestnut colour, due to the varnish finish. Another characteristic is the stamping of palmettes and rosettes on the interior bottom of the vessels.
This particular bowl from Gorham’s Cave, with slightly inward bending walls and orange-varnished lacking any stamped decorations, was produced at a pottery factory in North Africa and dates from between the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE.
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