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.