Understanding Standardization and Variation in Mediterranean Ceramics. Mid 2nd to late 1st Millennium BC

Edited by Antonis Kotsonas

City: Leuven - Paris - Walpole, MA

Year: 2014

Publisher: Peeters

Series: Babesch Supplements 25

Description: Paperback, viii & 196 p., 27,3x21 cm

Abstract

This volume is designed as a wide-ranging analysis of ceramic standardization and variation, and as a contribution to pottery studies in the Mediterranean and beyond. It originates in a conference session in the 16th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists which was held in The Hague, The Netherlands, and was organized by the research team of the project New Perspectives on Ancient Pottery (NPAP) of the Amsterdam Archaeological Centre, University of Amsterdam.

Some of the most enduring questions archaeologists raise are explicitly or implicitly formulated around the concepts of standardization and variation. Yet, the significance of these concepts has rarely been acknowledged in archaeological literature and their full potential for the study of ancient culture remains under-explored. To demonstrate the significance of these concepts for the study of material culture, we adopt here a cross-cultural and diachronic perspective. The individual chapters cover a variety of case studies, ranging from Spanish handmade pottery to John Beazley’s Greek vase painters. The range of approaches pursued is equally broad and involves traditional stylistic analyses, applications of archaeological science, statistical methodologies, and post-processual considerations. The result will hopefully stimulate pottery experts and specialists in other categories of artifacts to revisit their material from different and fresh angles.

Contents

Acknowledgements [vii]

Antonis Kotsonas, Introduction: why standardization and variation? [1-5]

Antonis Kotsonas, Standardization, variation, and the study of ceramics in the Mediterranean and beyond [7-23]

Jill Hilditch, Analyzing technological standardization: revisiting the Minoan conical cup [25-37]

Arianna Esposito & Julien Zurbach, Technological standardization and cultural contact: some methodological considerations and two case studies [39-47]

Julie Hruby, Moving from ancient typology to an understanding of the causes of variability: a Mycenaean case study [49-58]

Francisco  J. Núñez Calvo, Tyrian potters and their products: standardization and variation in the pottery of the al – Bass cemetery [59-84]

Petya Ilieva, Regional standardization and local variation: the case of the North Aegean G 2-3 ware [85-96]

Fernando Pérez Lambán, Javier Fanlo Loras, Jésus V. Picazo Millán & José Maria Rodanés Vicente, Ceramic variability and social organization in the Early Iron Age settlement of Cabezo de la Cruz (Zaragoza, northeast Spain) [97-113]

Vladimir Stissi, Standardization and Greek pottery, a broad view from far above [115-131]

Amy C. Smith, Variation among Attic fine wares: the case of the Pan Painter’s pelikai [133-147]

Katerina Volioti, Dimensional standardization and the use of Haimonian lekythoi [149-168]

Colette Beestman-Kruyshaar, Size did matter: variability in drinking cups at Hellenistic Halos [169-194]

List of authors [195]