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19 - The Ceramic Industry

from Part III - Business/Commerce

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2021

By
Susan I. Rotroff
Edited by
Jenifer Neils  and
Dylan K. Rogers
Jenifer Neils
Affiliation:
American School of Classical Studies, Athens
Dylan K. Rogers
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
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Summary

The ceramic industry supplied Athenians with a wide variety of products, from fine tableware, utilitarian pottery, lamps, and figurines to water pipes and roof tiles. This chapter reviews the stages of production, from gathering and working the clay through forming and firing the final product and its sale, at home and abroad.

Keywords

ceramicspottery productionkilntrade
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Athens , pp. 269 - 281
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Boardman 2001 presents an authoritative if opinionated account of the history, styles, iconography, functions, economics, and techniques of fine Greek pottery (mostly figured). For a diametrically opposed view of the enterprise, see Vickers and Gill 1994. Publications of the Agora excavations offer a cross-section of humbler products: lamps and black-gloss, household, and cooking pottery (Agora vols. 4, 8, 12, 22, 29, and 33) of the seventh to the first century. On a specific Late Archaic assemblage of pottery from the Agora, see Lynch 2011. For figurines, see Thompson 1987 and Uhlenbrock 1990. Winter 1993 provides an introduction to Greek roofing systems down to the end of the Archaic period. Clay preparation, the construction of fine pottery, and the three-stage firing process are explained in Noble 1988 and Schreiber 1999, the latter written from the perspective of an experienced potter. For recent discussions of the size and structure of the Athenian figured pottery industry, see Stissi 2012 and Sapirstein 2013. Peacock 1982, though focused on Roman pottery, provides a model for stages of industrial development that is also applicable to the Athenian industry; Hasaki 2020 examines ancient pottery production, especially at Corinth. For ceramic kilns in ancient Greece see https://atlasgreekkilns.arizona.edu/. Most of the evidence for prices comes from graffiti (Johnston 1979) and the lists of confiscated items in the Attic Stelai (Amyx 1958). For a sample of the heated debate over the value of pottery and the nature and significance of the trade in figured ware, see: Boardman 1988, Vickers and Gill 1994, and Osborne 1996.

Bibliography

Amyx, D.A. 1958. “The Attic Stelai III: Vases and Other Containers.” Hesperia 27: 163–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boardman, J. 1988. “Trade in Greek Decorated Pottery.” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 7: 27–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boardman, J. 2001. The History of Greek Vases. London.Google Scholar
Bundrick, S.D. 2019. Athens, Etruria, and the Many Lives of Greek Figures Pottery. Madison.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canciani, F. 1978. “Lydos, der Sklave?” Antike Kunst 21: 17–20.Google Scholar
Hasaki, E. 2020. Potters at Work in Ancient Corinth: Industry, Religion, and the Penteskouphia Pinakes. Princeton.Google Scholar
Johnston, A.W. 1979. Trademarks on Greek Vases. Warminster.Google Scholar
Lynch, K.M. 2011. The Symposium in Context: Pottery from a Late Archaic House near the Athenian Agora. Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noble, J.V. 1988. The Techniques of Painted Attic Pottery. Rev. edn. London.Google Scholar
Osborne, R. 1996. “Pots, Trade, and the Archaic Greek Economy.” Antiquity 70: 31–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papadopoulos, J.K. 2003. Ceramicus Redivivus: The Early Iron Age Potters’ Field in the Area of the Classical Athenian Agora. Princeton.Google Scholar
Parlama, L., and Stampolidis, N.C., eds. 2000. Athens: The City Beneath the City: Antiquities from the Metropolitan Railway Excavations. Athens.Google Scholar
Peacock, D.P.S. 1982. Pottery in the Roman Word: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. London.Google Scholar
Sapirstein, P. 2013. “Painters, Potters, and the Scale of the Attic Vase-Painting Industry.” AJA 117: 493–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreiber, T. 1999. Athenian Vase Construction: A Potter’s Analysis. Malibu.Google Scholar
Stissi, V. 2012. “Giving the Kerameikos a Context: Ancient Greek Potters’ Quarters as Part of the Polis Space, Economy, and Society.” In “Quartiers” artisanaux en Grèce ancienne: une perspective méditerranéenne, eds. Esposito, A. and Sanidas, G.M., Lille, 201–230.Google Scholar
Thompson, D.B. 1987. “Three Centuries of Hellenistic Terracottas.” In Hellenistic Pottery and Terracottas, Thompson, H.A. and Thompson, D.B., Princeton, 181–267.Google Scholar
Uhlenbrock, J.P. 1990. “The Coroplast and His Craft.” In The Coroplast’s Art: Greek Terracottas of the Hellenistic World, ed. Uhlenbrock, J.P., New Rochelle, 14–21.Google Scholar
Vickers, M., and Gill, D.. 1994. Artful Crafts: Ancient Greek Silverware and Pottery. Oxford.Google Scholar
Wankel, H., ed. 1979–1984. Die Inschriften von Ephesos. 8 vols. Bonn.Google Scholar
Winter, N.A. 1993. Greek Architectural Terracottas from the Prehistoric to the End of the Archaic Period. Oxford.Google Scholar

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