Numerous transport stirrup jars have been found at the site of Pefkakia. Most were manufactured i... more Numerous transport stirrup jars have been found at the site of Pefkakia. Most were manufactured in Crete with some from the Greek mainland. There were also at least two Canaanite jars from the Carmel coast. These finds and the first results of petrographic analysis attest to the site's role as a major Aegean harbour.
Classical archaeological chronologies are steeped in relative dating, but the application of abso... more Classical archaeological chronologies are steeped in relative dating, but the application of absolute methods does not always support such clear-cut seriation. Here, the authors consider the significance of a Macedonian vase in reconciling the conventional and absolute chronologies of Early Iron Age Greece. Decorated with compass-drawn concentric circles and found in a Late Bronze Age context at ancient Eleon, Boeotia, the authors argue that this vessel establishes a chronological anchor and supports a twelfth-century BC emergence of the Protogeometric style in central Macedonia. A model for the indigenous development and dispersal of the Macedonian Protogeometric style is presented for future elaboration.
The assemblage of artifacts from the Late Helladic IIIC Mycenaean cemetery at Perati includes a c... more The assemblage of artifacts from the Late Helladic IIIC Mycenaean cemetery at Perati includes a considerable quantity of figure-decorated pottery and figural representations in other media, including figurines and seals. Advances in scholarship since these artifacts were discovered and published encourage a reconsideration of their meaning and significance. This study reviews the corpus of figural art from Perati and considers its potential significance for interpreting several aspects of Bronze Age society following the palatial collapse in the central and eastern Aegean regions. Discussion begins with a brief background on the site of Perati and a review of relevant scholarship regarding art and society in the Postpalatial period. It then turns to description of the figural art from Perati and places this material in its contemporary regional and cultural context, emphasizing comparisons and connections with the nearby sites of Lefkandi (Euboea) and Grotta (Naxos). Finally, the article reflects on these discussions to generate new conclusions about the likely mixed nature of all three communities, the logic underpinning their iconographical choices, and the origin of ideas driving some social change in the postpalatial Aegean
This article investigates the final episodes of a long-lasting potting tradition that developed o... more This article investigates the final episodes of a long-lasting potting tradition that developed on Aegina during the Bronze Age. From c. 1400 BC, cooking pottery constituted the only class of that tradition that was still manufactured and exported in quantity. Detailed study of several settlement contexts from sites scattered along the Euboean and up to the Pagasetic Gulf dating to c. 1200 BC shows that pottery imported from Aegina became increasingly less available, whereas similar cooking pots produced in various non-Aeginetan fabrics appear at the same time. Macroscopic analysis of traces related to manufacture of such pots reveals that it followed the typical chaîne opératoire of the Aeginetan tradition, strongly suggesting that their appearance reflects technological transfer and, thus, could not be explained without taking mobility of potters into account. Following a comprehensive presentation of available evidence, we argue that potters trained in the context of the Aeginetan potting tradition produced cooking pottery in several locations along the Euboean Gulf and up to the modern city of Volos. By considering the socioeconomic and political context of their activity, as well as the development of Aegina and its pottery production during the later stages of the Late Bronze Age, we are able to shed more light on potters' motivations to move, as well as on the population and the time scale of this mobility phenomenon. It appears that it had two stages, characterised by itinerant activity followed by permanent relocation, and that it was relatively short-lived, as by c. 1150 BC Aeginetan-tradition potters become invisible in the archaeological record.
This article presents the results of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of, altogether, 145 potter... more This article presents the results of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of, altogether, 145 pottery and clay samples deriving from five sites located in the Thessalian region of Magnesia: Dimini, Nea Ionia, Kastro/Palaia (Volos), Pefkakia and Velestino. Chronologically, the sampled pottery covers the entire Late Bronze Age (LBA), with a few samples dating to the Middle Bronze Age. Within this broad chronological range, Mycenaean-type pottery dominates, the majority of it being decorated, with an addition of fine unpainted pottery and such used for transport and cooking. Pottery of non-Mycenaean derivation is represented by a variety of types belonging to the early LBA as well as two classes of the early post-palatial period (i.e. after 1200 BC): Handmade Burnished Ware and Grey Ware. Importantly, samples associated with two pottery kilns at Dimini and Velestino were included in the project, although no kiln wasters were identified. Results of the analysis provide important insights into both local Thessalian pottery production and inter-and intra-regional pottery exchange. Local production utilising clay beds around Dimini is best evidenced, with a distribution of its products reaching beyond Thessaly. Two further chemical patterns appear to be associated with Velestino, while an additional two small chemical groups are likely Thessalian as well. In terms of identified imports, the Argolid stands out as the major source of non-local pottery from the beginning of the LBA until the end of the palatial period. Other regions and production localities play a significantly smaller role as sources of supply. On the basis of the study, for the first time the local production as well as importation of pottery in the region of Magnesia is documented by scientific means, opening new research perspectives and strengthening the region's standing as part of the Mycenaean world.
This paper presents the work of the Bays of East Attica Regional Survey project in 2020 and 2021.... more This paper presents the work of the Bays of East Attica Regional Survey project in 2020 and 2021. The project focuses on documenting evidence of human occupation and land use around the bay of Porto Rafti in eastern Attica, Greece. Work in 2020 and 2021 built on the progress achieved in the 2019 pilot season, which established the presence of a Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age obsidian processing centre on the Pounta peninsula, a sizeable Late Helladic IIIC settlement on the islet of Raftis, and some minor pre-and post-Ptolemaic activity on the Koroni peninsula, previously assessed as a single-period military camp. Fieldwork in 2021 documented a dense, multi-period surface scatter on the islet of Praso, including Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Late Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman material. Remains of waste products from the manufacture of Late Helladic IIIC White Ware, Classical/Hellenistic tile, Late Roman tile, and metal indicate the frequentative presence of industrial activity. Additional study of material from the 2019 season in 2020 and 2021 provided new insights into the chronological and typological character of material from Pounta, Koroni, and Raftis. The survey data from the first two field seasons of the project contribute to an increasingly rich and detailed reconstruction of society and economy in Porto Rafti bay throughout antiquity.
Survey around Porto Rafti Bay in Greece reveals evidence of a prosperous community that exploited... more Survey around Porto Rafti Bay in Greece reveals evidence of a prosperous community that exploited near-shore islets for habitation and craft production following the Late Bronze Age collapse. Surface assemblages provide insights into the strategies undertaken by this mercantile maritime group aptly navigating a dynamic socioeconomic environment.
In this article, we present the results of application of petrographic and neutron activation ana... more In this article, we present the results of application of petrographic and neutron activation analyses to a group of pottery fragments dating to the 12th century BCE deriving from ancient Eleon (Boeotia, Greece) as a means of investigating regional and interregional networks in which the site participated. Production centres in Boeotia and central Euboea provided, as could be expected, the majority of sampled pottery across various shapes. A number of more distant areas, however, such as eastern Attica, the Cyclades, Macedonia, and western Crete, are also documented in the present study, suggesting their products were available to local consumers at ancient Eleon. These results are discussed with reference to consumer preferences and exchange networks operating at that time. Finally, some of the identified petrographic and chemical groups can be securely identified at the macroscopic level, allowing us to arrive at conclusions pertinent to a substantial part of the entire pottery assemblage.
This article presents a Late Helladic IIIC Early deposit of pottery and small finds deriving from... more This article presents a Late Helladic IIIC Early deposit of pottery and small finds deriving from rescue excavations at the Kokotsika plot in Kastro/Palaia, within the modern city of Volos. It is the first systematically published deposit from that site, providing data on stratigraphy, small finds, pottery typology, decoration, fabrics and use-wear patterns, supplemented with detailed statistics. A particular feature of the recovered assemblage is the comparatively high frequency of Handmade Burnished Ware, as well as the presence of Grey Ware, both seen as products of people deriving from the Italian peninsula. The presented deposit provides valuable new data both for the site of Kastro/Palaia, as well as for the region of coastal Thessaly. The revealed remains and stratigraphy might be related to the structures exposed in nearby plots by earlier excavation campaigns of D. Theocharis. The deposit documents most likely a slightly later stage of Late Helladic IIIC Early compared to what is present at the abandonment deposits at Dimini and Pefkakia. As such it provides new clues for the reconstruction of regional history, confirming earlier views that Kastro/Palaia attracted people who left other habitation sites in the area.
One of the most important and beneficial ways of studying cooking pottery is to look at its devel... more One of the most important and beneficial ways of studying cooking pottery is to look at its development from a diachronic perspective. However, for the Late Bronze Age on the mainland there are very few sites with long stratigraphic sequences. Although we do know that many sites were continuously inhabited-among them the most prominent centers , such as Mycenae, Tiryns, and Thebes-not every period is represented with a sizable deposit. For example, the Early Mycenaean period, when important changes in cooking pottery took place, is very poorly represented in general. A notable exception is the site of Mitrou, in East Lokris. The LBA cooking pottery from this settlement constituted the topic of my doctoral dissertation. In the course of my research, I decided to conduct a comparative case study with another site. This site happened to be Tsoungiza, which had a very good sequence of deposits for most of the Late Bronze Age. For me, the site also had a particular personal connection with Mitrou. Jeremy B. Rutter and Patrick M. Thomas were my excellent teachers of pottery at Mitrou, and before they came to work there, they both worked at Tsoungiza. Most of the relevant materials from Tsoungiza had already been published by them (or were in the final stage of preparation for publication), which greatly facilitated my study. With the permission of the director of NVAP, James C. Wright, I was able to conduct a study of the deposits from Tsoungiza, which resulted in this contribution.
The large assemblage of well-preserved pottery from the extensive Late Bronze Age cemetery at Per... more The large assemblage of well-preserved pottery from the extensive Late Bronze Age cemetery at Perati in East Attica (Greece) lends itself to a case study for investigating patterns of production and consumption of Mycenaean pottery. This article presents the chemical characterization by NAA of 28 pottery samples from Perati combined with a definition of ceramic macroscopic groups. The set of samples from all three chronological stages of the cemetery covers the two prevalent macroscopic groups, the presumably local standard fabric and the commonly present so-called White Ware, a distinctive pottery group known from other sites in Greece, but rarely subjected to scientific analyses. The two main NAA groups, PerA and PerC, correlate well both with the standard fabric and with the White Ware. These groups may indicate one or more local/regional workshop(s), products of which are found only occasionally at other sites included in the Bonn database. In addition to imports with chemical patterns pointing to Central Crete and Chios, several chemical singletons have been identified. Overall, the analyses show predominant consumption of local pottery, with a limited presence of imports.
Towards a better understanding of handmade burnished pottery in Late Bronze Age Greece, 2019
Poster presented at the EMAC (European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics) conference in Barcelona, 16-1... more Poster presented at the EMAC (European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics) conference in Barcelona, 16-18 September 2019 presenting a group of handmade pottery from the site of Pefkakia, its petrographic analysis and interpretation.
Van de Moortel, A. et al., "Honoring the Dead or Hero Cult? The Long Afterlife of a Prepalatial Elite Tomb at Mitrou," in E. Borgna, I. Caloi et al. (eds.), MNHMH/MNEME. Past and Memory in the Aegean Bronze Age (Liège and Leuven: Peeters) 277-292. Aegaeum 43. ISBN 978-90-429-3903-5., 2019
Technology in Crisis. Technological changes in ceramic production during periods of trouble, 2018
Way too often various handmade traditions present in Mainland Greece are classified under a commo... more Way too often various handmade traditions present in Mainland Greece are classified under a common heading – usually that of Handmade Burnished Ware – which does not contribute to the proper understanding of their origin and significance. Also, if handmade pottery shows up in contexts of 13th century BC and either entirely follows Mycenaean typology or differs only slightly from standard forms, it is frequently omitted from the discussion or even not recognized at all as not being foreign or ‘alien’ enough. In this paper, I will try to demonstrate that it is worth paying close attention to the details of manufacture of handmade pottery. In particular, such an approach to deposits on the Greek Mainland of late 13th and 12th century BC highlights existence of various groups of handmade pottery, only one of which is the famous and much discussed Handmade Burnished Ware. While its appearance can be quite confidently ascribed to the arrival of relatively small groups of people originating from Southern Italian peninsula, the other pottery groups most likely result from economic stress and problems with supply of standard Mycenaean products of similar functions, and/or response of former customers to economic hardship.
From Cooking Vessels to Cultural Practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, 2017
Although seriously understudied, cooking pots from the Late Bronze Age Greek mainland seem to rec... more Although seriously understudied, cooking pots from the Late Bronze Age Greek mainland seem to receive much more attention than in previous decades, and this volume is another sign of a growing interest in less attractive categories of pottery. However, what has been missing so far, is a comparison on a supra-regional level. Are cooking pots similar to each-other irrespective of the region, as it is the case for the decorated Mycenaean pottery? Is the degree of similarity changing over time? What can observed similarities/differences tell us about the circumstances of cooking pottery production and consumption? In my paper, I will try to address these issues by comparing evidence from three sites located at considerable distance from each-other – Mitrou (East Lokris, Central Greece), Tsoungiza (Korinthia, NE Peloponnese) and the Menelaion (Laconia, Southern Peloponnese).
Numerous transport stirrup jars have been found at the site of Pefkakia. Most were manufactured i... more Numerous transport stirrup jars have been found at the site of Pefkakia. Most were manufactured in Crete with some from the Greek mainland. There were also at least two Canaanite jars from the Carmel coast. These finds and the first results of petrographic analysis attest to the site's role as a major Aegean harbour.
Classical archaeological chronologies are steeped in relative dating, but the application of abso... more Classical archaeological chronologies are steeped in relative dating, but the application of absolute methods does not always support such clear-cut seriation. Here, the authors consider the significance of a Macedonian vase in reconciling the conventional and absolute chronologies of Early Iron Age Greece. Decorated with compass-drawn concentric circles and found in a Late Bronze Age context at ancient Eleon, Boeotia, the authors argue that this vessel establishes a chronological anchor and supports a twelfth-century BC emergence of the Protogeometric style in central Macedonia. A model for the indigenous development and dispersal of the Macedonian Protogeometric style is presented for future elaboration.
The assemblage of artifacts from the Late Helladic IIIC Mycenaean cemetery at Perati includes a c... more The assemblage of artifacts from the Late Helladic IIIC Mycenaean cemetery at Perati includes a considerable quantity of figure-decorated pottery and figural representations in other media, including figurines and seals. Advances in scholarship since these artifacts were discovered and published encourage a reconsideration of their meaning and significance. This study reviews the corpus of figural art from Perati and considers its potential significance for interpreting several aspects of Bronze Age society following the palatial collapse in the central and eastern Aegean regions. Discussion begins with a brief background on the site of Perati and a review of relevant scholarship regarding art and society in the Postpalatial period. It then turns to description of the figural art from Perati and places this material in its contemporary regional and cultural context, emphasizing comparisons and connections with the nearby sites of Lefkandi (Euboea) and Grotta (Naxos). Finally, the article reflects on these discussions to generate new conclusions about the likely mixed nature of all three communities, the logic underpinning their iconographical choices, and the origin of ideas driving some social change in the postpalatial Aegean
This article investigates the final episodes of a long-lasting potting tradition that developed o... more This article investigates the final episodes of a long-lasting potting tradition that developed on Aegina during the Bronze Age. From c. 1400 BC, cooking pottery constituted the only class of that tradition that was still manufactured and exported in quantity. Detailed study of several settlement contexts from sites scattered along the Euboean and up to the Pagasetic Gulf dating to c. 1200 BC shows that pottery imported from Aegina became increasingly less available, whereas similar cooking pots produced in various non-Aeginetan fabrics appear at the same time. Macroscopic analysis of traces related to manufacture of such pots reveals that it followed the typical chaîne opératoire of the Aeginetan tradition, strongly suggesting that their appearance reflects technological transfer and, thus, could not be explained without taking mobility of potters into account. Following a comprehensive presentation of available evidence, we argue that potters trained in the context of the Aeginetan potting tradition produced cooking pottery in several locations along the Euboean Gulf and up to the modern city of Volos. By considering the socioeconomic and political context of their activity, as well as the development of Aegina and its pottery production during the later stages of the Late Bronze Age, we are able to shed more light on potters' motivations to move, as well as on the population and the time scale of this mobility phenomenon. It appears that it had two stages, characterised by itinerant activity followed by permanent relocation, and that it was relatively short-lived, as by c. 1150 BC Aeginetan-tradition potters become invisible in the archaeological record.
This article presents the results of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of, altogether, 145 potter... more This article presents the results of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of, altogether, 145 pottery and clay samples deriving from five sites located in the Thessalian region of Magnesia: Dimini, Nea Ionia, Kastro/Palaia (Volos), Pefkakia and Velestino. Chronologically, the sampled pottery covers the entire Late Bronze Age (LBA), with a few samples dating to the Middle Bronze Age. Within this broad chronological range, Mycenaean-type pottery dominates, the majority of it being decorated, with an addition of fine unpainted pottery and such used for transport and cooking. Pottery of non-Mycenaean derivation is represented by a variety of types belonging to the early LBA as well as two classes of the early post-palatial period (i.e. after 1200 BC): Handmade Burnished Ware and Grey Ware. Importantly, samples associated with two pottery kilns at Dimini and Velestino were included in the project, although no kiln wasters were identified. Results of the analysis provide important insights into both local Thessalian pottery production and inter-and intra-regional pottery exchange. Local production utilising clay beds around Dimini is best evidenced, with a distribution of its products reaching beyond Thessaly. Two further chemical patterns appear to be associated with Velestino, while an additional two small chemical groups are likely Thessalian as well. In terms of identified imports, the Argolid stands out as the major source of non-local pottery from the beginning of the LBA until the end of the palatial period. Other regions and production localities play a significantly smaller role as sources of supply. On the basis of the study, for the first time the local production as well as importation of pottery in the region of Magnesia is documented by scientific means, opening new research perspectives and strengthening the region's standing as part of the Mycenaean world.
This paper presents the work of the Bays of East Attica Regional Survey project in 2020 and 2021.... more This paper presents the work of the Bays of East Attica Regional Survey project in 2020 and 2021. The project focuses on documenting evidence of human occupation and land use around the bay of Porto Rafti in eastern Attica, Greece. Work in 2020 and 2021 built on the progress achieved in the 2019 pilot season, which established the presence of a Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age obsidian processing centre on the Pounta peninsula, a sizeable Late Helladic IIIC settlement on the islet of Raftis, and some minor pre-and post-Ptolemaic activity on the Koroni peninsula, previously assessed as a single-period military camp. Fieldwork in 2021 documented a dense, multi-period surface scatter on the islet of Praso, including Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Late Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman material. Remains of waste products from the manufacture of Late Helladic IIIC White Ware, Classical/Hellenistic tile, Late Roman tile, and metal indicate the frequentative presence of industrial activity. Additional study of material from the 2019 season in 2020 and 2021 provided new insights into the chronological and typological character of material from Pounta, Koroni, and Raftis. The survey data from the first two field seasons of the project contribute to an increasingly rich and detailed reconstruction of society and economy in Porto Rafti bay throughout antiquity.
Survey around Porto Rafti Bay in Greece reveals evidence of a prosperous community that exploited... more Survey around Porto Rafti Bay in Greece reveals evidence of a prosperous community that exploited near-shore islets for habitation and craft production following the Late Bronze Age collapse. Surface assemblages provide insights into the strategies undertaken by this mercantile maritime group aptly navigating a dynamic socioeconomic environment.
In this article, we present the results of application of petrographic and neutron activation ana... more In this article, we present the results of application of petrographic and neutron activation analyses to a group of pottery fragments dating to the 12th century BCE deriving from ancient Eleon (Boeotia, Greece) as a means of investigating regional and interregional networks in which the site participated. Production centres in Boeotia and central Euboea provided, as could be expected, the majority of sampled pottery across various shapes. A number of more distant areas, however, such as eastern Attica, the Cyclades, Macedonia, and western Crete, are also documented in the present study, suggesting their products were available to local consumers at ancient Eleon. These results are discussed with reference to consumer preferences and exchange networks operating at that time. Finally, some of the identified petrographic and chemical groups can be securely identified at the macroscopic level, allowing us to arrive at conclusions pertinent to a substantial part of the entire pottery assemblage.
This article presents a Late Helladic IIIC Early deposit of pottery and small finds deriving from... more This article presents a Late Helladic IIIC Early deposit of pottery and small finds deriving from rescue excavations at the Kokotsika plot in Kastro/Palaia, within the modern city of Volos. It is the first systematically published deposit from that site, providing data on stratigraphy, small finds, pottery typology, decoration, fabrics and use-wear patterns, supplemented with detailed statistics. A particular feature of the recovered assemblage is the comparatively high frequency of Handmade Burnished Ware, as well as the presence of Grey Ware, both seen as products of people deriving from the Italian peninsula. The presented deposit provides valuable new data both for the site of Kastro/Palaia, as well as for the region of coastal Thessaly. The revealed remains and stratigraphy might be related to the structures exposed in nearby plots by earlier excavation campaigns of D. Theocharis. The deposit documents most likely a slightly later stage of Late Helladic IIIC Early compared to what is present at the abandonment deposits at Dimini and Pefkakia. As such it provides new clues for the reconstruction of regional history, confirming earlier views that Kastro/Palaia attracted people who left other habitation sites in the area.
One of the most important and beneficial ways of studying cooking pottery is to look at its devel... more One of the most important and beneficial ways of studying cooking pottery is to look at its development from a diachronic perspective. However, for the Late Bronze Age on the mainland there are very few sites with long stratigraphic sequences. Although we do know that many sites were continuously inhabited-among them the most prominent centers , such as Mycenae, Tiryns, and Thebes-not every period is represented with a sizable deposit. For example, the Early Mycenaean period, when important changes in cooking pottery took place, is very poorly represented in general. A notable exception is the site of Mitrou, in East Lokris. The LBA cooking pottery from this settlement constituted the topic of my doctoral dissertation. In the course of my research, I decided to conduct a comparative case study with another site. This site happened to be Tsoungiza, which had a very good sequence of deposits for most of the Late Bronze Age. For me, the site also had a particular personal connection with Mitrou. Jeremy B. Rutter and Patrick M. Thomas were my excellent teachers of pottery at Mitrou, and before they came to work there, they both worked at Tsoungiza. Most of the relevant materials from Tsoungiza had already been published by them (or were in the final stage of preparation for publication), which greatly facilitated my study. With the permission of the director of NVAP, James C. Wright, I was able to conduct a study of the deposits from Tsoungiza, which resulted in this contribution.
The large assemblage of well-preserved pottery from the extensive Late Bronze Age cemetery at Per... more The large assemblage of well-preserved pottery from the extensive Late Bronze Age cemetery at Perati in East Attica (Greece) lends itself to a case study for investigating patterns of production and consumption of Mycenaean pottery. This article presents the chemical characterization by NAA of 28 pottery samples from Perati combined with a definition of ceramic macroscopic groups. The set of samples from all three chronological stages of the cemetery covers the two prevalent macroscopic groups, the presumably local standard fabric and the commonly present so-called White Ware, a distinctive pottery group known from other sites in Greece, but rarely subjected to scientific analyses. The two main NAA groups, PerA and PerC, correlate well both with the standard fabric and with the White Ware. These groups may indicate one or more local/regional workshop(s), products of which are found only occasionally at other sites included in the Bonn database. In addition to imports with chemical patterns pointing to Central Crete and Chios, several chemical singletons have been identified. Overall, the analyses show predominant consumption of local pottery, with a limited presence of imports.
Towards a better understanding of handmade burnished pottery in Late Bronze Age Greece, 2019
Poster presented at the EMAC (European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics) conference in Barcelona, 16-1... more Poster presented at the EMAC (European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics) conference in Barcelona, 16-18 September 2019 presenting a group of handmade pottery from the site of Pefkakia, its petrographic analysis and interpretation.
Van de Moortel, A. et al., "Honoring the Dead or Hero Cult? The Long Afterlife of a Prepalatial Elite Tomb at Mitrou," in E. Borgna, I. Caloi et al. (eds.), MNHMH/MNEME. Past and Memory in the Aegean Bronze Age (Liège and Leuven: Peeters) 277-292. Aegaeum 43. ISBN 978-90-429-3903-5., 2019
Technology in Crisis. Technological changes in ceramic production during periods of trouble, 2018
Way too often various handmade traditions present in Mainland Greece are classified under a commo... more Way too often various handmade traditions present in Mainland Greece are classified under a common heading – usually that of Handmade Burnished Ware – which does not contribute to the proper understanding of their origin and significance. Also, if handmade pottery shows up in contexts of 13th century BC and either entirely follows Mycenaean typology or differs only slightly from standard forms, it is frequently omitted from the discussion or even not recognized at all as not being foreign or ‘alien’ enough. In this paper, I will try to demonstrate that it is worth paying close attention to the details of manufacture of handmade pottery. In particular, such an approach to deposits on the Greek Mainland of late 13th and 12th century BC highlights existence of various groups of handmade pottery, only one of which is the famous and much discussed Handmade Burnished Ware. While its appearance can be quite confidently ascribed to the arrival of relatively small groups of people originating from Southern Italian peninsula, the other pottery groups most likely result from economic stress and problems with supply of standard Mycenaean products of similar functions, and/or response of former customers to economic hardship.
From Cooking Vessels to Cultural Practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, 2017
Although seriously understudied, cooking pots from the Late Bronze Age Greek mainland seem to rec... more Although seriously understudied, cooking pots from the Late Bronze Age Greek mainland seem to receive much more attention than in previous decades, and this volume is another sign of a growing interest in less attractive categories of pottery. However, what has been missing so far, is a comparison on a supra-regional level. Are cooking pots similar to each-other irrespective of the region, as it is the case for the decorated Mycenaean pottery? Is the degree of similarity changing over time? What can observed similarities/differences tell us about the circumstances of cooking pottery production and consumption? In my paper, I will try to address these issues by comparing evidence from three sites located at considerable distance from each-other – Mitrou (East Lokris, Central Greece), Tsoungiza (Korinthia, NE Peloponnese) and the Menelaion (Laconia, Southern Peloponnese).
Based on the idiosyncratic character of Aeginetan potting tradition, a group of locally made cook... more Based on the idiosyncratic character of Aeginetan potting tradition, a group of locally made cooking pots in 12th century BC levels at Lefkandi and other sites in Central Greece (Pefkakia, Agrielia) has been identified by the authors as products of Aeginetan potters working outside of the island. The macroscopic analysis of technological features was followed by a petrographic study that aimed to address the question of their provenance and to elucidate the potters’ choices related to clay collection, preparation, and firing. Local wheel made vessels of similar shape and function, as well as genuine Aeginetan imports, have been sampled to serve as control groups. In this poster, we would like to present preliminary results of the petrographic analysis of this material, concentrating on the site of Lefkandi. We were able to confirm the non-Aeginetan provenance of the pottery we consider to be the products of Aeginetan potters. Minerals and rock fragments identified in the clay matrix are compatible with local geology, and are similar to those contained in the local control group. However, the majority of pots associated with mobile Aeginetan potters falls into a single fabric group, which is different from fabric groups represented by material selected as control group. This observation likely reflects the use of different clay source within the same area and/or different approach to paste preparation by the Aeginetan potter(s).
This is the book of abstracts for an international workshop devoted to the topic of regional vari... more This is the book of abstracts for an international workshop devoted to the topic of regional variation in Mycenaean pottery, organized by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
This is the program for a two-day international workshop devoted to the topic of regional variati... more This is the program for a two-day international workshop devoted to the topic of regional variation in Myceanean pottery organized by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Proving human mobility in prehistory is not an easy task, since the available archaeological evid... more Proving human mobility in prehistory is not an easy task, since the available archaeological evidence can often be interpreted in a number of different ways. Moreover, tracing peoples’ movement seems to be for a long time out of fashion, at least within the context of Aegean archaeology. Even some of the most unambiguous cases of human mobility have been restudied from the perspective of influence, emulation, and similar processes. We believe that technology is one of the few aspects of human activity that can be used successfully to trace mobility of people, in this case craftsmen, in archaeological contexts. Based on the particular mode of acquisition and spread of technological knowledge in general, we will argue that the presence of particular types of pottery in Lefkandi and Pefkakia, manufactured from local clays but following chaînes opératoires characteristic for non-local pottery traditions, is a strong evidence for movement of potters. The results we would like to present stem from a project entitled ““Potters on the move. Potters’ mobility in Bronze and Early Iron Age Greece as a mechanism of dissemination for ceramic style and technology”.
The program, regisration link, and book of abstracts for the 21-22 March 2024 workshop held at th... more The program, regisration link, and book of abstracts for the 21-22 March 2024 workshop held at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences.
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Papers by Bartłomiej Lis