Hans Mommsen

The large assemblage of well-preserved pottery from the extensive Late Bronze Age cemetery at Perati in East Attica (Greece) lends itself to a case study for investigating patterns of production and consumption of Mycenaean pottery. This article presents the chemical characterization by NAA of 28 pottery samples from Perati combined with a definition of ceramic macroscopic groups. The set of samples from all three chronological stages of the cemetery covers the two prevalent macroscopic groups, the presumably local standard fabric and the commonly present so-called White Ware, a distinctive pottery group known from other sites in Greece, but rarely subjected to scientific analyses. The two main NAA groups, PerA and PerC, correlate well both with the standard fabric and with the White Ware. These groups may indicate one or more local/regional workshop(s), products of which are found only occasionally at other sites included in the Bonn database. In addition to imports with chemical patterns pointing to Central Crete and Chios, several chemical singletons have been identified. Overall, the analyses show predominant consumption of local pottery, with a limited presence of imports.

A set of 41 samples from Tas-Silg, Malta, has been analysed by neutron activation. It contained nine ware groups formed by visual examination covering the Late Neolithic, Bronze Age and Punic Periods (c. 3000–218 BC). Despite this diversity and long time range, seven of these ware groups, including the ‘Thermi Ware’, all have a similar chemical composition and, therefore, have been made from the same clay. This points most probably to a local origin. One group from the Punic Period, containing only Bricky Red cooking ware, is chemically separate and represents a second distinct pattern probably assignable to a local production. Five amphora sherds also from the Punic Period, and consisting of a micaceous fabric, all have different chemical characteristics and are probably imports from overseas production sites of unknown location.

Chemical analysis is a well-established procedure for the provenancing of archaeological ceramics. Various analytical techniques are routinely used and large amounts of data have been accumulated so far in data banks. However, in order to exchange results obtained by different laboratories, the respective analytical procedures need to be tested in terms of their inter-comparability. In this study, the schemes of analysis used in four laboratories that are involved in archaeological pottery studies on a routine basis were compared. The techniques investigated were neutron activation analysis (NAA), X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). For this comparison series of measurements on different geological standard reference materials (SRM) were carried out and the results were statistically evaluated. An attempt was also made towards the establishment of calibration factors between pairs of analytical setups in order to smooth the systematic differences among the results.

Results of Neutron Activation Analysis carried out in 1991 at the Chemistry Department of the Manchester University on 142 ceramic samples from Cyprus, the Levant and Troia are presented here. They prove that the majority of Late Bronze Age wheel-made burnished Grey Ware found in the Eastern Mediterranean was imported from Troia.

This paper gives an overview of the  provenance groups of East Greek and Western Anatolian pottery of the Geometric and Archaic periods detected by neutron activation analysis at the university of Bonn. The main production centres of the Eastern Aegean are discussed.

Among the painted pottery types in the Levant during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E., the “East Greek” class is especially conspicuous and usually assumed to have been produced in Ionia. This pottery is the subject of a comprehensive research project, examining it from typological, analytical, and other perspectives. Our conclusion is that the “East Greek” class comprises in fact several subgroups from various other parts of the Mediterranean. Here we discuss one of these groups, including mainly hydriai, table amphoras, and jugs, which we suggest were produced on Crete, specifically in the central part of the island. These are the first Cretan ceramics of this period attested anywhere off the island, and they provide the first hint that maritime routes then linked Crete with various eastern Mediterranean regions. This pottery can perhaps be understood as a proxy for the exchange of a wider array of commodities, a possibility addressed in the concluding section of this
article. Since the conventional wisdom is that Crete was largely disconnected from the rest of the Mediterranean in the Classical period, both commercially and culturally, this discovery has important implications for Cretan history and more generally for tracing ancient Mediterranean interconnections. It also adds to our understanding of the ceramic repertoire of fifth- and fourth-century B.C.E. Crete, which is still rather poorly known.

Among the painted pottery types in the Levant during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E., the “East Greek” class is especially conspicuous and usually assumed to have been produced in Ionia. This pottery is the subject of a comprehensive research project, examining it from typological, analytical, and other perspectives. Our conclusion is that the “East Greek” class comprises in fact several subgroups from various other parts of the Mediterranean. Here we discuss one of these groups, including mainly hydriai, table amphoras, and jugs, which we suggest were produced on Crete, specifically in the central part of the island. These are the first Cretan ceramics of this period attested anywhere off the island, and they provide the first hint that maritime routes then linked Crete with various eastern Mediterranean regions. This pottery can perhaps be understood as a proxy for the exchange of a wider array of commodities, a possibility addressed in the concluding section of this article. Since the conventional wisdom is that Crete was largely disconnected from the rest of the Mediterranean in the Classical period, both commercially and culturally, this discovery has important implications for Cretan history and more generally for tracing ancient Mediterranean interconnections. It also adds to our understanding of the ceramic repertoire of fifth- and fourth-century B.C.E. Crete, which is still rather poorly known.

Vom 07. Juni bis 15. September 2016 ist im Staatlichen Historischen Museum Moskau die Sonderausstellung »Die Griechen der Antike zwischen Pontos Euxeinos und Maiotis« zu sehen. In ihr werden zehn Jahre internationale und interdisziplinäre Forschung zur sog. Griechischen Kolonisation auf der Taman'-Halbinsel durch das archäologische ‘Bosporos Projekts’ präsentiert, das vom Staatlichen Historischen Museum Moskau und der Eurasien-Abteilung des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts in Berlin getragen wird. Im Begleitkatalog zur Ausstellung werden neben archäologischer Feldforschung und dem (Arbeits-) Leben aus den letzten 10 Jahren, auch Einblicke in interdisziplinäre Teilprojekte gegeben, ohne die aktuelle archäologische Projekte nicht mehr denkbar sind.
Am Anfang werden Impressionen der Ausstellungseröffnung am 07. Juni 2016 im Staatlichen Historischen Museum gezeigt (5-7). Darauf folgt ein Überblick über die Geschichte des ‘Bosporos Projekts’ auf der Taman'-Halbinsel, wobei ‘Highlights’ der Grabungstätigkeiten und der naturwissenschaftlichen Untersuchungsmethoden vorgestellt werden (8-20). Auf den allgemeinen Überblick folgen detaillierte Einblicke in die naturwissenschaftlichen Teilprojekte und der Bearbeitung ausgewählter archäologischer Funde. Die Paläogeographie hat die antike Landschaft rekonstruieren können, wie sie sich den Griechen dargestellt hatte. Völlig überraschend wurde dabei ein zweiter schiffbarer Wasserweg östlich der heutigen Straße von Kerč (dem antiken Kimmerischen Bosporus) aufgedeckt: der sog. Kuban-Bosporus (21-27). Diese Erkenntnis führte zur Zusammenarbeit mit Historikern und Philologen: archäologische und geomorphologische Erkenntnisse werden mit der historischen Geographie und Topographie abgeglichen (28-34). Im Rahmen des Projekts dienten zudem archäologische Surveys der Untersuchung des antike Siedlungssystem auf der Taman'-Halbinsel (35-39). Dann werden die zwischen 2006 und 2015 in der griechischen Siedlung Golubickaja 2 aufgedeckten Fundgattungen erläutert: die früheste griechische Importkeramik, die bis in das 1. Viertel des 6. Jh. v. Chr. zurückreicht (40-44); Terrakotten, die nach Herkunft, Datierung, Bedeutung und ihre Verwendung in der Antike dargestellt werden (45-51); Transportamphoren verschiedener Herstellungszentren, die aus einem Amphorenkomplex des 5. Jh. v. Chr. stammen (52-55); Amphorenstempel werden im Kontext des Bosporanischen Reichs nach Herkunft und Datierung vorgestellt (56-58); attische und attisierende schwarzfirnis Keramik aus dem 6. - 2. Jh. v. Chr. werden in ihrem Typenrepertoire erklärt (59-61); handgeformte Keramik wird im Bilde der Analogien aus den Nachbargebieten der indigenen Völker besprochen (62-64); Fundmünzen aus dem späten 6./Anfang 5. Jh. bis ans Ende des 2. Jh. v. Chr. erlauben einen Vergleich im Kontext des Bosporanischen Reichs (65-70); technische Geräte wie Reibsteine waren zur Herstellung des Grundnahrungsmittels Getreide notwendig (71-73); Knochenfunde geben Auskunft über die Zusammensetzung von Nutz- und Haustiere sowie des Speiseplans der Bewohner (74-76); ein ungewöhnliches Bodenobjekt neben der Siedlung gehört vermutlich zu einer Tonabbaugrube (77-79). Zuletzt werden noch zwei weitere Grabungsprojekte auf der Taman'-Halbinsel vorgestellt: Die Fortifikation der im 6. Jh. v. Chr. am Ufer des Kuban-Bosporus gegründeten griechischen Siedlung Strelka 2 (80-84) sowie das Heiligtum der Artemis Agrotera auf dem Berg 'Boris und Gleb' (85-89). Abschließend gewähren lokale chemische Gruppen sowie die Lokalisierung hellenistischer Keramik aus der sog. Kirbei-Werkstatt im kleinasiatischen Kyme einen Einblick in die laufenden archäometrischen Untersuchungen zur Herkunftsbestimmung der Keramik (90-93).

During Early Iron Age large numbers of bronze tripod cauldrons were ritually dedicated at a certain range of Greek sanctuaries. While the actual cauldron was commonly hammered from a bronze disc, the three legs and two handles were cast applying the lost wax technique. Particularly at the backsides of tripod leg fragments, at areas out of view and therefore not necessarily completely cleaned by the ancient artisans, small residues of the casting ceramics can be still found adhering to the metal. Furthermore, casting cores are usually still extant. These ceramic residues provide essential information about the casting process. A central question to be addressed is the location and organization of the workshops. While the metals in most cases had to be imported, it can be assumed that for the casting ceramics raw materials from the vicinity of the specific workshop were used. Therefore, it can be expected that the chemical composition of the casting ceramics can be linked to reference data of specific production sites for ceramics in general and of metallurgical workshop debris with pyrotechnical  ceramics in particular. Structural examination of ceramic fragments on the other hand provides technological details of the casting process. Recent results of an ongoing project will be presented, including material from Olympia (Elis) and Kalapodi (Phthiotis).