Pottery Review

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Pottery Review

• CNE/ART 354
• 4/25/06

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Neolithic Greece
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Nea Nikomedia

• Neolithic Revolution comes to Greece from Fertile
  Crescent farming, pottery.
• NE Greece, circa 6200. Oldest known Neolithic
  site in Greece.
• Mound site near a lake.
• Has pottery from its start.
• Neolithic terracotta figurines.

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Sesklo

• Neolithic mound on Thessalian plain.
• Middle Neolithic (circa 5,000 BCE)
• Pottery fine quality showing craft
  specialization red on white slip, lozenge
  designs, etc.

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Dhimini

• Neolithic mound on Thessalian plain.
• Late Neolithic period (4,000 BCE).
• Pottery evidence of even greater craft
  specialization dark brown/black decorations,
  checkerboard or swastika designs.

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EBA Mainland

• Type site Lerna
• Early Helladic II
• House of Tiles period
• Commodities storage, sealings
• Characteristic pottery shape the sauceboat

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EHIII Culture

• End of EHII H of T settlement destroyed
  reoccupied in EHIII by people from a different,
  less materially advanced culture.
• New houses irregular, small. No clay seals, no
  more sauceboats, little evidence for foreign
  contact.

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EBA Cyclades

• Little evidence from settlement sites, most from
  graves.
• Terracotta frying pans
• Zoomorphic terracotta vessels

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EBA Crete Pottery Types

• EMI (3000-2500) Ayios Onouphrios ware
  (crème/yellow base with red lines), brought by
  newcomers from Asia.
• EMII (2500-2200) Vasiliki ware (variegated
  mottled surface imitation of stone ware?)

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EBA Settlement Characteristics

• Example Vasiliki - the only excavated Minoan
  minor settlement with long occupation.
• Largely self-sufficient village.
• Population approx. 200 involved in stock-rearing
  and agriculture.
• Settlement organization houses placed
  side-by-side and touching. Suggests
  well-organized and egalitarian community.

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MBA Crete

• Basic structure of palace settlements emerged
  at Knossos, Mallia, Phaistos
• Built in low-lying areas without fortifications
• Open western court
• Central court with storage magazines
• Storage system of circular underground granaries
• SE living areas

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Characteristic MM Pottery Kamares Ware (light on
dark)

• Eggshell ware
• (fast potters wheel), made and used in palatial
  contexts, widely popular abroad.

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Kamares Ware

• Coarse ware used for storage and pouring vessels.

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MM Religion

• Connected to palaces
• Peak and cave sanctuaries
• Focused on fertility of the natural world?
• Figurines (faience, terracotta) Snake
  Goddesses, male figures.

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Male Figure

• Worshipper or deity?

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MBA Mainland

• Circa 2200, destructions and loss of culture,
  limited pottery shapes, poverty of architecture,
  absence of sculpture associated with arrival of
  new peoples (first Greeks?).
• Type sites Lerna, chaotically organized, narrow
  apsidal or rectangular 3 room houses (megaron
  type).

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MBA Mainland Pottery

• Minyan Ware
• Limited shapes goblets, 2 handled bowls
• Sharply profiled by fast potters wheel
• Very hard and fine fabric (few inclusions)
• Glossy surface with soapy feel
• Color gray, then yellow monochrome
• Mimics metal vessels?

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MBA Cyclades

• Type Site - Phylakopi.
• Local Bird Jugs popular also imported Minoan and
  Minyan pottery.

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LBA Crete

• First Palaces destroyed by earthquake in MM
  rebuilt as Second Palaces.
• Period of great prosperity, increased trade
  w/Egypt, Syria.
• 4 main palaces controlled island? Linear A
  continues.
• Type sites palaces, villas, towns

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Marine Floral Style Pottery

• Pottery changes from light on dark to dark on
  light. 2 major styles focused on natural world
• Floral style (LMIA) naturalistic plants
• Marine style (LMIB) naturalistic marine animals
  and plants (octopus, etc.)
• Shortlived style restricted to palatial contexts.

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End of Minoan Palaces

• By 1450 BCE all Minoan palaces destroyed and not
  reoccupied, except Knossos. End of Knossos palace
  society by 1250 BCE.
• Evidence for Mycenaeans Linear B script, new
  palace style pottery, new tomb types with
  weapons, new aesthetic in art.

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LBA Mainland

• Mycenaean citadel sites megaron palaces
• Heavily fortified
• Art more stylized, geometric, abstract but
  influenced by Minoans.
• Highly stratified, hierarchical society.
• Linear B records economic transactions early
  Greek

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Mycenaean Pottery

• Stirrup Jars
• Geometric, abstract style of decoration.

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Mycenaean Terracotta Figurines

• Wheel-made, cylindrical bodies.
• Worshippers?

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End of the Mycenaean World

• Around 1250-1200 BCE, the Mycenaean world
  experiences trouble
• Series of destructions of mainland sites by human
  agency (burning)
• Gradual abandonment of palace sites
• Massive drop in number of settlements around
  previous centers.
• Some died from battle, disease, famine some
  emigrated to other parts of Greece, some
  emigrated farther out.
• Abandonment of fertile land near palace sites.

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Beginning of the Iron Age (1050)

• Dark Age (discontinuity, depopulation,
  impoverishment)
• Population shifts away from traditional Mycenaean
  homelands and into new areas on the mainland and
  the islands.
• Settlement pattern fewer, more scattered, less
  culturally unified than before. Sites located in
  naturally strong but unfortified sites near the
  sea. Type Site Karphi, Crete.

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Pottery Developments

• Protogeometric style 1050/900
• Use of compass and brush marks the beginning of
  the PG.
• Characteristic decorations concentric circles,
  semi-circles, cross hatched lozenges.

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Geometric Pottery

• C. 900
• Richer characteristisc cross-hatched meander
  (Greek key).
• LG less of the pot is solid black, more textural
  decoration. Horror vacui.

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Dipylon Vases

• Large-scale, non-functional status markers on
  elite graves.
• Late Geometric (750) Rebirth of Representational
  Art. For the first time in over 400 years,
  figures were painted on pottery. Highly stylized,
  analytical, conceptual way of drawing.

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Orientalizing Style

• c. 700-600
• Greeks adapted motifs from the NE and Egypt, made
  them their own.
• Corinth Black-Figure technique invented 725/720.
• Small scale pottery, widely traded across the
  Mediterranean.
• Registers with animal friezes.

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Athenian Black-Figure Pottery

• End of 7th c., BF was adopted in Athens, remained
  most prevalent style until c. 530.
• Used for large pots initially, then on a smaller
  scale trade increased.

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Mythological Scenes

• Francois Krater by Kleitias.

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Famous BF Artists

• Exekias

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Invention of Red-Figure (530)

• The negative of BF
• Figures now drawn on the natural clay of the pot,
  brushes are used to depict details.
• Enables new poses to be represented.
• Overtakes BF in popularity BF remains in use for
  cult purposes

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Red Figure Artist Berlin Painter

• 500-480
• Single group spotlighted against black background
• Love of pattern

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End of Athenian RF Pottery

• By 320 Athens stopped producing RF.
• South Italian pottery began to be popular in
  foreign market instead.

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White Ground Lekythoi

• In the 6th century, painters experimented with
  WG, but preferred RF.
• In the 1st half of the 5th c., they turned again
  to WG, especially for lekythoi.
• Polychrome style here is as close as we can get
  to the effect of classical wall-painting.

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Hellenistic Period

• Alexander chasing Darius in Red-Figure Pottery
• Spread of Greek culture.

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Pottery

• From the 6th century BCE to the 1st century CE,
  lots of pottery is Black Glaze, difficult thereby
  to date.
• Shape of feet is an indication of chronology
  they get taller over time.

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Megarian Bowls

• New kind of fine ware arose in the Hellenistic
  period.
• In use 300-50 BCE.
• Decorated pottery with molded designs.
• Good for dating sites.

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Megarian Bowls Another Example
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Pottery Developments Gnathian Ware

• Review by the 4th century on the mainland,
  figured decoration of pottery disappears. Black
  Glaze ware.
• Gnathian Ware is in use until c. 200 BCE black
  slip with gold and white painted on. Pots are
  textured with scallops molded in the clay.

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Centuripe Ware

• Good for dating a site, since it was only in use
  for 25 years, from 300-275 BCE.
• Named after an inland town in Sicily.
• Lots of decorations in 3 dimensions polychrome
  painted decoration done after firing. Depicted
  elegant women in quiet domestic settings.
  Contained cremations.

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Next Class

• Review of everything but pottery
• Discussion of final exam