Italo-Mycenaean Pottery: The Archaeological and Archaeometric Dimensions

Richard Jones, Sara T. Levi, Marco Bettelli & Lucia Vagnetti

City: Rome

Year: 2014

Publisher: CNR-Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico

Series: Incunabula Graeca Vol. CIII

Description: Paperback, 588 p., 12 colour plates, with numerous b.w. illustrations, tables and graphs, 29,6x20,9 cm

Abstract

This volume presents the fruits of research that began in the 1980s concerning a class of pottery that has assumed increasing importance in Italian late prehistory, namely pottery of Mycenaean type or style, usually decorated, dating from the 17th to 11th century BC, and found throughout peninsular Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. Its significance lies in the way this pottery reflects Italy’s growing connections with the outside world at this time, mainly with the Aegean but also further afield to the east. Establishing that much of this pottery was made within Italy has led to its labelling ‘Italo-Mycenaean’.

Following the book’s introduction, there is a gazetteer of sites where this and related pottery has been found in Italy. The next chapter provides a comparative chronology between the Aegean and Italy. There is then the presentation of the pottery itself, its characterisation by style and with science-based analysis to determine its origins and technological attributes; the results of experimental reconstruction are included. The impact of external influences on the indigenous cultures within Italy and Italy’s role in the so-called Late Bronze Age ‘International Age’ in the Mediterranean are among the main issues considered in the last chapter.

Contents

Forward
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. The Project and its Development [13]
R.E. Jones, S.T. Levi, M. Bettelli, L. Vagnetti

Chapter 2. Gazetteer of Sites [21]
L. Vagnetti, M. Bettelli, S.T. Levi, L. Alberti

Chapter 3. Building a Comparative Chronology between Italy and the Aegean in the Late Bronze Age [59]
M. Bettelli, L. Alberti

Chapter 4. Characterisation and Provenance [101]
R.E. Jones, S.T. Levi (with contributions by M. Bettelli, P.M. Day, D. Pantano, J.A. Riley, Y. Goren, M. Sonnino, J.L. Williams)
Chapter 5. Technological Investigations [363]
S.T. Levi, R.E. Jones (with contributions by V. Cannavò, C. Moffa, E. Photos-Jones, A. Vanzetti et al.)

Chapter 6. Discussion and Perspectives [407]
R.E. Jones, M. Bettelli, S.T. Levi, L. Vagnetti

Databases (AAS; INAA; ICP-ES; Petrographic-mineralogical data; XRF, SEM-EDAX) [465]

Appendix [525]
R.E. Jones

Abbreviations and Bibliography