APC Image: AK 1111: Middle Helladic mattpainted sherds from coarse ware. The clay varies in color from pale to dark buff, light reddish buff and a yellow green. The fabric is coarse and full of gritty particles and sand. Sometimes it is burned unevenly at the core, and varies in color from pink tints at the edge to palest cream in the centre. The sherds vary greatly in thickness. A few sherds have a slip, but in many of the fragments there is none and the surface is rough, especially on the inside of the vase. Carelessness of finish is apparent in nearly all the heavier sherds. The mattpaint ranges from a deep black to purple, brownish black, and brownish red, but it is always a true matt. On the thicker, coarser pieces the mattpaint occurs in broad lines. The paint is thick and frequently it has been put on unevenly. On the pieces of finer ware the lines are thin and remarkably fine. Most of the patterns are simple geometric designs; a few are curvilinear, with loops and circles in conjunction with straight lines. There is a fondness for decoration in zones or panes, especially in the larger vases. The simplest patterns consist of single lines, thin or wide, straight or curving, extending across the surface of the vase. One of the commonest motives is the grouping of parallel lines of unequal width, e.g. a broad band bordered by a narrower one, and intersected by lines at oblique angles (left top and centre or bottom row second from right). A checkerboard pattern between unusually thick lines occurs and is reminiscent of the patterns of neolithic red on white ware of Thessaly and Chaeronea. Intersecting lines occur commonly and often in combination with circles (right centre and ight bottom). In the sherds with ribbed surface the pattern consists merely of parallel vertical lines between the ridges. One interesting sherd is in the lower left corner, as it shows the influence of the Palace style of Crete. The clay is pale red, covered with white slip, on which appears a simple pattern. The sherds are too fragmentary to indicate shapes. We only know that the top left sherd is part of the rim and shoulder of a storage jar. The characteristic shape of the small storage jar of this period is a low-bellied jar, with a small, flat base, broad, flat rim, and two large horizontal handles. String holes, usually four in number, are set in the rim and serve for fastening on the lid. The decoration usually covers the upper part of the vase, and falls into vertical panels, separated from one another by vertical lines. The panels are not always symmetrically arranged.