Greek colonial pottery in Italy

The kilns in Sybari

2005-08-23T11:34:00.000+02:00

Four excavation campaigns were carried out in the Campo dei Tori (Stompi) in the years 1969-1972. The whole excavation area covered approximately 4800-5000 square meters. Several archaic houses were found in the area, remnants of at least ten buildings can be made out. The houses are pimarily constructed with the use of a stone foundation made of riverstones with brick insertions, and are similar to the houses found at Amendolara, Croton and Siris (Policoro). The earliest Greek pottery from the area consists of fragments of the Thapsos class and Lategeometric Ionian pottery, but pottery spanning the entire period of the city has been found the latest being early redfigured. Pier Giovanni Guzzo has tentatively dated the earliest house to around the beginning of the 6th century B.C.

Two kilns were found in the area. One was found ca. 5 meters west of building a in the western end of the excavation area ( see photo, Notizie 1970), the other was found ca. 60 meters to the east in building i. No fineware was found in the kilns, and the material was pricipally tiles and a bowl in the kiln near building a. Yet these kilns were not kilns for making tiles and it is clear that the material excavated from inside the kilns does not represent the production that took place there. This is further supported by two observations from the material. First of all a substantial amount of the pottery is miniature vessels and according to the excavators seems to be votive material. Secondly it was possible to join sherds from a very large area, suggesting that a thorough mix of the material occurred at some point. This could have been the result of a flooding of the whole area, maybe what caused the destruction of the city in 510 B.C.

Ca. 5000 fragments of pottery was excavated during the first two campaigns in an area covering ca. 1400 square meters, only a little more than 10% has been published, a similar figure is likely for the material from the last two campaigns although the area was larger and more material was retrieved. Considering that the material from the kilns cannot here be used to make some kind of criterion for the colonialware of Sibari it is very unfortunate that no potters wasters have been found. Some pottery is published as local pottery but it is generally very fragmentary, it would be interesting though to compare the fabric of this group with the material from the nearby Sanctuary of Timpone della Motta, where better preserved material is available. I will return to the material from Sibari some time in the future.

Litterature:

Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 24, 1970. P. 216-366

Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 26, 1972. P. 19-163

Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 28, 1974. P. 17-160

Guzzo, P.G.: Case a Sibari. In Richerche sulla Casa in Magna Grecia e in Sicilia. 1996 (Eds. D'Andria, F., Mannino, K.). P 123-126

Kilns in the chora

2005-08-18T10:11:00.000+02:00

The recent years survey in the metapontine chora carried out by a team from the university of Texas has provided some new interesting kiln material (see a report here and here). The survey showed that, in the colonial period, pottery was also being produced at the farmsteads outside of the city. Traces of kilns are reported at San Angelo Vecchio, San Angelo Grieco, and at the southern end of the Venella near San Biagio. I have not found any references as to the date of the kilns except that the one from Venella apparently should date to around 600 BC.

Additional evidence for kilns at sanctuary sites were found on the terraces of the Bradano river below Masseria San Marco. At least six kilns are reported, identified by slags and misfired pottery. Furthermore there are some indications for production of pottery near the Necropolis at Pizzica-Pantaneilo in the late 4th century BC.

As Dinu Adamsteanu has pointed out a kiln was also found in the indigenous settlement as Serra di Vaglio, which produced perfect imitations of metapontine terracottas in the middle of the 6th century. A later kiln from the late 5th century at the same site produced drinking cups. Adamsteanu remarks on the quality of this production,

"Whilst the whole range of shapes typical of the period is represented, the glaze of this local ware is of inferior quality and carelessly applied" (Greeks and Natives in Basilicata, p. 146).

After briefly discussion other evidence from the 5th and 4th centuries, Adamsteanu goes further and concludes the following,

"The great importance of the grave-goods found in such country cemeteries lies in the fact that they reveal the existence of pottery workshops operating in these remote areas, as far away from the workshops in the Greek colonies as from their 'brances' established in native centers closely linked to Greek colonies..." (Op. Cit. 148).

This mix and diffusion of production places is important in dealing with the colonialware, a main problem with regards to my thesis is that the evidence presented here mainly comes from later contexts and not the 7th century BC. although one kiln can possibly be dated to around 600 BC. The question remains whether this practice was already occurring as early as the 7th century. This touches upon the notions of hybidization and creolization and raises several questions. If it is accepted that the colonialware of the early period generally is influenced more by a Corinthian and Aegean tradition than indigenous influence, would it then be reasonable to assume that the influence of indigenous traditions in later periods was largely a result of the diffusion of workshops following water supplies and clay beds rather than trade per se?

It also raises the question of whether there was some kind of organization in who was allowed to use different clay beds since the density of potters workshops could have been rather high, and this of course have profound influence on any attempt to group the pottery according to fabricgroups.

A new book by Joseph Coleman Carter entitled "Discovering the Greek Countryside at Metaponto" will be released by the University of Michigan Press in late january 2006. We can only hope that Carter deals more extensivly with the pottery and its implications in this book.

Litterature:

Adamsteanu, Dinu: Greeks and Natives in Basilicata. In Greek Colonists and Native Populations, Ed. Jean-Paul Descaeudres, 1990. P. 143-150.

The evidence from Crotone

2005-08-13T22:15:00.000+02:00

Our knowledge of the ancient city of Croton primarily comes from rescue excavation in the modern city, and is therefore sparse. From the beginning the city seems to have been planed, and there is some evidence for a gridsystem with parallel streets.

Crotone seems to be the apoikia where the earliest local production has been identified. Locally produced imitation of Thapsos-ware, the so called sub-thapsos group, has been found at the site and Claudio Sabbione dates these, on the basis of the imported Thapsos cups, to the end of the 8th or beginning of the 7th century BC. This would place them securely within the timespan of the first generation of colonists. Quite a few fragments of a pyxis type of the sub-thapsos group have recently been excavated in the sanctuary on Timpone della Motta at Francavilla Marittima (see photo, left. Top: Crotone, below: Francavilla; Sabbione 1984) . Although no narrow dating could be determined for this group, they seem mainly to appear together with the bulk of material dating to the period ca. 680-650 BC. and Sabbiones dating might be slightly too early. This group of pottery is poorly dealt with and not well understood and there might be some overlap or connection with the coppa a filetti group.

The exact evidence for local production at Crotone comes from the numerous potters wasters found in the area. Especially prominent are wasters from cups of a metopal type (coppa metopali) which are common at Crotone and comes in a wide range of stylistic types, but all are reported to be of the same basic fabric and glaze, no kilns have so far turned up. The metopal cups are somehow related to the coppa a filetti and the transition seems to be very vague. Similar cups have also been found at Francavilla and since the cups from Crotone are compared to the ones from Sibari, it would be very interesting to compare the fabric of the cups from the three sites.

The craters constitute another large group of locally produced ceramics. The overwhelming majority of imported material consists of protocorithian kotylai and a lesser amount of kylikes. The production of craters can be regarded as a response to the lack of imported large open vessels. The craters come in many different shapes and sizes but they are all decorated in a Subgeometric style, although some are decorated with floral motives. No local figure decorated pottery has been found, the only fragment that comes close is a fragment from a crater decorated with a tripod.

Litterature:

Sabbione, Claudio: Le aree di colonizzazione di Crotone e Locri Epizefiri. Asatene 60, II, 1984. Pp. 251-300.

Sabbione, Claudio: L'artigianato artistico. Atti del convegno di studi sulla Magna Grecia. 1983. Pp. 245-301

The Production of pottery at Siris

2005-08-11T20:21:00.000+02:00

The archaic colonial city of Siris has been identified at the collina di Policoro, underneath the ruins of the later Heraclea. The only structural remains of the archaic period at the site amounts to parts of two houses, but a number of kilns along with a substantial amount of ceramic material dating to the 7th century BC. has been found.

The excavations carried out by the soprintendenza in the years 1968-1969 in the middle of the hill revealed the remains of four insulae of the later period. An archaic kiln was found in the northern part of Insula 1, that contained pottery fragments of both local and imported ware. Although I still do not know what kind of imported material was found in the kiln, this mixed nature of the fragments excavated from inside the kiln should warn us against uncritically using material from kilns as a firm criterion for a local production. Unfortunately the circumstances surrounding the excavation are not dealt with and it seems that no detailed information was obtained. This holds true for the, as yet unpublished, material excavated from inside the kilns at San Nicola at Amendolara. I have been looking through this material and it presumably dates to the first half of the 6th century BC. but it consists of fragments from a rather mixed range of vessels, and it certainly does not seem to represent one single firing batch.

Another large area of excavation was opened at the western border of the hill, where hellenistic remains predominate, but traces of archaic kilns and waste deposits were found at lower levels. These findings showed that the predominant shapes produced at the site were hydriai and cups of the Ionian type, but there was also a large output of small cups with one handle or sometimes without handles, decorated in a very simple manner. The hydriai (see photo, Siris e l'influenza Ionica in Occidente) are mainly decorated with horizontal or undulating bands, a scheme also common at Incoronata. The handles are usually decorated with a cross that bears resemblance to the decoration on the handles of the so-called achaian kantharoi found in the area, although not at Siris itself, I might mention here that the usual handle-decoration on the hydriskai found at the sanctuary of Francavilla Marittima consists of horizontal stripes. The clay of the local productions is described as light yellow (giallo-pallido), which certainly differs from the clay at Incoronata.

A tomb dating to the 7th century BC. was also found in the western part of the hill. It contained, among other things, a large figure decorated dinos with two antithetical horses. The local production is proposed to have been influenced by a Cycladic and Oriental tradition. What is interesting in this connection, when compared to Incoronata, is the apparent lack of corinthian influence.

Visit the website of Policoro here.

Litterature:

Adamsteanu, Dinu & Dilthey, Helmtraut: Siris. Nuovi Contributi Archeologici. MEFRA 90, 1978, pp. 515-565.

De Siena, Antonio & Tagliente, Marcello: Siris-Polieion. Fonti Letterarie e Nuova Documentazione Archeologica. (Incontro Studi . Policoro 8-10 Giugno 1984). 1986.

Siris e l'influenza ionica in Occidente. Atti del 20 convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia, Taranto 12-17 Ottobre 1980. Taranto 1980.

A colonial kerameus working at Incoronata identified.

2005-07-14T21:55:00.000+02:00

Mario Denti seems to have identified an individual potter working around the middle of the 7th century B.C. at the site of Incoronata about 7 km out of Metaponto.
The site of Incoronata occupies a low plateau close to Metaponto. Italian archaeologists have been excavating at the site since 1971, under the direction of prof. Piero Orlandini, and have revealed two settlements, the earlier is an indigenous settlement dating to the period between the 9th century B.C. to around the beginning of the 7th century B.C., this is usually referred to as Incoronata indigena. The later settlement is decisively Greek and contains material dating to the period ca. 700-630 B.C., and is referred to as Incoronata Greca. Evidence of two types of structures were found at the settlement area, one type consists of dug out pits of various shapes and sizes the other type is rectangular and has a wall foundation build of stone. This later type is comparable to the slightly later structures at Olbia believed to be colonial houses. Although there are two settlements Greeks and indigenous people are believed to have coexisted at the site, which makes it a very important site for the study of colonialware.

In an article from 2000 Mario Denti deals extensively with sherds belonging to 8 individual pots all in a colonial style (2 are shown in the photos here, Incoronata 3 & Denti 2000), most of which comes from saggio V. Denti makes a thorough stylistic comparison of the colonial pots in question and also compares them with Greek pottery both imported and pottery found in Greece. He concludes that all 8 pots are most likely to have been made by the same painter. He reaches this conclusion on the basis of an eclectic style that mainly incorporates Eastgreek and Corinthian traditions, although this should not surprise us as the connection, whatever it is exactly, between Eastgreek and Corinthian pottery is well known. His conclusions seems convincing at first hand, but there are a number of unanswered questions. First of all, the overall number of figure decorated vessels in the area are not taken into consideration. Secondly he seems to confine himself too much to evidence from Incoronata, I believe a broader comparison with colonialware from other sites in the area would strengthen his arguments. Even so this marks a great progress in the study of colonial pottery.

Litterature:

Boardman, John & Tsetskhladze, Gocha R.: Ancient Berezan. The Architecture, History and Culture of the First Greek Colony in the Northern Black Sea. Brill 1999.

Castelnuovo, Luisa Moscati: Identità e Prassi Storica nel Mediterraneo Greco. Milano 2002.

Denti, Mario: Nuovo Documenti di Ceramica Orientalizzante della Grecia d'Occidente. Stato della Questione e Prospettive della Ricerca. MEFRA 112, 2000,2, 781-842.

Incoronata 3: AA.VV., L'oikos greco del saggio S. Lo scavo e i reperti. ( Richerche archeologiche all'Incoronata di Metaponto, 3). Milano 1995.

Identifying colonial pottery

2005-07-12T17:18:00.000+02:00

The best way to identify colonial ware is of course first to look at the material from the kilns. From this material a basic understanding of the fabric and the stylistic expression can be gained. Even so the identification of colonial pottery still suffers from a range of methodological problems. First of all the fabric can be very diverse both in terms of color and the amount of inclusions used, this is due to the different techniques used by potters and it can also depend on the type of ware. Some vessel shapes require more plasticity others require more inclusion for example to be able to withstand greater heat. The color can also vary depending on the temperature of firing and the clay sources that were available to the potters at certain times. The question of fabric is further complicated by the fact that potters often imported clays or additives from several different places according to their needs.

This problem is exemplified by a group of craters found at Megara Hyblaea decorated in a figurative manner that can be compared to the sugeometric protoattic group of pottery. This group of craters were previously thought all to be of local manufacture and were divided into 3 main local fabric types. Chemical analysis of the group later cast doubt on the provenance of some of the craters, which shows that a visual identification of fabric types is not always satisfactory.

Futhermore the applicability of scientific analysis in provenance studies of pottery also has several problems, the choice or authenticity of clay beds as testsamples are obvious but even more problematic are the selective choices made in the selection of samplingsherds. This can especially be a problem when the pottery excavated from kilns are uncritically used as testsamples, because one may doubt the deposition processes regarding the contents of several kilns.

All these precautions may give additional strength to a stylistic identification of colonial pottery. This is in fact also the usual way of identifying colonial ware. The decoration is compared to other well known pottery groups, especially imported Greek pottery, and where they differ they are categorized as colonial pottery.

This is not always as straight forward as it may sound as the photo to the left might indicate. The upper sherd is considered as colonial pottery and found at Incoronata, the lower one is considered to be potters wasters but found in Athens (Incoronata 1 & Papadopoulos 2003)

In 1986 Patrizia Panzeri Pozzetti said " Soprattutto per la ceramica coloniale il cui studio, è, per ora, solo agli inizi ma decisamente in via di sviluppo...". Twelve years later John Boardman wrote in his book Early Greek Vase Painting, one of the only works dealing with different production centers in the 7th century B.C., that " The time is ripe for a comprehensive study of these western wares, to dertermine origins, date and affiliations. ". implying that next to nothing had happened in the intermediate years. Scholars from the university of Milano are currently working primarily on the colonial ware from Incoronata in an attempt to put focus on the subject.

Litterature:

Boardman, John: Early Greek Vase painting, 11th-6th centuries B.C. A handbook. London 1998.

Panzeri Pozzetti, Patrizia: Ceramica di Produzione Coloniale. In, I Greci sul Basento. Mostra degli Scavi archeologici all'Incoronata de Metaponto 1971-1984. New Press - Como. 1986. P. 144-168.

Denti, Mario: Nuovo Documenti di Ceramica Orientalizzante della Grecia d'Occidente. Stato della Questione e Prospettive della Ricerca. MEFRA 112, 2000,2, 781-842.

Jones, R.E.: Greek & Cypriot Pottery. A riview of Scientific Studies. The British School at Athens Fitch Laboratory Occasional Paper 1. 1986.

Kilns in Magna Graecia

2005-07-11T21:40:00.000+02:00

A figure of 20 has been mentioned as the number of preserved kilns in Magna Graecia spanning the archaic, classical and hellenistic periodes, although I have so far not found a satisfactory compilation, that includes detailed describtions, and I do not think I am likely to find one. This figure can be compared with the number of preserved kilns from Greece in the same periods, which amounts to 166, admirably compiled by Eleni Hasaki in her doctoral dissertation from 2002, although this covers a much larger geographical area. The dissertation is available in Pdf-form here: Ceramic Kilns in Ancient Greece.
Out of the 20 or so preserved kilns in Magna Graecia 5 can be ascribed to the archaic period within the areas of Calabria and Basilicata, at Croton, Sybaris, Siris, Metaponto and Amendolara. Unfortunatly virtually no pottery has been published from Amendolara, although pottery was excavated from inside the kiln this still awaits publication. So far I have, for obvious reasons, chosen not to include Amendolara in my study even though the site is ideally suited for this kind of investigation.

Pottery production was essential to the ancient population and it seems reasonable to presume that every apokia in Magna Graecia had their own production of pottery. Even so it is paramount to identify with certainty as many centres as possible, because this is the first step in tying to estimated the degree of trade and hence mix of pottery among the different apoikiai.

In the absence of kilns there are luckily other ways of identifying local manufacturing of pottery. One of the most secure evidence in the absence of a kiln is potters wasters. Wasters include a wide range of different products. The most obvious ones are unfinished or unglazed pottery, pottery that has either misfired, melted or collapsed during firing or pieces of pottery cut out of complete shapes. This last category is refered to as test- or drawpieces and were used as control pieces that could easily be taken out of the kiln during the process of firing, so as to control the different phases of firing. Testpieces can be very difficult to identify in the archaeological record, because they are easily mistaken for just another pieces of broken pottery so common espeially in habitation contexts (see photo above for some examples of testpieces from the Athenian Agora, Papadopoulos 2003). The charateristic feature of the testpeices are the round holes used to draw the pieces from the kilns with a hook.

Wasters are usually found in dump deposits of different kinds or dryed out wells, where potters could easily dispose of the, at times huge accumulation of wasters. This also means that we are unlikely to identify production centres in areas where sanctuaries or necropoleis are our only evidence of some kind of occupation.

Another kind of evidence of local production is found in the supports used to stack the pottery durring firing. These come in a wide range of shapes and sizes and were essential in the production of pottery.

Introduction to colonial pottery

2005-07-10T12:05:00.000+02:00

Sometime around 770 B.C. the Greeks started founding apoikiai and emporia in Italy beginning with Pithecussai on Ischia, then Cumae and later on Sicily and in Southitaly. From the very beginning the Greek settlers started their own production of pottery. This pottery is in some ways inspired by the imports from the Greek homeland, but it also shows individual characteristics in a subgeometric and orientalising style.
My thesis will only focus on the regions of Calabria and Basilicata in modern day Italy, I will therefore not here go into the specific details of the evidence for production in the different apoikiai. The evidence for a local pottery production in some selected apoikiai in Calabria and Basilicata will be presented in future posts. I shall shortly state what the intentions with the thesis are. First of all I hope to be able to make a reasonable definition of colonial ware as opposed to indigenous pottery and imported Greek pottery. Furthermore, I will be investigating if it is possible to distinguish between the different centres of production.

The amount of scholarly litterature surrounding the Greek colonists and their apoikiai is emense and covers almost everything from anthropological, sociological and archaeological approaches. Even so, very little concrete has so far been written specifically on the pottery. This is in part becaurse priority is usually given to chronologically more important pottery like Greek imports or indigenous pottery, in this case the so-called Matt-Painted pottery of South Italy. This situation is unfortunate but understandable. In many ways the Greek colonial pottery falls outside the clear demarcations, that are usually used in understanding ancient pottery. The main reason for this is, that what we are dealing with in this case is not only the production of pottery confined to a geografical area but likewise to a certain population within this area. This involves the problem of ascribing material culture to ethnicity, a very contested field. Other questions concern the possibility of traveling potters and the fact that pottery in a traditionl Greek style was made both by colonists and indigenous potters.

Possibly the greatest impediment to progress in this field is the underlying supposition that colonial ware is very uniform, a koinè has been proposed, in which all attempts at distinction are hopeless. This is further complicated by the fact that the locally produced pottery was traded among the various apoikiai.

As a staring point I have chosen to deal with the sites of Croton, Sybaris, Siris and Incoronata. The choise of sites may change when I have sorted through the published pottery from the indiviual sites, which can at times be quite a frustrating labour.

In the "Link" section of the blog I have included a bibliographical overview of litterature, which in some way or another relates to the main subject of my thesis called "General works of interest".

I am grateful to Troels Myrup Kristensen whose continuing encouragements first made me set up this blog, Please visit the blog containing information on his thesis at iconoclasm.dk