From Fabrics to Island Connections: Macroscopic and Microscopic Approaches to the Prehistoric Pottery of Antikythera

Abstract

An intensive archaeological survey covering the entire extent of the island of Antikythera has recently revealed a sequence of prehistoric activity spanning the later Neolithic to Late Bronze Age, with cultural affiliations that variously link its prehistoric communities with their neighbours to the north, south and east. Here we present and discuss the results of a programme of both macroscopic and petrographic study of the prehistoric ceramics from Antikythera that defines a varied group of fabrics and explores their implications with regard to regional potting traditions, onisland production versus imports, and changing patterns of human activity on the island through time. Greece, and we are especially grateful to Jonathan Tomlinson for his assistance. The petrographic analysis discussed here was undertaken at the Fitch Laboratory, British School of Athens with the help of a British Academy small grant (SG-45163) and we would like to thank both of these institutions for their support. The co-director and synergast for the Antikythera Survey Project was Aris Tsaravopoulos, and we could not have undertaken this research without his generous assistance and guidance. We are also extremely grateful to Cyprian Broodbank, co-director of the Kythera Island Project, who provided a wide range of discussion, advice and support from the burnish on exterior? Fabric: SATa Date: 20% EB2, 40% LPrePal 30% FPal, 10% SPal 2 (petrography sample ASP2; 5028-2-1-15-1) 707931E, 3973433N General: Body fragment with the beginning of a plastic impressed band, or possibly a lug. Medium to large-sized vessel. Fabric: SATa Date: 50% FN-EB1, 20% EB2, 10% LPrePal, 10% FPal, 10% SPal 3 (petrography sample ASP3; 10028-42-1-45-2) 706674E, 3971464N General: Base fragment (diameter 25cm) with finger impressions on the interior. Fabric: SATa Date: 10% EB2, 10% LPrePal, 30% FPal, 30% SPal, 20% TPal 4 (petrography sample ASP6; 9034-29-1-75-1) 709014E, 3969597N General: Rim sherd with plastic decoration on shoulder. Fabric: SATa Date: 10% LPrePal, 20% FPal, 30% SPal, 40% TPal 5 (petrography sample ASP7; 3449-12-1-25-1) 707872E, 3971584N General: Rim sherd (diameter ca. 15cm) and vertical ovoid handle scar, probably from an oval-mouthed amphora. Fabric: SATa Date: 45% FPal, 45% SPal, 10% TPal (scatter is [FPal-]Spal) 6 (petrography sample ASP9; 8425-2105-S-4) 708430E, 3972106N General: Horizontal handle, rounded ovoid in section but rapidly tapering; attachment of conical wedge of clay visible against body. Fabric: SATa Date: 10% EB2, 25% LPrePal, 25% FPal, 25% SPal, 15% TPal (scatter is [FPal]-Spal) 7 (petrography sample ASP11; 6795-2245-S-2) 706798E, 3972248N General: Rim sherd of a large open vessel with a plastic impressed band directly below a plain rim. Fabric: SATa Date: 20% EB2, 20% LPrePal, 20% FPal, 30% SPal, 10% TPal 8 (petrography sample ASP15; 8405-2095-S-3) 708407E, 3972095N General: Rim sherd with plastic impressed band under rim. Fabric: SATa Date: 30% EB2, 30% FPal, 40% SPal (scatter is [FPal-]SPal) 9 (petrography sample ASP23; 8795-...

The Greek Mainland in the Prehistoric Period

“…The degree of overlap between the fabrics defined through macroscopic inspection and those defined in terms of chemical and petrographic analysis is very high. Similar success has been achieved working on the pottery recovered from the surveys of Kythera and Antikythera (Pentedeka et al [2010]), throwing light on the exchanges between the southern Peloponnese and Crete, especially critical during the Middle Bronze Age and early Late Bronze Age, as well as helping to refine the dating and interpretation of often difficult finds from surface survey.…”

Ceramic analysis in Greece

“…A 'bottom-up' methodology for characterizing local production, such as that pioneered by the Fitch Laboratory since the 1980s (see Vaughan et al 1995;Whitbread 1995;Day et al 1999;Kiriatzi 2003;Hilditch et al 2008;Boileau and Whitley 2010;Pentedeka et al 2010), involves geological prospection of locally available potting raw materials, accompanied by paste and firing replication experiments, integrated with macroscopic, petrographic fabric and chemical analyses. The key feature of this intensive approach is that compositional or technological imports are highlighted within an assemblage, even if their original provenance is not yet known.…”

Measuring Chronological Uncertainty in Intensive Survey Finds: A Case Study From Antikythera, Greece*

“…More generally, this anticipated sharing of uncertainty by adjacent periods fits into a broader theoretical proposition: that things dating close together in time are more likely to be similar (e.g., in style) than those found further apart (a specific instance of a general property known as temporal autocorrelation). However, due to the nature of relative dating methods, which are based on the definition of groups with consistent decorative, morphological and compositional characteristics (i.e., the creation of a typology), it is also quite possible to have non‐consecutive periods whose uncertainty is shared: hence in the Bronze Age, coarseware vessels in red micaceous fabrics are a reasonably common import to Antikythera from the neighbouring island of Kythera in both the mid‐third millennium bc (Early Bronze 2) and the latter half of the second millennium bc (Second to Third Palace periods) without any sign of such a fabric in‐between (Pentedeka et al . 2010: fabric class ‘MIC’).…”