Greek Geometric Pottery

The presently accepted ceramic chronology places the earliest episodes of Greek colonisation in Libya some three to four decades earlier than the traditional historical dates. A similar offset between the archaeological and historical chronologies can be seen at Naukratis and other Archaic Greek sites. A review of ‘fixed points’ for Archaic dating shows that the balance of evidence now strongly favours a reduction of late seventh to early sixth century BC Greek ceramic chronology by three to four decades. Such a reduction would bring harmony between the archaeological and historical pictures for the founding of the Cyrenaican colonies, restoring confidence in the account given by Herodotus.

This paper focuses on a group of potsherds coming from the excavations conducted by the University of Florence in the area known as ‘S. Marco nord-est’, in the archaeological park of Monasterace Marina. All these finds can be dated within the second half of the VIII BC and referred to productions and morphologies chronologically connected with two different and very significant historical periods: the frequentation of the inner land  of the Ionian coast in the years that immediately precede Greek colonization, that is to say from 750 to 730 BC, and the period of the foundation of the
new apoikia, during the last two decades of the VIII century BC. The analogies between these artifacts and the series of similar finds known from the Tarantine gulf allow us to propose some important considerations on the role of the Capo Cocinto and of the area of the future Caulonia in the precolonial period; on the other side, the presence of a conspicuous group of Thapsos potsherds testifies that the foundation of the city has to be posed in the last
quarter of the VIII century BC, in parallel with those of the other Achaean poleis of the gulf of Taranto.

Nel contributo si presentano i risultati di uno studio condotto su un nucleo di frammenti databili nel corso della seconda metà dell’VIII secolo a.C. provenienti dalle ricerche archeologiche condotte dall’Università degli Studi di Firenze in località S. Marco nord-est, all’interno dell’attuale parco
archeologico di Monasterace Marina (RC). Per i reperti in questione è stato possibile riconoscere l’appartenenza a produzioni e morfologie ricollegabili a due diversi, importanti periodi: il gruppo più antico risale infatti alla fase delle frequentazioni della costa ionica e del suo entroterra negli anni precedenti la fondazione delle colonie, ossia al periodo compreso tra il 750 e il 730 a.C. circa; un altro insieme invece alla fase della ktisis della città da collocarsi negli ultimi decenni dell’VIII secolo a.C. Ne scaturiscono quindi alcune riflessioni da una parte sul ruolo svolto dal Capo Cocinto e dall’area della futura Caulonia nel quadro delle frequentazioni precoloniali della costa ionica, dall’altra sulla cronologia di fondazione del centro che la presenza
di ceramiche nello stile di Thapsos permette di considerare affine a quella degli altri insediamenti achei del golfo di Taranto.

Nif (Olympos), situated within the borders of Kemalpaşa, Torbalı, Buca and Bornova districts of Izmir, used to be part of ancient Ionia and Lydia regions in the antiquity. Prof. Elif Tül Tulunay has initiated first detailed and systematic researches in this region that has comprehensively been investigated neither by ancient voyagers nor by researchers, as preliminary visits in 1999. Survey has been carried out in 2004-2005 and archaeological excavations started in 2006 under the direction of Prof. E. Tül Tulunay. Excavations revealed architectural remains and some contexts related to this structures dating from Archaic Period (7.-6. c. B.C.). Beside, pottery dating to earlier periods (last quarter of 8th c. BC) are not related to any of above mentioned Archaic structures. This pottery should belong to the earliest phase of the settlement that has been destroyed by later layers after 8th c. BC. The above mentioned pottery dating from the last quarter 8th-7th centuries BC is mainly composed of bird-kotylae and bird-skyphoi which are the subject of this paper. According to pottery taken into consideration in the study, three main groups have been observed in Karamattepe settlement: First, bird-kotylae with four panels dating between the last quarter of 8th century and the beginning of the 7th century; second, bird-kotylae with three panels dating from 700-650 BC and third, bird-skyphoi dating from the mid-7th century BC. This paper is a preliminary assessment, which calls attention to the fact that the distribution of bird-kotylae and bird-skyphoi is not limited to the cities in the islands and the seashore but covers some settlements of the highlands areas such as Nif Dagi.

Στο κείμενο αυτό στον Τιμητικό Τόμο για την καθηγήτρια κα. Ε. Σημαντώνη Μπουρνιά παρουσιάζεται ένας αριθμός αδημοσίευτων θραυσμάτων αγγείων γεωμετρικών χρόνων, από τις ανασκαφές που πραγματοποίησε ο Κ. Κουρουνιώτης στην Ερέτρια στις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα. Τα όστρακα φυλάσσονται στο Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο, διακοσμούνται με εικονογραφικά θέματα και γραμμικά μοτίβα και παρουσιάζονται μαζί με αρχειακό υλικό από την περίοδο της ανασκαφής.

According to the ancient writers, Cyme was founded during the 11th century B.C. a period archaeologists refer to as the Protogeometric period. The previous ten years of research offers confirm for this, although the evidence for such an early date is still somewhat scarce, leaving us with a blurred chronological framework. Changes were occurring around the second half of the 8th century B.C. The site became an urbanized centre increasing its greatness and richness.
This is suggested by ancient sources and confirmed by the rchaeological record. A substantial part of the area, later occupied by the Greek-Roman city, was now settled and we can obtain and insight into the development of the social complexity. Imported pottery provides evidence for direct contact with several Anatolian and Mediterranean sites, above all with Ionia and Euboea areas, likewise mentioned in literary sources. The poet Hesiod, whose father was from Cyme, is a special witness of this period in the history of the city.

From two excavation pits in the lower part of the Agorà of Aiolian Cyme (Izmir, Turkey) an undisturbed late 8th - half of 7th century B.C. stratigraphy was recovered. During the excavation, a small group of disks (few centimeters diameters large), made of both pottery and stone, were found. Similar disks occur at several Mediterranean archaeological sites and were manufactured starting from prehistoric periods. These objects were largely produced during the Geometric and the Archaic period, as mostly attested at Athens. Abundant archaeological literature, mainly in English, considers these disks as pawns for board games (pessoi according to ancient Greek writers). The Greek literature provides also many examples of game activities related to these artifacts and, in some cases, we know the main game rules. The very simple shape and making of the small disks suggest that they could have been reused in other functions, as suggested by literary and iconographic documentation.

(http://www.thiasos.eu/piccoli-dischi-in-ceramica-o-pietra-da-kyme-eolica-sprazzi-di-vita-quotidiana-nel-mondo-greco-in-eta-geometrica-e-arcaica/)

This article briefly presents some of the author’s research on art in archaeology. Drawing on previously published works, the text reviews the general problems of art research in archaeology before focusing on investigations of prehistoric and ancient figurines, anthropomorphisation in ancient Greece, and figural motifs in Attic Geometric pottery.

In E. Okan, C. Atila (eds.), Prof. Dr. Ömer Özyiğit’e Armağan (Studies in Honour of Ömer Özyiğit), Istanbul 2015, pp. 69-86 (Ege Yayınları, Istanbul, ISBN 978-605-4701-96-4).

Abstract
Cyme, situated on the coast of Aeolia, is one of the most important cities in western Anatolia. The main monuments and structures, dating to Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, often destroyed or covered the earlier levels that can only be investigated in small areas. The site, however, was continuously inhabited for more than twenty centuries: we know about human activities in the area at least until the 13th century AD.
In this paper I will try to sum up the data we have in hand about Cyme during the Geometric period in the light of previous excavations and studies, and also consider new data, obtained in recent years by Italian field research. Starting from the analysis of the material culture, the main aim of this paper is to shed some light on the dark origin of Cyme and its earlier period of life.

The topic of this paper is the G 2-3 pottery from Lemnos. This poorly studied class of ceramics has been found in different areas of the archaic settlement of Hephaestia, in its necropolis and in the Kabeirion of Chloi. An abundant quantity, which is being prepared for publication, came from the sanctuary of the archaic acropolis of Hephaestia, in particular from the building with votive deposit (the so-called "Edificio con stipe"). The study aims to contribute to the debate on the production, forms and diffusion of G 2-3 pottery in the North Aegean, and to reconstruct ceramic production on the island of Lemnos between the Early Iron Age and the Archaic period.

Céramique minoenne et mycénienne; céramique géometrique attique et béotienne (par J. Haas-Lebegyev); vases corinthiens (par A. Márton). Year: 2017 Series: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum - Hongrie ISBN: 978-88-913-1281-5 ISBN: 978-88-913-1283-9 (PDF) Binding: Hardcover Pages: 202, 250 ill. B/N, 64 tav. f.t Size: 23 x 32 cm

Poster presented at the international conference "There and Back Again: Greek Art in Motion. Conference in Honour of Sir John Boardman on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday", Lisbon, 3-5 May, 2017
The Tomb of the Roaring Lions at Veii feature the earliest monumental paintings in Etruria depicting lions and birds. The paintings are dated to the years after 700 BCE and were based on Late Geometric Greek models.

Η μεγάλη ποσότητα των κεραμικών ευρημάτων από τον χαμηλό λόφο της Αγίας Κυριακής στις Αμύκλες παραμένει η σημαντικότερη μαρτυρία για τη χρήση του χώρου και τις δραστηριότητες, που λάμβαναν χώρα κατά τη μακρά περίοδο που προηγήθηκε της κατασκευής του μνημειακού Θρόνου του Απόλλωνα στο ίδιο σημείο. Η μελέτη της κεραμικής από τις νεότερες έρευνες που διεξάγονται συστηματικά από το 2006 και εξής από το Μουσείο Μπενάκη και την Ε´ Εφορεία Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων, σε συνδυασμό με την εκ νέου μελέτη των ευρημάτων των παλαιότερων ανασκαφών, μπορεί να συμβάλει στη σαφέστερη διάκριση των διαδοχικών φάσεων χρήσης του χώρου και της σταδιακής αποκρυστάλλωσης των δραστηριοτήτων και τελετουργιών έως και τον πρώιμο 7ο αιώνα π.Χ., όταν πλέον οι εορταστικές εκδηλώσεις φαίνεται ότι είχαν αποκτήσει συγκεκριμένη μορφή.Ιδιαιτέρως σημαντική είναι η ταύτιση για πρώτη φορά στο Αμυκλαίο ορισμένων οστράκων κλειστών και ανοιχτών αγγείων που φαίνεται να ανήκουν σε μια μεταβατική Υπο-μυκηναϊκή/Πρωτο...

Οι Κορίνθιοι ήταν από τους πρώτους κεραμείς και αγγειογράφους που εγκατέλειψαν τη σκιαγραφία του γεωμετρικού ρυθμού και υιοθέτησαν τη τεχνική του περιγράμματος για να αποδώσουν τόσο τις ζωικές όσο και τις ανθρώπινες μορφές. Η ύστερη Γεωμετρική Κορινθιακή αγγειογραφία δεν έδινε ιδιαίτερη βάση στην απεικόνιση μορφών, για αυτό το λόγο ίσως τα πρωτοκορινθιακά εργαστήρια υιοθέτησαν αρκετά στοιχεία από την Ανατολή για να καλύψουν το κενό που είχε δημιουργηθεί. Με την εισαγωγή αυτών των νέων στοιχείων, οι Κορίνθιοι κεραμείς επινόησαν ένα νέο και ιδιαίτερο ρυθμό, που τον ονομάζουμε σήμερα πρωτοκορινθιακό ή ανατολίζοντα.

A general overiew of Aiolis Cyme during Geometric period.  I present here the status quaestionis of previous researches and a synthesis of new researches in the central area of the City. The data we have allow some preliminary observations about the Earliest  phases of the City.

Far from being the most common issue, recognising connections between visual arts, in particular  between the principles of construction and decoration of works of art, and certain identifiable rules of metrology has a long tradition in the study of Greek art. In general, topics related to the study of the ancient canon in visual arts and architecture and the development of metrological systems are undertaken in relation to the reflection on the rise of numerical systems in ancient mathematics and the functional applications of geometry, as well as to the attempt to grasp the ancient understanding of the meanings of the commensurable and incommensurable.
Greek architecture and visual arts provide many examples of the use of mathematics and there are numerous references to this subject in the written sources. For example, Greek temples and proportions used for their construction are described by Vitruvius, whereas Pliny the Elder refers to the Canon of Polykleitos and generally discusses the principles of proportions used in the fifth and fourth centuries BC respectively.  And last but not least, we have ancient material records in the form of two metrological reliefs. Inscribed on the one from Salamis are standards for linear measures, including among others, foot, hand-span and cubit (Museum of Piraeus, inv. 5352). The second relief is in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (inv. AN. Michaelis 83). These reliefs offer us a visual picture of the ancient standards of measurement and reveal that they were most frequently related to the natural proportions of the human body and its parts.
The above-mentioned remarks concern the classical times, whereas in the paper that I would like to present I intend to point out the selected possibilities of interpreting earlier sources from the perspective of application of metrological principles, namely the Attic Geometric pottery dated to about 900-700 BC. It seems to me that Geometric pottery can be treated primarily as an expression of the collective ‘artistic’ consciousness, in which ‘ordering’ thinking had to be very important as evidenced in great numbers by the exceptional standardisation and repetition of patterns developed as the working language of this decoration, which can be easily observed in the perspective of more than two centuries. As successful attempts to identify a module according to which single outstanding examples of Geometric vessels were decorated (such as a large amphora now located in the National Museum in Athens (inv. NM 804) and decorated by the so-called Dipylon Master), have already been presented in the literature (Andreae 1979), I will only briefly refer to this scrupulous analysis. Similar studies, looking for ratio and arithmetic rules according to which the expected proportions of pottery decoration were achieved in those 'pre-mathematics' times, were also made for a larger series of Attic pottery analysed in chronological order, from Early Geometric till Late Geometric period (Benson 1987). Analyses have revealed that from the beginning of the production of Geometric pottery there was an attempt to plan the system of decoration so as to achieve the harmonizing effect, i.e. the proportional arrangement of wide and narrow decorative bands, as well as relations between decorative elements of the body and neck. However, all these attempts seem to have been more or less intuitive, resulting on the one hand from the production experience and from the preferences on the other. According to Benson, the amphora of the Dipylon Master is the first to clearly confirm the rule-oriented approach of its maker, a rule that was to organise and balance the complex structure of the decoration. The vessel also shows the potential of Geometric ornamentation and its idiom, in which some arithmetical sense can be traced.
I think, however, that such a way of thinking and ordering, which resulted in the development of the one of the most standardised decorative systems based on a set of simple geometric shapes, forming a kind of rhythmic and repetitive artistic language, does not necessarily have to be the proof of the origins of the classical mathematical thinking that will develop later. I would agree with the mathematicians (Høyrup 2000) that there is no simple nor direct relationship between the visually geometric ornamentation dating to the Early Iron Age and the subsequent formal rules of mathematics, which is worth emphasising in order to oppose the dominant naive interpretation. On closer scrutiny we see that the decoration of Attic Geometric pottery was more about producing the expected visual experience, about communicating something with the image rather than about adhering to a precisely controlled regularity. This becomes particularly evident when pottery decorators started to introduce more and more figural motifs within the purely abstract motifs tightly covering the surfaces of the vessels.
Nevertheless, I believe attempts to identify rules ordering the decoration of the analysed Greek pottery of the Geometric period to be fully justified. Focusing on communication and semantic aspects of these works, we cannot ignore the aesthetic aspects that are closely related to them. Thus, we should first try to analyse the morphology of decoration and then its tectonic syntax, i.e. the structure and interconnections of structural elements of ornaments in relation to one another and to the vessel itself. This will make it possible to show that the visual elements forming the decoration of the vessel were stylistically applied within a fully organised, tectonically coherent scheme. As a result, this type of analysis makes it clear that in works such as the Attic Geometric pottery we can also detect traces of the craftsmen disposition towards visioning a physical reality, of attempts to portray the nature of things - physis.

Parian and Cycladic Pottery of the Geometric and Archaic Periods: new archaeological records and research perspectives on production, functions and diffusion Η παριανή και κυκλαδική κεραμική της Γεωμετρικής και Αρχαϊκής Περιόδου: νέα αρχαιολογικά δεδομένα και προοπτικές έρευνας στην παραγωγή, χρήσεις και κυκλοφορία

Article in English (PDF), abstract in Greek -
Η διατροφή είναι ένα από τα πολυσυζητημένα θέματα του καιρού μας, όμως και οι διατροφικές συνήθειες των αρχαίων λαών υπήρξαν σύνθετες και ενδιαφέρουσες. Η αρχαιά διατροφή μπορεί να εξεταστεί από τα κεραμικά ευρήματα, επειδή τα σχήματα των αγγείων, σε συνδυασμό με τον πηλό και την επιφάνεια τους, δίνουν ενδείξεις για την χωρητικότητα, την σταθερότητα, την προσβασιμότητα και την μεταφορά των αγγείων, ώστε να διευκολυνθούν λειτουργικές κατηγορίες όπως η πόση, η τροφή, το μαγείρεμα κ.α. Η κατανομή και η σύνθεση των λειτουργικών κατηγοριών αντανακλούν την διατροφική στρατηγική. Οι αλλαγές των σχημάτων των αγγείων ή και ολόκληρων λειτουργικών κατηγοριών, δείχνουν, μεταξύ άλλων, τροποποίηση στις διατροφικές συνήθειες. Επιπλέον η σύγκριση της κεραμικής από διαφορετικά συμφραζόμενα προσφέρει την δυνατότητα μιας συνολικής εξέτασης των σχημάτων, της λειτουργίας τους και των ειδικών διατροφικών μοτίβων των διαφορετικών τοποθεσιών.
Στη διατριβή μου ανάλυσα τις λειτουργικές κατηγορίες της κεραμικής, που βρέθηκε στην αρχαία πόλη Στράτο και την περιοχή της Στρατικής. Με τα δοχεία που χρησιμοποιούνταν για να περιέχουν υγρή και στερεή τροφή, καθόρισα τις διατροφικές συνήθειες, την εξέλιξή τους και την προετοιμασία του φαγητού στην Πρώιμη Εποχή του Σιδήρου και την Αρχαϊκή περίοδο στην περιοχή της Στράτου και της Στρατικής. Για την ανάλυση των οικονομικών και περιβαλλοντικών παραγόντων στην διατροφή, ερμηνεύτηκαν τα αρχαιοζωολογικά και βοτανικά κατάλοιπα σχετικά με την διατροφική τους αξία, ώστε να συμπληρώσουν τα αποτελέσματα και να παρέχουν μια ισορροπημένη εικόνα των διατροφικών μοτίβων των κατοίκων της Στράτου από την Πρώιμη Εποχή του Σιδήρου μέχρι την Αρχαϊκή περίοδο.