Dealing With the Crisis: Mobility of Aeginetan-Tradition Potters Around 1200 Bc

Abstract

This article investigates the final episodes of a long-lasting potting tradition that developed on Aegina during the Bronze Age. From c. 1400 bc, cooking pottery constituted the only class of that tradition that was still manufactured and exported in quantity. Detailed study of several settlement contexts from sites scattered along the Euboean and up to the Pagasetic Gulf dating to c. 1200 bc shows that pottery imported from Aegina became increasingly less available, whereas similar cooking pots produced in various non-Aeginetan fabrics appear at the same time. Macroscopic analysis of traces related to manufacture of such pots reveals that it followed the typical chaîne opératoire of the Aeginetan tradition, strongly suggesting that their appearance reflects technological transfer and, thus, could not be explained without taking mobility of potters into account. Following a comprehensive presentation of available evidence, we argue that potters trained in the context of the Aeginetan potting tradition produced cooking pottery in several locations along the Euboean Gulf and up to the modern city of Volos. By considering the socio-economic and political context of their activity, as well as the development of Aegina and its pottery production during the later stages of the Late Bronze Age, we are able to shed more light on potters’ motivations to move, as well as on the population and the time scale of this mobility phenomenon. It appears that it had two stages, characterised by itinerant activity followed by permanent relocation, and that it was relatively short-lived, as by c. 1150 bc Aeginetan-tradition potters become invisible in the archaeological record.

A Late Helladic Iiic Early Deposit From Kokotsika Plot in Kastro/Palaia (Volos)

“…Mendable cooking pots belong to a distinct class of Aeginetan-tradition cooking pottery. This class, thoroughly discussed elsewhere (Lis et al 2020), was most likely manufactured by potters representing a tradition developed on the island of Aegina that spread around 1200 BC towards the north, reaching as far as the Pagasetic Gulf. Nevertheless, according to the petrographic analysis only one of the cooking pots from this deposit appears to be local to the general area.…”

“…In terms of coarser pottery, fabrics of cooking pottery were described elsewhere (Lis et al 2020), while the fabrics of Handmade Burnished Ware will be discussed together with the results of petrographic analysis in a forthcoming publication. The only inventoried pithos is made from a medium-coarse fabric with poorly sorted quartz, some dark rounded inclusions, at least a single schist fragment and mica (mostly gold) on the surface.…”

“…On the other hand, there is a significant number of links with LH IIIB2 and LH IIIC Early deposits at Dimini, and also LH IIIB2–IIIC Early levels at Pefkakia, as demonstrated by provided parallels, whereas none of the above features monochrome carinated cups. Also, the fabrics of Aeginetan-tradition cooking pottery from the Kokotsika plot exhibit no connection with fabrics of such pottery from Pefkakia (Lis et al 2020, 306), perhaps another indication of a chronological difference. An almost complete absence of unpainted carinated kylikes in the discussed deposit could be another such difference, as they seem to be popular both at Dimini (Adrymi-Sismani 2014, 546–8) and Pefkakia (Batziou-Efstathiou 2015, 67, fig.…”

“… 33 For a thorough discussion of this pottery group, including finds from this deposit, see Lis et al 2020.…”

Societies in Transition in Early Greece

“…8 Finally, it seems to be the case that potters themselves were on the move, at least in certain cases. A recent study of cooking pots from several locations along the Euboean and Pagasetic Gulfs indicate that a particularly Aeginetan chaîne opératoire was in use, and that this type of technology transfer would have happened in the context of both itinerant activity and permanent relocation (Lis et al 2020a). This is also quite likely to have been the case at other times and with other industries.…”