Craftmanship of big storage pithoi in the Early Helladic settlement of Helike, Achaea
Dora Katsonopoulou, Ioannis Iliopoulos, Stella Katsarou & Vayia Xanthopoulou Στο E. Photos-Jones, Y. Bassiakos, E. Filippaki, A. Hein, I. Karatasios, V. Kilikoglou & E. Kouloumpi (eds), 2016. Proceedings of the 6th Symposium of the Hellenic Society for Archaeometry (Bar International Series 2780), Oxford: 13-20.
The paper presents the first results of investigations on craftsmanship of big storage pithoi found in domestic contexts at the Early Helladic settlement of Helike, Achaea, in the NW Peloponnese, Greece. Beyond describing the conspicuously standardized morphological qualities in terms of profile, surface treatment and building techniques that pertain to these vessels, we have carried out detailed petrography, SEM and XRD analyses which suggest that regularized methods in their clay recipes and raw material distribution are equally distinguishable. The technological issue of low-fired conditions has been specifically investigated to meet the question of in-household construction of the pithoi. The overall assessment of the physicochemical results contributes to speculations about the jar builders constituting a different artisan group from ordinary potters. Ethnohistorical data of itinerant craftsmen from other Greek regions are also considered as a useful point of reference.