Technological and Provenance Analysis of an Early and Middle Cycladic Pottery Assemblage From Therasia, Greece

Abstract

During the archaeological survey research project ‘Island Cultures in a Diachronic Perspective: the case of Therasia’, large amounts of pottery were recorded throughout the island of Therasia, ranging in date from the Bronze Age to modern times. Focusing on the prehistoric period, pottery of the Early Cycladic and late Middle Cycladic periods was recovered at Panaghia Koimisis, which is situated on the southern part of the island. This paper presents the petrographic data and results of the analysis carried out on pottery samples which are representative of variable surface treatments and different macro-fabrics of these two prehistoric periods. Tackling issues of provenance and technology, the current scientific analysis attests the coexistence of Theran and off-Theran pottery fabrics already at Panaghia Koimisis in the Early Cycladic period. The majority of the pottery fabrics at Panaghia Koimisis were identified as Theran and the analysis demonstrates intensive contacts between the southern parts of Thera and Therasia throughout the Early and late Middle Cycladic phases. Moreover, adding support to previous studies, this research indicates a wide Cycladic pottery network, in which the site participated as a consumer. During the late Middle Cycladic period major changes in the Theran production are documented, including the disappearance of the earlier pottery recipe, which had been prevalent at Panaghia Koimisis.

The Early and Middle Bronze Age Settlement at Koimisis, Therasia: Periods of Habitation and Architecture

“…12 a , b ). In this layer the few pots of low-calcareous fabrics in red colour from medium-sized pots and larger vessels are not local but associated with imports from Naxos (the rich-in-granite fabric group Γ in Kordatzaki et al 2018, 8, figs 7 e , f , 10, 11, 12 and 13) and the West Cyclades. This lack of local low-calcareous fabrics in the upper Middle Cycladic fill layer of the building matches the change in the Theran potting tradition in the late Middle Cycladic period from Theran low-calcareous Early Cycladic fabrics towards the higher calcareous Cycladic White Ware 7 .…”

“…The surface distribution of prehistoric pottery from the pre-eruption layers, which has been brought to the surface by erosion (Fig. 4 b ), includes diagnostic pottery and ceramics dated to the prehistoric period on the basis of the surface treatment and fabric (Kordatzaki et al 2018). The largest concentrations are found on the hillsides and the natural steps on the south and south-east terraces, where the pre-eruption soils are visible on the surface.…”

“…A small percentage of the surface pottery is correlated with pale, higher calcareous fabrics of the late Middle Cycladic period and is associated with the Cycladic White Ware, which comprises plain, monochrome-slipped, dark-on-light pattern-painted and bichrome-painted sherds (Kordatzaki et al 2018, 4–6, figs 5 and 6). The study of the technological characteristics of the surface pottery and the petrographic analysis by G. Kordatzaki, who classified and studied the fabrics of the survey assemblage, taken together with issues of pottery provenance and technology, and the study of pottery networks between Therasia/Thera and other Cycladic islands, helped us date the bulk of the prehistoric surface material, which was mostly associated with coarse and undiagnostic body sherds, and thus estimate the period-by-period distribution of the prehistoric material on the surface (Kordatzaki 2015; Kordatzaki et al 2018, 6–15). This suggests differentiations in the size of the settlement during different Bronze Age periods, which were confirmed by the excavation.…”

“…In the floor layer of tamped clay of the ellipsoidal building and in its substrate, however, the dominant group is the local low-calcareous coarse fabric with volcanic inclusions of the Early Cycladic period (Fig. 12 c ) (Fabric Group A in Kordatzaki et al 2018, 6–8, fig. 7 a ), associated with large, coarse vessels, with the exception of a few possible Naxian examples and only a few sherds of scored ware (of the high calcareous local fabric B in Kordatzaki et al 2018, 8–9).…”

“…The aim of the systematic excavation launched in 2014 at the Panaghia Koimisis site was to investigate the part of the installation preserved on the upper terraces of the hill (Fig. 2 b ), 2 and to study the relationships between the settlement and the rest of Thera and Akrotiri, where the earlier Bronze Age phases are preserved in a piecemeal fashion under the Late Cycladic town (Sotirakopoulou 1999; 2008b; Nikolakopoulou et al 2008; Nikolakopoulou 2019a), placing Therasia in the Cycladic settlement network (Kordatzaki et al 2018). Due to the location of the site at the southern end of Therasia, opposite Aspronisi and the Akrotiri Lighthouse, the study was also intended to shed light on the post-eruptive sinking of the caldera, and on the changing forms of the pre-eruptive caldera (Vougioukalakis 2015; Vougioukalakis, Farinetti and Christopoulou, forthcoming).…”