Bowls and big bowls are open containers of a simple shape used for cooking, serving and eating liquid foods.

Of all the artefacts a miniature pottery bowl found inside hut 186 in the village of Su Nuraxi emerges. It has a smooth surface, a low spherical cap, and a small central round protuberance (fig. 1). It dates back to the 9th-6th centuries B.C.

Fig. 1 - Village of Su Nuraxi, hut 186, miniature bowl (photo by Pinna P.P., RAS Photographic Archive).

There are many examples representing the category of bowls in the Nuragic site of Su Nuraxi (figs. 2, 3, 4, 5).

Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 - Archaeological area of Su Nuraxi, bowl found in room 135 (RAS Photographic Archive).

One lens-shaped bowl made from pottery (12th-9th century B.C.) is well finished and waterproofed, therefore suitable for holding liquids, thanks to the polish, that reduced porosity of the clay to a minimum prior to firing. The artefact is wide, with inward looking walls and a medium-deep bowl; the rim is large, the hull rounded, the bottom convex and it has two vertical handles (fig. 6). This specific category of pottery, usually found in dwelling places, and linked to cooking food, dates to a period from the Final Bronze Age to the first Iron Age (12th-8th century B.C.).

Fig. 6 - Su Nuraxi, lens shaped bowl (photo by Pinna P.P., RAS Photographic Archive).

The artefacts are currently on show at Casa Zapata in Barumini.