Urfirnisn.

1912 A. J. B. Wace & M. S. Thompson Prehist. Thessaly ii. 21 Urfirnis Ware..was first found..at Orchomenos... The whole vase is covered with a thin semi-lustrous wash which varies in colour from red-brown to..black... The Orchomenos Urfirnis naturally occupies a middle position between the Tirynthian and that from Lianokladhi.

1928 H. Peake & H. J. Fleure Steppe & Sown x. 126 Into this mixed population [around Corinth] came the Cycladic traders with their characteristic Urfirnis, or primitive glazed pottery.

1939 J. D. S. Pendlebury Archaeol. Crete ii. 75 The pottery, peculiar to Vasilike, is a highly specialized form of ‘Urfirnis’ ware—the pottery covered with a lustrous black or brown wash—which develops in Greece and the Islands, no doubt with an ultimate Anatolian origin.

1957 V. G. Childe Dawn European Civilization (ed. 6) v. 65 Besides self-coloured wares a light fabric was made and covered all over with shiny brown or black paint. This ware, termed ‘neolithic urfirnis’, looks like an attempt to reproduce the appearance of black burnished ware in kiln-fired vases, but is said to begin in Middle Neolithic times in Corinthia.

1970 W. Bray & D. Trump Dict. Archaeol. 245/2 Urfirnis, a characteristic ware of the Early Helladic II period of Greece. It has a buff fabric decorated partly or all over with a dark lustrous slip, often loosely called a glaze.