Pottery Production and Supply at Bronze Age Kolonna, Aegina. An Integrated Archaeological and Scientific Study of a Ceramic Landscape

Walter Gauss & Evangelia Kiriatzi

City: Wien

Year: 2011

Publisher: Ӧsterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Series: Ӓgina-Kolonna. Forschungen and Ergebnisse, Band V

Description: Paperback, 527 p., 149 b/w and coloured figs, 86 tables

(with contributions by Myrto Georgakopoulou, Areti Pentedeka, Bartlomiej Lis, Ian K. Whitbread & Yiannis Iliopoulos)

Abstract

Aegina has long been recognised as a major production centre of a variety of widely exported ceramic containers not only in the relatively recent past but also in Classical antiquity and especially during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Moreover, the prehistoric ceramic industry based on Aegina has become an increasingly important phenomenon in recent scholarship dealing with the rise of complex societies in the Aegean world during 2nd millennium BC. Such persistence on pottery production on Aegina through time renders obvious that a combination of factors, such as socio-economic, historical and geographical ones, as well as the locally available raw materials and the attraction of Aeginetan ceramics at other sites, must be taken into consideration in addressing the development of a specialized potting centre on the island. This study is the first to undertake a comprehensive look at the Aeginetan ceramic industry during much of the Bronze Age (ca. 2500-1200 BC), aiming at shedding light upon the factors influencing transformations in potting traditions, and the growth and decline of a specialised pottery production centre on Aegina. Advocating a landscape approach, it concentrates not only on pottery production but also on supply and consumption of ceramic vessels on the island. The systematic stylistic study of the formal attributes of local products and imports at the site of Kolonna is combined with the investigation of their manufacturing technology and the compositional characterisation of their fabrics through petrographic and chemical analysis. This integrated archaeological and scientific examination of the pottery, together with research on the island’s resources, replication experiments and ethnoarchaeology, provides the ground for the reconstruction of the local potting traditions and the understanding variability observed within and across certain periods of the Bronze Age.

Contents

Abbreviations
Bibliographical Abbreviations
Vorwort des Herausgebers [15]
Acknowledgements [17]

SECTION A. SETTING THE AGENDA (With a contribution by Ian K. Whithread)
A.1. Introduction [19]
A.2. Archaeological Research at (Prehistoric) Kolonna [20]
A.3. Macroscopic Study and Scientific Analysis of Aeginetan Pottery: A Review [21]
A.4. Aims and Objectives of the Current Research [28]
A.5. Structure of the Current Volume [29]

SECTION B. THE MORPHOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC STUDY OF POTTERY
B.1 The Studied Pottery – Selection of Samples [31]
B.2. Pottery from Stratified Deposits [32]
B.3. Archaeological Classification and Macroscopic Description [33]
B.4 Macroscopic Description [42]
B.5 Macroscopic Characterisation of the Sample [47]

SECTION C. POTTERY PRODUCTION AND IMPORTATION AT BRONZE AGE KOLONNA: THE CERAMIC FABRICS AND THE ISLAND’S LANDSCAPE (E. Kiriatzi, M. Georgakopoulou and A. Pentedeka)
C.1 The Integrated Scientific Investigation of the Pottery from Kolonna: The Methodology [69]
C.2 Exploring the Ceramic Landscapes of Aegina [71]
C.3 The Petrographic and Chemical Analysis of the Pottery from Kolonna: Looking for Patterns in Composition and Texture [93]
C.4 Understanding Patterns in Analytical Data: Provenance and Technology of Kolonna Ceramics [131]

SECTION D. POTTERY TYPES AT KOLONNA (EBA III TO LBA): INTEGRATING MORPHOLOGICAL, TECHNOLOGICAL AND COMPOSITIONAL DATA
D.1 Early Bronze Age III Pottery [157]
D.2 Middle Bronze Age Pottery [173]
D.3 Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean Pottery) [220]
D.4 Reference Group Early Bronze Age II [236]
D.5 Reference Group Late Classical Pottery [239]

SECTION E. THE PRODUCTION AND CIRCULATION OF AEGINETAN POTTERY FROM EBA III TO THE END OF THE LBA: A SUMMARY (With a contribution by B. Lis)
E.1 Aeginetan Pottery Outside the Island [241]
E.2 Aeginetan Pottery Production [247]

APPENDIX 1. SAMPLES OF BRONZE AGE POTTERY FROM KOLONNA: SUMMARY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL, PETROGRAPHIC AND CHEMICAL EVIDENCE [259]

APPENDIX 2. SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF AEGINETAN POTTERY SAMPLES FROM KOLONNA (E. Kiriatzi and I. Iliopoulos) [269]

Catalogue [273]
Bibliography [351]
Topographical Index [365]
Index of Pottery styles [367]
List of Tables [369]
List of Figures [371]
Figures [379]