An Archipelago of Pots.New data on pottery production in the Aegean during the first half of the 19th century, "JOURNAL OF GREEK ARCHAEOLOGY" V. 5 ( 2020), pp. 542-571 (original) (raw)
2020, Journal of Greek Archaeology - Volume 5
The core of this study is a group of 41 vessels from around the Aegean, acquired by the National Ceramics Museum of Sèvres (Musée National de Céramique - Sèvres) in the years 1830-1832. These vessels constitute a unique, safely dated, local pottery group of the earlier 19th century. Their technology reveals the craftsmanship of the Aegean potters. The diversity of their form illustrates the varied ways in which potters catered to the daily and special needs of peasant and urban populations and reflects their aesthetics. What is particularly important is that these ceramics were created at an historical turning point, just after the end of the devastating Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire and at the time of the birth of the Greek nation state. These pots come from the margins of the old world just before new directions, social and cultural, began to emerge. Pottery forms and techniques in this group that were lost in the new era reveal the changes that would take place; vessels that continued to be made disclose successful practices, strong traditions and long-term fundamentals. In general, they imprint the effects of the geopolitical environment, especially the role of the sea, on pottery production and use.
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Pottery Technologies in the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC
Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections between the Aegean and Anatolia during the 3rd Millenium BC, 2018
After several decades of archaeometric investigations on Early Bronze Age pottery, now is the time to bring these manifold results and experts together for a holistic approach of a broader region through socio-cultural interpretations. The archaeometric approach to pottery in the (Greek) Aegean is based on a long tradition and nowadays forms a well-established scientific field in Bronze Age archaeology in that region. Thanks to various research groups and their longterm engagement in developing the methodological and theoretical background – such as the Fitch Laboratory of the British School and the Demokritos lab in Athens, the University of Bonn, and Sheffield University – pottery experts in the Aegean are now able to use various scientific methods based on a well-established scientific framework and comparable data. This state-ofthe-art interdisciplinary approach for Aegean ceramics not only produces a large amount of new and complex data, which are mainly used by specialists in this field, but also leads to a multifaceted picture hardly manageable by non-experts for their socio-cultural follow-up interpretations. Our main aim is focused on combining the archaeometric experts and their scientific questions and data to gain a broader archaeological-cultural contextualisation within one particular time horizon.
United in our differences: The production and consumption of pottery at EM IB Phaistos, Crete
Variability in ceramic classes and technological practice is discussed across the range of pottery produced at or near Phaistos, Crete in Early Minoan IB. It is at this time that new shapes and surface decoration were introduced, leading to the suggestion of abrupt discontinuity in ceramic manufacture, if not in society. Drawn from a broader study of the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age transition, this paper uses an integrated approach exploiting macroscopic, petrographic and microstructural analysis to reconstruct ceramic manufacture at this time. The chaîne opératoire of three different wares, dark-on-light (DOL), dark grey pattern burnished (DGPB) and cooking pot ware (CPW), are discussed. While raw material choice, manipulation and firing conditions are varied between these classes of pottery, many of the techniques are seen to have existed in preceding phases at the site. Furthermore, while the appearance and manufacture of different wares are quite distinct, they are joined together by a rare and characteristic method of forming. The clear distinction, for the first time, of different ware groups across the ceramic repertoire is investigated and suggestions made as to its implications for our understanding of transformations in production and especially in consumption.
Pottery Technologies in the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC: An Introduction
Eva Alram-Stern – Barbara Horejs (Eds.) Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections Between the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC, 2018
After several decades of archaeometric investigations on Early Bronze Age pottery, now is the time to bring these manifold results and experts together for a holistic approach of a broader region through socio-cultural interpretations. The archaeometric approach to pottery in the (Greek) Aegean is based on a long tradition and nowadays forms a well-established scientific field in Bronze Age archaeology in that region. Thanks to various research groups and their longterm engagement in developing the methodological and theoretical background – such as the Fitch Laboratory of the British School and the Demokritos lab in Athens, the University of Bonn, and Sheffield University – pottery experts in the Aegean are now able to use various scientific methods based on a well-established scientific framework and comparable data. This state-ofthe-art interdisciplinary approach for Aegean ceramics not only produces a large amount of new and complex data, which are mainly used by specialists in this field, but also leads to a multifaceted picture hardly manageable by non-experts for their socio-cultural follow-up interpretations. Our main aim is focused on combining the archaeometric experts and their scientific questions and data to gain a broader archaeological-cultural contextualisation within one particular time horizon.
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