Sara Strack
I studied Classical Archaeology, Prehistory, Greek, and Philosophy at the Universities of Heidelberg and Goettingen. Leaving Germany, I obtained my MSc and PhD from the Department of Classics at the University of Edinburgh.
My PhD thesis investigates handmade pottery, usually of utilitarian character, in Greece at the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. In Central and Southern Greece, the change from largely wheelmade pottery to an assemblage with significant quantities of handmade pottery coincides with the end of the Mycenaean palatial period, and reflects the major changes in society and economy communities in Greece were undergoing at the time.
Since completing my PhD, the interest in utilitarian ceramics has stayed with me - I study Late Bronze and Early Iron Age pottery from the German excavations at Kalapodi (with Ivonne Kaiser and Laura Rizzotto), and from the American excavations in the Athenian Agora (with John K Papadopoulos), with a view towards publishing these important finds. In addition, I collaborate with Gudrun Klebinder-Gauss on an investigation of cooking pot production in Archaic and Classical Athens, where we look at the impact of imported cooking wares on local production.
Starting in spring 2010, I have been involved as a Research Associate in the Tracing Networks project at the University of Leicester (http://tracingnetworks.org/content/web/introduction.jsp). In collaboration with Ian K. Whitbread, I am studying technological traditions in the production of utilitarian ceramics from the palatial Bronze Age to the beginning of Greek colonization in the Central Mediterranean. We are particularly interested in the developments in ceramic technology, mechanisms of transmission of knowledge, and changes in pottery use, and the impact throughout social, economic and technological networks of the kinds of rumblings observed at the Bronze-Iron Age transition in the Aegean.
Address: Germany
My PhD thesis investigates handmade pottery, usually of utilitarian character, in Greece at the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. In Central and Southern Greece, the change from largely wheelmade pottery to an assemblage with significant quantities of handmade pottery coincides with the end of the Mycenaean palatial period, and reflects the major changes in society and economy communities in Greece were undergoing at the time.
Since completing my PhD, the interest in utilitarian ceramics has stayed with me - I study Late Bronze and Early Iron Age pottery from the German excavations at Kalapodi (with Ivonne Kaiser and Laura Rizzotto), and from the American excavations in the Athenian Agora (with John K Papadopoulos), with a view towards publishing these important finds. In addition, I collaborate with Gudrun Klebinder-Gauss on an investigation of cooking pot production in Archaic and Classical Athens, where we look at the impact of imported cooking wares on local production.
Starting in spring 2010, I have been involved as a Research Associate in the Tracing Networks project at the University of Leicester (http://tracingnetworks.org/content/web/introduction.jsp). In collaboration with Ian K. Whitbread, I am studying technological traditions in the production of utilitarian ceramics from the palatial Bronze Age to the beginning of Greek colonization in the Central Mediterranean. We are particularly interested in the developments in ceramic technology, mechanisms of transmission of knowledge, and changes in pottery use, and the impact throughout social, economic and technological networks of the kinds of rumblings observed at the Bronze-Iron Age transition in the Aegean.
Address: Germany
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Chapter I introduces the history of scholarship and past foci of research, in addition to outlining the aims and methods of the present study. Chapter II discusses the Bronze Age ‘Handmade Burnished Ware’, a type of pottery found predominantly in Mycenaean citadels and associated with levels pertinent to the end of the palaces, but unrelated technologically and stylistically to Mycenaean wares. Subsequent to identifying the ware’s typological, technological and functional characteristics, and discussing earlier interpretations of the ware, an attempt is made to advance understanding by placing the ware and its makers
within the picture of late Mycenaean society as characterised by social mobility, population movement, and substantial changes in the character of its external relations. Chapter III examines the Early Iron Age material, within broad geographic sections encompassing the Aegean islands and Euboea, the northeast Peloponnese, Attica, and Central Greece. The chapter’s main foci are establishing a cogent typology, based on shapes as much as on fabric and function, outlining the chronological and regional distribution of wares and shapes, and elucidating the inter-regional and intra-regional dynamics of the area under study. Case studies of individual sites and assemblages in Chapter IV illustrate the functions filled by handmade wares in domestic, funerary, and ritual contexts, while highlighting the regional differences and diachronic development in the use and distribution of the material. Chapter V explores the social and economic changes observable at the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age transition, and discusses the scope of handmade pottery for elucidating issues such as the ethnic or cultural composition of communities, organisation of labour, changes in household economics, and the degree of cultural continuity between the Mycenaean period and the following ‘Dark Ages’. Chapter VI summarises the results of the previous chapters by bringing together the material evidence with contextual and socio-economic considerations. By elucidating basic domestic functions, such as cooking and storage habits, handmade pottery contributes substantially to recognising changes in the cultural makeup of communities, as well as their internal organisation. The consideration of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age household economics furthers the understanding of the dynamics of Greece’s society in this crucial period, and offers a new perspective focusing on the base of the social pyramid, rather than on elite dynamics and politics.
Papers by Sara Strack
Talks by Sara Strack
In this paper, I will first examine evidence for the use of hybrid construction techniques, that is, the deployment of elements of hand-building and wheel-shaping in the same production series. Using specific case studies, the scope for identifying these hybrid techniques will be investigated, together with an attempt at defining specific production sequences of Mycenaean pottery of the palatial and post-palatial period. In a second step, the prevalence of particular ceramic chaînes opératoires will be evaluated both spatially and diachronically. Third, this evidence will be used in highlighting the role of modes of production and organization of manufacture in the resilience of local/regional potting traditions in the period following the end of the Mycenaean palatial era.
In comparison with the preceding Bronze Age, and the peak of Mycenaean civilization in particular (ca. 1400-1200BC), but also with the Orientalizing and Archaic periods of the late 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Early Iron Age appears characterized by loss and absence. Numbers of known settlement and burial sites decline steeply after 1200BC; achievements of the Mycenaean palaces, such as writing, monumental architecture, or accomplished craftwork, disappeared together with the palatial administrations. Crucially, the Mediterranean-wide networks of contacts in which the Mycenaean palaces were enmeshed, and which arguably provided a source of legitimization for their power, were in decline by 1200BC, and soon ceased to function altogether. What follows is a period during which any evidence of contact with the wider world – generally in the shape of imported luxury items – stands out from a background of by and large region-specific material culture. The often significant distances between known sites re-enforce this notion of isolation and parochialism; instead of the dense, layered network of sites during the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age sites and up being studied as islands unto themselves, with only tenuous connections to the world beyond.
However, while the overseas contact routes of the "Mycenaean empire" are no longer in evidence during the Early Iron Age, indications of contacts are by no means scarce. Connections are often tied to individual archaeological finds, for which a more or less precise provenance can be established, other than the find spot itself. Large parts of this evidence are concentrated on a small number of sites, first and foremost Lefkandi/Euboea and Knossos/Crete, where they occur in well-appointed burials which indicate that the deceased had been part of an elite stratum of the local community.
Elite connections go beyond these singular finds; burial practices which, with some amount of regional variation, occur across the Aegean in the 11th and 9th/8th cent. in particular, attest to shared conceptions of status and elite representation. Among these symbols are horse burials (or parts of harnesses), weapons, as well as an array of items on non-local provenance (the material value of these items seems to be only one factor in their overall value).
Looking beyond elite practices, evidence exists for connections that may have operated independently from social hierarchies. Examples include pottery production, which after ca. 1200BC is characterized by the introduction of handmade wares into a previously largely wheel-made production. However, it is the region-specific response to changes in pottery manufacture that is of interest, since similar solutions appear to be adopted across fairly wide areas of the Aegean. These similarities may stem from particularly close associations between different macro-regions, which are sustained throughout the Iron Age.
Another case in point are migrant craftspeople who may have ensured the spread of ideas and techniques across wider areas of the Aegean.
Cooking (pot) styles and cooking techniques are another area which reveals subtle differences and coherences across the area studied. Preferences for handmade or wheelmade, globular or flat-based, tripod-footed, standed or plain pots speak towards different traditions of cooking and of kitchen set-ups. While virtually no kitchen installations of the period are known, the consistent differentiations of cooking utensils indicates that these "traditions" are likely more than coincidences.
A brief mention shall be made of sites which may have functioned as nodal points for dispersed communities, such as the rural sanctuary of Kalapodi in Phokis, a region for which very little archaeological evidence is known outside of the sanctuary itself (and which, due to its proximity to the Parnassos and Kallidromo mountain ranges, may have accommodated communities with a partially settled lifestyle). In addition to providing a venue for elite display and competition, these sites may have functioned as meeting places for all social groups and facilitated the forging and maintenance of connections, e.g. on a kinship level.
In conclusions, evidence for a range of networks can be detected in the Early Iron Age Aegean, functioning on different levels of intensity and with varying motivations. Those pertaining to elite groupings are not entirely surprising, but it is the resilience of regional connections, across archaeologically empty spaces, that may be key to understanding Iron Age communities.
Patterns of interaction may have changed in comparison to the Mycenaean period; however, many routes of communication, and in particular regional associations, remain functional beyond the demise of the palaces. Similar to Whitley's "unstable settlements", however, the argument is made that contacts beyond regional boundaries were not maintained beyond the initiatives of individuals or small groups ("entrepreneurs").
Questions this paper would like to pose include: how did these connections reverberate within communities of the Iron Age Aegean? What was the awareness of shared ideas and practices, what was the realization of difference? Did special items signify anything more specific than connections to a world beyond the horizon of most members of the community?
An exploration of a number of key characteristics, such as fabric preparation and the prevalence of typical fabric ‘recipes’, skill levels of potters, as well as the presence of different strategies for the production of ceramic vessels with specialized functions (e.g. cooking pots, storage vessels), reveals a picture of production spread across many more hands, perhaps incorporating many more novice, part-time, or ad-hoc potters, in the post-palatial period in comparison to the palatial period. Furthermore, this picture stongly diverges when comparing different macro-regions across the Aegean; reverberations of the changes during the final stages of the Bronze Age can be traced throughout the Greek Early Iron Age until a new, trans-regional impetus can be detected in the 8th cent. BC.
It is argued that this picture is the result of different degrees of regional and social embeddedness of palatial pottery production, as much as of local circumstances following the end of the palatial period. To this end, this paper will examine the connectivity between specialist knowledge of ceramic production and the palatial system, and its correlation with continuation of such specialist knowledge beyond the end of the palatial period.
This paper examines what reverberations the conceptualization of production as a sequence of steps has had for the study of ancient technology. The production of round-bodied cooking pots in the ancient Mediterranean is used as a case-study to scrutinize traces of production sequences on material remains and investigate technological styles. Juxtaposition with modern round-bodied cooking pots will aid in illustrating the gaps in the archaeological rendering of the production sequence. Finally, an attempt will be made to relate back the static evidence of archaeological remains to the dynamic flow of processes involved in their creation.
This paper proposes to examine and contrast the historical sources and archaeological evidence for the fate of the poleis and people of Aegina, destroyed by the Athenians in 431BC, and Corinth, sacked by L. Mummius in 146BC. In both cases, ancient written sources suggest that the political entity of the polis was dissolved, and its entire population driven out of the city’s territory. The material evidence from both sites has usually been taken to support this notion; more pertinently, the historical ‘data’ has provided ‘fixed dates’ for development of material culture chronologies.
These two case studies are presented in order to initiate a broader comparative approach to the phenomenon of the destruction of cities as a whole. Both literary and archaeological evidence have their limitations. What are these limitations? In the case of conflict between them, which should be trusted over the other? Are political and physical annihilation necessarily the same, and are all segments of the population equally affected? The aim of these and related questions is to explore the commonality between such events and to provide a nuanced reading of both archaeological and historical evidence, especially in relation to each other.
Coarsewares represent a major part of archaeological ceramics. Depending on find location and ‘school’ of the excavators, however, they have been treated in a widely disparate fashion. While ideally, all ceramic finds should be assessed as one coherent assemblage, pottery studies in the Mediterranean (Bronze Age to Roman) have often largely ignored coarse pottery, focusing instead on fine decorated wares which have been deemed aesthetically more appealing, more relevant for questions of chronology and reconstruction of ancient contacts, and indicative of elite habits and tastes.
Interest in non-decorated wares has developed along with other concerns: amphorae have been studied as evidence for ancient trade, and the emergence of household archaeology has ignited research into cooking wares and the furnishings of ancient kitchens more generally. Approaches to coarseware studies incorporating quantitative methods, archaeometry, and functional analysis are now yielding new insights into ceramic production, small-scale and regional exchange networks, and into ancient everyday life, such as foodways and the organization of domestic space.
In the course of the 6th cent. BC, the use of local fabrics for cooking wares all but disappears. In its place, we find Aeginetan cooking wares which provide for cooking pots, but also other shapes and implements used at the domestic hearth, such as braziers, ovens, pans, griddles, etc. After the initial introduction of these shapes, Attic imitations thereof occur, with some amount of lag time; given their comparative scarcity, these local imitations, however, appear not to have been able to match the popularity of the Aeginetan cooking wares. Despite increasing political hostility between the two poleis, the Athenians’ preference of Aeginetan cooking wares over their own products prevailed until the late 5th cent. BC, when Aegina was conquered by the Athenians and its population exiled.
Our paper will examine this demise of Athenian cooking ware production, and investigate the role of function and fashion, politics and domestic realities, that impact on the production and consumption of pottery, and in particular of utilitarian wares, in the Archaic and Classical periods of the Greek world.
Ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological studies suggest that the change from wheelmade to handmade utilitarian wares coincides with other, marked shifts in the localization and organization of craft production: wheelmade pottery tends to be the product of specialist potters, typically male, in a workshop environment; in the Mycenaean palatial period, this might have included workshops associated with, or patronized by, the Mycenaean palaces. Handmade pottery, at the same time, is a traditionally female domain, set up on a part-time, non- or semi-specialist basis within the wider workings of a household.
Based on the current archaeological record, neither the gender of Late Bronze and Iron Age potters, nor the size and organization of their production is likely to be fully ascertained. However, factors such as shrinking of the shape repertoire, decrease in uniformity of shape and raw material selection, as well as the increasing regionalism observed in ceramics after the end of the palatial period, are indicative of a major reorganization of pottery production. Taken together with other evidence for social and economic renegotiations, it is argued that ceramic assemblages from the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age transition reflect the activities of individual communities, or even households, supplementing the increasingly restricted repertoire of ceramics available from regional or trans-regional workshops.
Chapter I introduces the history of scholarship and past foci of research, in addition to outlining the aims and methods of the present study. Chapter II discusses the Bronze Age ‘Handmade Burnished Ware’, a type of pottery found predominantly in Mycenaean citadels and associated with levels pertinent to the end of the palaces, but unrelated technologically and stylistically to Mycenaean wares. Subsequent to identifying the ware’s typological, technological and functional characteristics, and discussing earlier interpretations of the ware, an attempt is made to advance understanding by placing the ware and its makers
within the picture of late Mycenaean society as characterised by social mobility, population movement, and substantial changes in the character of its external relations. Chapter III examines the Early Iron Age material, within broad geographic sections encompassing the Aegean islands and Euboea, the northeast Peloponnese, Attica, and Central Greece. The chapter’s main foci are establishing a cogent typology, based on shapes as much as on fabric and function, outlining the chronological and regional distribution of wares and shapes, and elucidating the inter-regional and intra-regional dynamics of the area under study. Case studies of individual sites and assemblages in Chapter IV illustrate the functions filled by handmade wares in domestic, funerary, and ritual contexts, while highlighting the regional differences and diachronic development in the use and distribution of the material. Chapter V explores the social and economic changes observable at the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age transition, and discusses the scope of handmade pottery for elucidating issues such as the ethnic or cultural composition of communities, organisation of labour, changes in household economics, and the degree of cultural continuity between the Mycenaean period and the following ‘Dark Ages’. Chapter VI summarises the results of the previous chapters by bringing together the material evidence with contextual and socio-economic considerations. By elucidating basic domestic functions, such as cooking and storage habits, handmade pottery contributes substantially to recognising changes in the cultural makeup of communities, as well as their internal organisation. The consideration of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age household economics furthers the understanding of the dynamics of Greece’s society in this crucial period, and offers a new perspective focusing on the base of the social pyramid, rather than on elite dynamics and politics.
In this paper, I will first examine evidence for the use of hybrid construction techniques, that is, the deployment of elements of hand-building and wheel-shaping in the same production series. Using specific case studies, the scope for identifying these hybrid techniques will be investigated, together with an attempt at defining specific production sequences of Mycenaean pottery of the palatial and post-palatial period. In a second step, the prevalence of particular ceramic chaînes opératoires will be evaluated both spatially and diachronically. Third, this evidence will be used in highlighting the role of modes of production and organization of manufacture in the resilience of local/regional potting traditions in the period following the end of the Mycenaean palatial era.
In comparison with the preceding Bronze Age, and the peak of Mycenaean civilization in particular (ca. 1400-1200BC), but also with the Orientalizing and Archaic periods of the late 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Early Iron Age appears characterized by loss and absence. Numbers of known settlement and burial sites decline steeply after 1200BC; achievements of the Mycenaean palaces, such as writing, monumental architecture, or accomplished craftwork, disappeared together with the palatial administrations. Crucially, the Mediterranean-wide networks of contacts in which the Mycenaean palaces were enmeshed, and which arguably provided a source of legitimization for their power, were in decline by 1200BC, and soon ceased to function altogether. What follows is a period during which any evidence of contact with the wider world – generally in the shape of imported luxury items – stands out from a background of by and large region-specific material culture. The often significant distances between known sites re-enforce this notion of isolation and parochialism; instead of the dense, layered network of sites during the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age sites and up being studied as islands unto themselves, with only tenuous connections to the world beyond.
However, while the overseas contact routes of the "Mycenaean empire" are no longer in evidence during the Early Iron Age, indications of contacts are by no means scarce. Connections are often tied to individual archaeological finds, for which a more or less precise provenance can be established, other than the find spot itself. Large parts of this evidence are concentrated on a small number of sites, first and foremost Lefkandi/Euboea and Knossos/Crete, where they occur in well-appointed burials which indicate that the deceased had been part of an elite stratum of the local community.
Elite connections go beyond these singular finds; burial practices which, with some amount of regional variation, occur across the Aegean in the 11th and 9th/8th cent. in particular, attest to shared conceptions of status and elite representation. Among these symbols are horse burials (or parts of harnesses), weapons, as well as an array of items on non-local provenance (the material value of these items seems to be only one factor in their overall value).
Looking beyond elite practices, evidence exists for connections that may have operated independently from social hierarchies. Examples include pottery production, which after ca. 1200BC is characterized by the introduction of handmade wares into a previously largely wheel-made production. However, it is the region-specific response to changes in pottery manufacture that is of interest, since similar solutions appear to be adopted across fairly wide areas of the Aegean. These similarities may stem from particularly close associations between different macro-regions, which are sustained throughout the Iron Age.
Another case in point are migrant craftspeople who may have ensured the spread of ideas and techniques across wider areas of the Aegean.
Cooking (pot) styles and cooking techniques are another area which reveals subtle differences and coherences across the area studied. Preferences for handmade or wheelmade, globular or flat-based, tripod-footed, standed or plain pots speak towards different traditions of cooking and of kitchen set-ups. While virtually no kitchen installations of the period are known, the consistent differentiations of cooking utensils indicates that these "traditions" are likely more than coincidences.
A brief mention shall be made of sites which may have functioned as nodal points for dispersed communities, such as the rural sanctuary of Kalapodi in Phokis, a region for which very little archaeological evidence is known outside of the sanctuary itself (and which, due to its proximity to the Parnassos and Kallidromo mountain ranges, may have accommodated communities with a partially settled lifestyle). In addition to providing a venue for elite display and competition, these sites may have functioned as meeting places for all social groups and facilitated the forging and maintenance of connections, e.g. on a kinship level.
In conclusions, evidence for a range of networks can be detected in the Early Iron Age Aegean, functioning on different levels of intensity and with varying motivations. Those pertaining to elite groupings are not entirely surprising, but it is the resilience of regional connections, across archaeologically empty spaces, that may be key to understanding Iron Age communities.
Patterns of interaction may have changed in comparison to the Mycenaean period; however, many routes of communication, and in particular regional associations, remain functional beyond the demise of the palaces. Similar to Whitley's "unstable settlements", however, the argument is made that contacts beyond regional boundaries were not maintained beyond the initiatives of individuals or small groups ("entrepreneurs").
Questions this paper would like to pose include: how did these connections reverberate within communities of the Iron Age Aegean? What was the awareness of shared ideas and practices, what was the realization of difference? Did special items signify anything more specific than connections to a world beyond the horizon of most members of the community?
An exploration of a number of key characteristics, such as fabric preparation and the prevalence of typical fabric ‘recipes’, skill levels of potters, as well as the presence of different strategies for the production of ceramic vessels with specialized functions (e.g. cooking pots, storage vessels), reveals a picture of production spread across many more hands, perhaps incorporating many more novice, part-time, or ad-hoc potters, in the post-palatial period in comparison to the palatial period. Furthermore, this picture stongly diverges when comparing different macro-regions across the Aegean; reverberations of the changes during the final stages of the Bronze Age can be traced throughout the Greek Early Iron Age until a new, trans-regional impetus can be detected in the 8th cent. BC.
It is argued that this picture is the result of different degrees of regional and social embeddedness of palatial pottery production, as much as of local circumstances following the end of the palatial period. To this end, this paper will examine the connectivity between specialist knowledge of ceramic production and the palatial system, and its correlation with continuation of such specialist knowledge beyond the end of the palatial period.
This paper examines what reverberations the conceptualization of production as a sequence of steps has had for the study of ancient technology. The production of round-bodied cooking pots in the ancient Mediterranean is used as a case-study to scrutinize traces of production sequences on material remains and investigate technological styles. Juxtaposition with modern round-bodied cooking pots will aid in illustrating the gaps in the archaeological rendering of the production sequence. Finally, an attempt will be made to relate back the static evidence of archaeological remains to the dynamic flow of processes involved in their creation.
This paper proposes to examine and contrast the historical sources and archaeological evidence for the fate of the poleis and people of Aegina, destroyed by the Athenians in 431BC, and Corinth, sacked by L. Mummius in 146BC. In both cases, ancient written sources suggest that the political entity of the polis was dissolved, and its entire population driven out of the city’s territory. The material evidence from both sites has usually been taken to support this notion; more pertinently, the historical ‘data’ has provided ‘fixed dates’ for development of material culture chronologies.
These two case studies are presented in order to initiate a broader comparative approach to the phenomenon of the destruction of cities as a whole. Both literary and archaeological evidence have their limitations. What are these limitations? In the case of conflict between them, which should be trusted over the other? Are political and physical annihilation necessarily the same, and are all segments of the population equally affected? The aim of these and related questions is to explore the commonality between such events and to provide a nuanced reading of both archaeological and historical evidence, especially in relation to each other.
Coarsewares represent a major part of archaeological ceramics. Depending on find location and ‘school’ of the excavators, however, they have been treated in a widely disparate fashion. While ideally, all ceramic finds should be assessed as one coherent assemblage, pottery studies in the Mediterranean (Bronze Age to Roman) have often largely ignored coarse pottery, focusing instead on fine decorated wares which have been deemed aesthetically more appealing, more relevant for questions of chronology and reconstruction of ancient contacts, and indicative of elite habits and tastes.
Interest in non-decorated wares has developed along with other concerns: amphorae have been studied as evidence for ancient trade, and the emergence of household archaeology has ignited research into cooking wares and the furnishings of ancient kitchens more generally. Approaches to coarseware studies incorporating quantitative methods, archaeometry, and functional analysis are now yielding new insights into ceramic production, small-scale and regional exchange networks, and into ancient everyday life, such as foodways and the organization of domestic space.
In the course of the 6th cent. BC, the use of local fabrics for cooking wares all but disappears. In its place, we find Aeginetan cooking wares which provide for cooking pots, but also other shapes and implements used at the domestic hearth, such as braziers, ovens, pans, griddles, etc. After the initial introduction of these shapes, Attic imitations thereof occur, with some amount of lag time; given their comparative scarcity, these local imitations, however, appear not to have been able to match the popularity of the Aeginetan cooking wares. Despite increasing political hostility between the two poleis, the Athenians’ preference of Aeginetan cooking wares over their own products prevailed until the late 5th cent. BC, when Aegina was conquered by the Athenians and its population exiled.
Our paper will examine this demise of Athenian cooking ware production, and investigate the role of function and fashion, politics and domestic realities, that impact on the production and consumption of pottery, and in particular of utilitarian wares, in the Archaic and Classical periods of the Greek world.
Ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological studies suggest that the change from wheelmade to handmade utilitarian wares coincides with other, marked shifts in the localization and organization of craft production: wheelmade pottery tends to be the product of specialist potters, typically male, in a workshop environment; in the Mycenaean palatial period, this might have included workshops associated with, or patronized by, the Mycenaean palaces. Handmade pottery, at the same time, is a traditionally female domain, set up on a part-time, non- or semi-specialist basis within the wider workings of a household.
Based on the current archaeological record, neither the gender of Late Bronze and Iron Age potters, nor the size and organization of their production is likely to be fully ascertained. However, factors such as shrinking of the shape repertoire, decrease in uniformity of shape and raw material selection, as well as the increasing regionalism observed in ceramics after the end of the palatial period, are indicative of a major reorganization of pottery production. Taken together with other evidence for social and economic renegotiations, it is argued that ceramic assemblages from the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age transition reflect the activities of individual communities, or even households, supplementing the increasingly restricted repertoire of ceramics available from regional or trans-regional workshops.