Neutron Activation Analysis Results of Bronze Age Pottery From

Home , Boeotia

NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS RESULTS OF BRONZE AGE POTTERY FROM

BOEOTIA INCLUDING TEN LINEAR B INSCRIBED STIRRUP JARS OF THEBES

# # &

H Mommsen E Andrikou V Aravantinos and J Maran

Institut fur Strahlen und Kernphysik University Bonn Nussallee D Bonn

Germany Ninth Ephorate of Antiquities Theb es Greece Institut fur Ur und Fruhge

schichte University Heidelb erg Marstallhof D Heidelb erg Germany

ABSTRACT Neutron activation analysis results are presented of

ab out p ottery sherds from Bo eotia dating to the Bronze Age

and esp ecially to the Mycenaean p erio d As in other regions of

Greece the new material again revealed mainly a distinct number

of statistically distinguishable comp ositions which as yet do not

o ccur in our databank This may b e interpreted as a consequence

of a regional pro duction in only a few p ottery workshops exploiting

a limited number of clay b eds or using a limited number of clay

recip es The analysis of samples from the Linear B inscrib ed stir

rup jars of Theb es gives further pro of to an origin of these vessels

in Chania Western Crete

Keywords Aegean Bronze Age Mycenaean p ottery Theb es Orchomenos Bo eotia

Greece Neutron activation analysis chemical ngerprinting provenance Linear B

inscrib ed stirrup jars

INTRODUCTION

In continuation of the pro ject Pottery pro duction and distribution of Bronze Age

settlements of Mycenaean Greece and the Aegean ab out new samples from Bo eotia

were analysed by neutron activation analysis NAA The results have b een added to

the large Bonn p ottery databank comprising meanwhile more than samples Here

we will rep ort only ab out these new measurements from Bo eotia and their multivariate

statistical grouping The metho dical and archaeological results will b e discussed at a

regional scale and in the light of the whole Greek databank of Bonn

The well known metho d of chemical ngerprinting applied in Bonn to classify p ottery

sherds according to their pro duction recip es as well as the general aims and the scop e

of our Mycenaean pro ject have b een already describ ed at length in several earlier pap ers

to which we refer to avoid p erp etual rep etitions see Perlman and Asaro Mommsen

et al Maran et al

The Mycenaean p ottery of Bo eotia is not very well investigated by chemical analysis

using NAA Only a few sherds from this region have b een analysed by the Berkeley group

the results of which have b een presented only recently without clear provenance assign

ments Tomlinson A comparison of these date with our results is in preparation

Other analytical work summarized in Jones p p with optical

emission or atomic absorption sp ectroscopy measured either only a very small number of

overlaping elements or have not the high exp erimental precision needed for a succesful

comparison with our data

SAMPLE CHOICE

The many samples of p ottery sherds from Bronze Age Greece analysed in the course

of our pro ject cover already many regions from Macedonia and Thessaly in the north and

Lo cris in Central Greece to the Peloponnese Melos and Crete Now with the results of

ab out samples from Theb es and Orchomenos in Bo eotia we hop e to ll an imp ortant

further gap in central Greece and to detect chemical reference patterns for this region if

present But as in other regions of Mycenaean Greece the availability of p ottery pro ducts

of clearly lo cal Bo eotian pro duction like kiln wasters is scarce or even absent We therefore

have to rely again on arguments of frequency distributions to recognize reference patterns

which was one of the reasons for the large number of samples chosen for analysis from

these two places A further argument strengthening a p ossible lo cal provenance is a large

chronological depth of the o ccurence of a chemical pattern The time p erio d covered

by the sample choice was therefore extended if p ossible b eyond the Mycenaean Late

HelladicLH BC to the Middle Helladic p erio d although the main part of

the samples from Bo eotia originate from the palatial and p ostpalatial LHI I IA I I IC

p erio d

Most of the pieces sampled derive from excavations conducted under the direction of

the Ninth Ephorate of Antiquities at Theb es and are stored in the museum and magazines

there Mainly sherds and some whole vessels found in Theb es and Orchomenos and in

cemeteries in the vicinity of Theb es have b een chosen which by archaeological means

can b e classied as lo cal but some types are very similar to the well known wares of the

Argolid Of sp ecial archaeological interest are samples of the over large stirrup jars

with Linear B inscriptions which have b een excavated in the year by A Keramop oulos

in a palatial building at Theb es named Kadmeion

NAA RESULTS OF THE NEW MATERIAL FROM BOEOTIA

The multivariate statistical grouping of the ab out new samples from Theb es

and from Orchomenos using our mo died Mahalanobis lter metho d Beier and

Mommsen revealed a result already known from the investigation of Mycenaean

p ottery of other Greek regions

As usual with measurements of high precision ab out of all samples are found to

b e chemical loners and not members of one of the groups detected All other samples have

chemical patterns which may b e allo cated unequivocally to the dierent groups As in the

case of other regions previously included in our pro ject most of the groups from Bo eotia

are new since hitherto unknown chemical patterns are found Excluding the Linear B

inscrib ed jars the material of Theb es and Orchomenos can b e chemically classied into

groups All these groups are well distinguishable by our lter metho d including a b est

relative t to consider p ossible dilutions due to p ottery making practices The result of

a discriminant analysis of these group ed sherds is shown in Figure and ascertains the

lter grouping A relo cation calculation do es not change the group assignments The

average concentration values M and their spreads ro ot mean square deviations of the

groups are listed in Table

Three of the groups a f and h can b e presumably linked with sp ecic places within

Bo eotia while the groups b c and d can b e only assigned to this region in general The

groups named a and f app ear only at Theb es except one sherd with comp osition a from

Eastern Lo cris added in Table and the group h only at Orchomenos and not at any

other site in Greece represented in our data bank According to the dating of the group

members to the p erio d LH I I IAC group a seems to represent the main Theban pattern

during the palatial and p ostpalatial p erio d One sherd of a skyphos with a rosette

decoration representing a leading form of the Northeastern Peloponnese b elongs to this

group Presumably the Theban workshop or workshops imitated the decorative forms

coming into use in other regions

The only small group f is b elieved to b e also lo cally pro duced at Theb es since an

uninscrib ed tablet from the Theban archives and a clay lump ready to b e used for tablet

preparation b elong to it In addition two sherds of the Handmade Burnished Ware

which could however stem from the same vessel are also members of f It can thus b e

assumed that they were also lo cally pro duced It has to b e p ointed out though that

two other pieces of this ware from Theb es do not fall within this group and may represent

a second group since they form a pair This particular kind of p ottery makes it rst

app earance at the end of the palatial p erio d LH III B but o ccurs most frequently in

the p ostpalatial p erio d Since this rather coarse kind of p ottery in shap e decoration and

mo de of manufacture diers from the Mycenaean p ottery pro duction it is often asso ciated

with inuences of foreign p eople from Italy andor from the Balkan Rutter

At least in the case of f our analysis p oints to a pro duction on a lo cal basis and not to an

imp ort from abroad

Since the still small group h of members is found only in material from Orchomenos

and has a long span of o ccurence there it seems to represent the lo cal ngerprint of

that second center of Bronze Age Bo eotia As in the Argolid where dierent p ottery

workshops were found b eing asso ciated to the centers Mycenae and Tiryns here also a

connection of the p ottery pro duction with particular centers seems to emerge

Groups b and the smaller groups c and d are mutually very similar and b elong pre

sumably also to a Bo eotian pro duction although more analytical work from neighbouring

regions like Eub o ea and Pho cis has to b e awaited to exclude an origin from there Group

c of samples from Theb es and Orchomenos is found also in additional sherds from

other regions mainly Eastern Lo cris These sherds are included in the patterns given in

Table Groups d and c dier mainly from b by gradually increasing Th and decreasing

Co Cr and Ni values The pattern b is found in of the samples from pictorial craters

one such sample a crater depicting sphinges b elongs to group c and one pictorial sherd

remains as a chemical loner As an unexp ected result a brick and a ro of tile also b elong

to group b which enhances the probabilty of lo cal manufacture for this group

Group i o ccuring only in the material of Orchomenos is similar to a group of

sherds found at Loutraki Katounas in AitoloAkarnania group aitolo in Mommsen et al

It was considered to b e the main group there This similarity is still unexplained

and the pro duction place of these sherds is questionable The long pro duction time

p erio d MH II SH I I IC of the members of this group comprising ne Grey Minyan and

unpainted Mainland Polychrome pieces may p oint to a lo cal Bo eotian pro duction and

exp ort to Western Central Greece But the generally noticed decentralized pro duction in

Late Helladic Greece encountered in our studies and the low scale of p ottery trade and

interchange b etween Mycenaean regions contradicts such trade relations The similarity

might also b e accidental or resolvable by measurements of further samples or of more

additional elements

Besides the new groups a small number of sherds of formerly already known chemi

cal comp ositions are found additionally They can b e assigned with high probability to

workshops already lo cated geographically like the one in the Argolid with pattern named

MycenaeBerbati Mommsen et al samples or another one in Aigina

Mommsen et al also samples These few sherds could very well b e imp ort

pieces from the workshops detected there

A further small group j and one sherd n are members of groups detected b efore They

can not b e assigned to a denite lo cation of origin Both these groups were rst and

only encountered in sherds from Eastern Lo cris The material awaiting analysis from

neighbouring regions may give a clue to their pro duction place

THEBAN LINEAR B INSCRIBED STIRRUP JARS

A sp ecial result is obtained for the Linear B inscrib ed large stirrup jars sampled in the

Theban museum Several of these jars have b een chemically analysed b efore by optical

emission and atomic absorption sp ectroscopy measuring elements Catling and Millet

Catling et al The early studies in suggested at rst an origin from

East Crete After such inscrib ed jars had also b een found in Chania Western Crete and

after epigraphical studies of the inscriptions also linked these jars with the same region

of Crete a reconsideration of the data and the analysis of additional samples suggested

Western Crete as the most probable place of their provenance Catling and Jones

Catling et al

The higher precision of NAA and the large number of measurable elements by this

metho d lead us to reanalyse a small number of these large inscrib ed jars Nine of the

samples taken from the jars with inventory Nos

compare Raison form a group named e only the th sample from jar No

is a chemical loner This jar was assigned by Raison p on stylistical

and typological grounds to another group together with several other jars not analysed

by NAA Due to unusally low Co Cr and Ni values the group e of jars is very dierent

in comp osition from all other samples in our databank and thus easily separable While

the Bonn reference databank could not assign a pro duction place a statistically matching

group of samples from Chania CHANIA was detected during a check of the o ccurence

of the new patterns in the Berkeley databank of Mycenaean p ottery entrusted to us from

Manchester by the courtesy of A Homann and V Robinson Since the Bonn p ottery

standard was calibrated against the Berkeley p ottery standard our data can b e compared

directly with the Berkeley values Table lists the average concentration values of the

stirrup jars forming group e and of the Chania sherds measured at the Berkeley lab o

ratory The Bonn data of the main group of Theb es a is also shown again for comparison

In the group CHANIA some concentration values scatter at a larger scale then commonly

encountered indicating that the group may b e broken down to several subgroups if more

samples will b e available But even with these large spread values no overlap with any

other group in the data available to us o ccurs

The Chania samples analysed in Berkeley are describ ed as part of a collection from

sherds stemming from the excavation Kastelli of Tzedakis and Kanta in in Chania

According to the judgement of B Hallager who compiled the sherd list sent to Berkeley

all sherds sampled were collected from trench B level and and are b elieved to

have b een lo cally pro duced in dierent workshops in Chania The group of sherds

contains a variety of vessel types and forms including big decorated stirrup jars and also

coarse undecorated kitchen ware But it should b e mentioned that a number of further

sherds from the same excavation which b elong to the lo cal workshop of Chania dened

by Tzedakis analyse dierently and are not members of the matching CHANIA

group The workshop pro ducing the sherds and the series of stirrup jars for exp ort

to Theb es must have used dierent clay sources or a dierent clay renement technique

compared to the Chania workshop mentioned by Tzedakis or if only one workshop in

the region of Chania was engaged the wares of these dierent groups must hab e b een

pro duced in dierent pro duction series However the similarity of the one Chania pattern

in the Berkeley bank with our pattern e makes an origin of the inscrib ed Theban jars in

Chania or its neigb ourho o d very likely

CONCLUSION

The NAA results of the Bo eotian p ottery samples underline the previous ndings of our

pro ject concerning the p ottery of the Greek Bronze age and esp ecially of the Mycenaean

p erio d In Bo eotia as in the other regions studied so far lo cal pro ducts prevail Pottery

was pro duced with a few dierent pro duction recip es in one or only a few regionally

centralized workshops as the small number of Bo eotian groups with dierent patterns

shows This pro duction comprised many dierent ware types including coarse pro ducts

like ro of tiles up to p ottery of the highest quality like pictorial jars Although in some

regions like Achaia with no known existing palace a regional centralized pro duction can

b e observed as well Mommsen et al this pro duction in regions like the Argolid

or Bo eotia may well have taken place under palatial sup ervision The two main Bo eotian

patterns a and b seem to app ear at the b eginning of the palatial time The small scale

of material interchange and trade b etween the dierent palatial regions can b e veried

for Bo eotia to o and may b e explained by the existence of lo cal workshops pro ducing

for the palace andor the Bo eotian markets Nevertheless there was a close contact and

exchange of new styles and ideas b etween the dierent regions leading for instance to

the imitation and integration of prototypes from the Argolid i e the rosette skyphos

into the lo cal ceramic rep ertoire

Acknowledgements We thank the Greek Ministry of Culture and esp ecially Dr Yanis

Tzedakis for the p ermission to sample the material and for the supp ort of our work

Our thanks are due also to all the Greek colleagues and archaeologists who were willing

to supply samples for this pro ject The help of the sta of the reactor in Geesthacht

irradiating the samples is thankfully acknowledged This pro ject was funded partly by

the German Federal Minister of Education Research Science and Technology BMBF

under contract No POBON

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samples M jLo crism not i if samples M ppm g g h in samples M M averages g Na samples M and elements f of samples M d concentrations M samples comparisions except As Ba Ca Theb es M c group samples from M in of material b the relative t and samples spreads in M b est found a samples Groups M

Table As all elements used for indicated otherwise and Ba Ca Ce Co Cr Cs Eu Fe Ga Hf K La Lu Na Nd Ni Rb Sb Sc Sm Ta Tb Th Ti U W Yb Zn Zr

Table Concentration patterns of the Theban group e of Linear B inscrib ed stirrup

jars of a group of sherds excavated at Chania and measured in Berkeley and of the main

Theban group a for comparison concentrations of elements averages M in g g ppm

if not indicated otherwise and spreads in of M

eTheb es CHANIA aTheb es

samples samples samples

M M M

all elements used for b est relative t and group searches except As Ba Ca and Na 65 j

60 i a d W 2 ( 9.73 %) 55 b c 50 g f 45 h

-120 -100

theben1 W 1 (83.11 %)

Figure Discriminant analysis of samples of Greek Bronze Age p ottery from Bo eotia

assuming groups Plotted are the discriminant functions W and W which cover

and of the b etween group variance The ellipses drawn are the b oundaries of

the groups