Panel 3.2 – Organization of space and work: potter's workshops in the Greek World


Organiser/Chair:

  • Jon Albers (Universität Bonn)

External Discussant:

  • Martin Bentz (Universität Bonn)

Speakers:

Panel abstract

We know hundreds of Greek workshop sites, but only very few are well preserved or investigated entirely – usually we find kilns or waste deposits as indicators for ceramic production. In the past Archaeologists used different approaches to reconstruct the organization of space and work: chaîne opératoire, space syntax, combination of signatures or Roman and ethnographic parallels etc.
This panel plans to present and investigate known or new evidence concerning the organization of the production process by analyzing the sites, products and tools. Examples from the whole Greek World between Iron Age and the Hellenistic period should be considered.


Possible questions are:

  • What is the relation between kilns, working and storage space?
  • What can we say about the position of typical installations like basins, potter’s wheels etc.?
  • Which different kinds of tools or installations were used in which area of workshops?
  • Can we interpret different stamps or marks as part of production or trade?
  • Can we identify workshops, which are specialized only in single steps of the whole production chain?
  • What can we say about the relation between workshops and raw materials (e.g. water supply or clay pits)?

Paper abstracts

1. Jon Albers (Universität Bonn)

Spatial organization of a potter’s workshop in Selinous
Throughout seven excavation campaigns (2010-2016), the department of Classical Archeology of the University of Bonn (Dir. Prof. M. Bentz) excavated the southern part of Insula S16/17 in the Cotone Valley of Selinous in total. Structures of a large potter’s workshop were identified which includes nine kilns from different periods as well as roofed and open working spaces differing in size and function. Structures from the mid-6th century BC covered most sections of the insula and formed a group of older workshops. The subdivision of the later complex was already defined in this period. However, the expansion of the area altered between the mid-6th and the late 5th century BC several times: older buildings were unified to a larger workshop with a minimum size of 1000m2, which incorporated also the northern section of the insula and produced ceramic products of different kind. During these building processes, the deposition of vases as building sacrifices and numerous architectural changes took place. In the course of the Carthaginian conquest of Selinous in 409 BC the workshop was destroyed.
This presentation focuses on the change between archaic and classical patterns through the ages. It examines how the modification of the architectural structures, some specific installations like basins etc. and the used spaces go along with a change of the organization of production from small objects like terracotta figurines to an almost industrial production chain.

 

2. Jan Marius Müller (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn)

Tools, products and objects of everyday live: The inventory of a Selinuntine workshop-building destroyed in 409 B.C.
During the excavations conducted by the University of Bonn in the industrial quarter on the eastern slope of Selinus, next to a big kiln, a tiled workshop-building featuring a roof-tile pavement was uncovered. The inventory of the building was mostly preserved under a destruction layer which can be dated to the year 409 B.C., when the city was conquered and destroyed by the Carthaginians. In its last phase the structure was subdivided in three rooms which, according to the findings, had different functions. They contained typical workshop equipment, storage and cooking vessels as well as evidence of a small domestic sanctuary. The workshop equipment consists, among other things, of a smoothing tool, a bearing of a potter’s wheel and vessels for working with clay and water, but nearly no spacers, which were found in large quantities in other parts of the insula. The evidence points to the conclusion that the building served as working place and shelter for a small crew of potters, who were also responsible for the maintenance of the big kiln and the monitoring of the firing process.

 

3. Giovanna Greco (Università degli Studi di Napoli FEDERICO II) / Antonella Tomeo (Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Caserta e Benevento)

Cuma: importazioni e produzioni nella città arcaica e classica
Gli ultimi anni di ricerche a Cuma hanno profondamente modificato il quadro delle conoscenze della città antica ed il dato più eclatante è restituito dalla documentazione relativa all’impianto arcaico, negli anni centrali dell’VIII secolo a C.
L’intervento focalizza l’attenzione sugli aspetti economici della città , analizzati attraverso il materiale importato e la nascita di botteghe artigianali ,tra VIII e VI secolo a.C. La notevole quantità , la qualità e la varietà dei materiali rinvenuti parlano a favore di una economia fiorente, partecipe dei traffici che attraversano il Mediterraneo occidentale .
Il contributo essenziale delle analisi archeometriche ha consentito di individuare e definire le produzioni locali che elaborano repertori formali e decorativi selezionati dagli artigiani locali di cui si riconoscono alcune personalità. Emblematica è la produzione del proto corinzio come del c.d italo geometrico o della ceramica a fasce
La presenza dei grandi contenitori da trasporto è un altro parametro significativo dell’economia della città arcaica e classica, così come la notevole presenza di ceramica attica - a figure nere e rosse- rinvenuta nei contesti di abitato , conferma il trend commerciale già noto dai rinvenimenti nelle necropoli; il legame con l’ambiente attico , attestato già con le prime anfore SOS, rimane un fattore stabile nell’economia della città ,ancora in piena età classica con l’importazione di vasellame a vernice nera.

"Cumae: Imports and Productions in the Archaic City" (Fulltext)

 

4. Anne Segbers (Universität Bonn)

Greek pottery workshops in South Italy: reconstructing a production system
At the height of Mycenaean culture, from storage to shipment to service, pottery was relied upon as a choice material for vessel production. The raw materials were widely available and the process of production had already become a craft honed by specialized artisans. The sheer quantity of pottery found in excavation records conjures images of a ubiquitous presence and juxtaposes the question of what role both product and producer had in the lives of everyday people atop the citadels and in the fields. The research presented here approaches this topic through an assay of broad typological assemblages from twelve contemporary, yet contextually very different archaeological sites in and around the Saronic Gulf.
An integrated program of analysis reveals a resounding complexity in the structure of Mycenaean social and economic interaction at a variety of scales. For example, observations of both pottery production and consumption make it plain that craftsmen had the ability to act as agents of the palatial elite and the day to day consumer all while participating in trade on the interregional scale. Rarely has it been considered that craftsmen had a multidimensional role in complex societies. Rather these roles are too often considered as completely separate entities. In treating craft production as a composite system, the organizational structure of Mycenaean economic strategy – local, regional, interregional and beyond, becomes much easier to envision.