Ceramic Production and Exchange in the Late Mycenaean Saronic Gulf William D. Gilstrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Archaeology University of Sheffield February 2015 Abstract This thesis examines the production, exchange and consumption of pottery around the Saronic Gulf, Greece, during Late Mycenaean period, specifically Late Helladic IIIB1 to Late Helladic IIIC Phase 1, roughly 1300-1130 BC. While the focus of many studies of Mycenaean political economy has fallen on Messinia and the Argolid, the choice of the Saronic Gulf offers the chance to examine ceramic crafting, movement and use in an area which hosts no accepted ‘palatial’ centres. It aims to examine the role of pottery in everyday social and economic transaction, taking a ‘bottom-up’ approach to shedding light on Mycenaean society and economy. Pottery from a wide range of sites has been studied: urban centres such as Athens; harbours at Kanakia on Salamis and Kalamianos in coastal Corinthia; small settlements of Stiri in Corinthia, Myti Kommeni on Dokos and Lazarides on Aegina; sanctuary sites of Eleusis and Ayios Konstantinos, Methana; and finally the settlement and pottery production site of Kontopigado, Alimos near the Attic coast. Based on typological and macroscopic fabric studies, a large number of samples have been chosen for examination by an integrated programme of petrographic, chemical (by neutron activation analysis) and microstructural analysis (by scanning electron microscopy), in order to group and characterise to pottery according to composition, to reconstruct key aspects of ceramic manufacture and, where possible, to suggest the area or location of their production. Major production centres are identified, including Aegina, which is well-known from previous work, and those from the Corinthia and Kontopigado, Alimos. The reconstruction of the production technology of wide range of ceramic products at the latter centre provides a basis to examine contrasts in the history and organization of pottery production in closely neighbouring centres and to trace the overlapping distributions of their products. Patterns of choice in the use of pottery in different locations enable the exploration of consumption choices made on an everyday basis. It is suggested that the complex and widespread exchange of pottery and the choices made by communities carrying out differing activities make the correlation of pottery distribution and political boundaries problematic. Instead the wealth of information revealed by this approach for the first time offers basic information on the widespread movement of goods across clear geographical and, most likely, political boundaries iii Acknowledgements This research was conducted with funding from the European Union, FP7, Marie Curie Actions ITN entitled “New Archaeological Research Network for Integrating Approaches to ancient material studies” (NARNIA, Project no. 265010) under the supervision of Drs Peter M. Day, Vassilis Kilikoglou and Roger C. P. Doonan. I would like to start off by thanking my three supervisors for standing by me throughout this entire endeavor. All three have truly been an inspiration in both work and life beyond archaeology. Cheers to you all. As this research is part of the NARNIA ITN, I would like to extend my warmest gratitude to both Professor Lina Kassianidou and Dr Maria Dikomitou for organizing and managing the network for four long years. Maria handled too many rambling questions, scattered emails and several missed deadlines with grace and zeal, thank you for putting up with me. I thank my compatriots from the NARNIA ITN – Roberta, Artemi, Noemi, Christina, Fred, Anastasia, Andrea, Francesca, Lydia, Evan, Yannis, Andreas, Lente, Olivier, Liza, Marta and Mainardo, we will forever remain Narnians. I would not be as prepared for this without the knowledge gained from the numerous workshops, meetings and conferences provided by NARNIA funding. The NARNIA ITN was beneficial to all areas of my life, through this network I have not only gained contacts and built academic relationships, but also many new friends, some of whom will forever be a part of my life. I wish to thank all of the numerous people whom I have collaborated with to make this research a success. Konstantina Kaza and Dr Elina Kardamaki at the Kontopigado excavations for all of their guidance and help in the selection of material, Professor Panagiota Polychronakou-Sgouritsa of the University of Athens for allowing me to view and sample the Lazarides material, Eleni Konsolaki for enabling me to sample at Ayios Konstantinos, Professors Thomas Tartaron and Daniel Pullen for selecting the samples from Kalamianos and Stiri, Debra Trusty at Florida State University for sharing her cooking pot data from Kalamianos and Stiri, Dr Walter Gauss, Professor Jerry Rutter and the ASCSA team for enabling me to sample material from the North east ascent and the Mycenaean Fountain material, Michael Cosmopoulos for the material at Eleusis and again Professor Yannos Lolos and Dr Christina Marabea for allowing me to study the material from Kanakia, the Cave of Euripides and Dokos and for their help in assessing the material from Eleusis and at Kontopigado. Yannos v and Christina have been there from day one, without you this project would never have lifted off the ground, thank you for your time, generosity, knowledge and patience. I would like to single out Drs Marabea and Kardamaki for their help in all areas of my doctoral research. It was Christina Marabea who initiated analytical work at Kanakia, which led to this wider project and both of them have been generous with their knowledge and advice in my studies. I need to thank everyone from the Institute of Materials Science at the National Centre for Scientific Research (NCSR) “Demokritos” in Athens – Dr Anno Hein for the many hours, days and months he spent with me at the SEM, prepping samples, answering questions, a putting a roof on a shed. Ioannis Karatasios for his never ending pool of analytical knowledge and, of course, his patience and forgiveness for breaking a certain agate pestle. Maria Amenta, you helped to keep me smiling, laughing and enjoying life in general, thank you for your kindness and, of course, your tobacco. I wish to give my thanks to Vangelio Kiriatzi, Zoe Zougleta, Noèmi Müller and Michalis Sakalis of the Fitch Laboratory at the British School at Athens. Vangelio has been kind enough to discuss my research on numerous occasions and to provide me with the collection of Aeginetan material in which to compare my own. Zoe has stayed in the office later than she wanted or had to on several occasions so I could drop off sherds to be sectioned or to pick up my sections. More often than not, she was keen on discussing any new findings and I always enjoyed her genuine interest. Noémi and I spent countless hours together working and discussing pottery and pottery technology, teaching petrographic analysis at a NARNIA workshop in Sheffield, and chatting about plenty of other, not quite as academic topics. I would also like to extend my warmest thanks to Michalis Sakalis for taking in all eleven of my rush orders for thin sections and delivering on time and additionally for helping my acquire nearly every geological map of central Greece from IGME. I send out my gratitude to John Bennet for allowing me to sit in on course modules, occasional guidance, wonderful dinners and wine at his house, but mainly for his help with my research concerning the Linear B inscribed tablets. His comments on this section have been invaluable. A big thank you to Gareth Perry for all of time spent in the lab over the years talking pots and thin sections and for facilitating the purchase and setting up of the new microscopes and imaging software. I already miss those days in the lab. Both Jaume Buxeda i Garrigòs of the University of Barcelona and his former student, Miguel del Pino in Gran Canaria deserve my gratitude for all their help vi formatting S-Plus and R so that I could get my statistical analysis finished. Miguel, I would not have made it through without your help. Thank you. I thank Professors Hector Neff and Rick Behl at CSU Long Beach for enabling me to use the SEM at the Institute for Integrated Research on Materials, Environments and Societies (IIRMES). I am extremely thankful to Hector for never giving up on me during a time in my life when many did. Your faith in me has helped me to become the academic I am today. I think I need to give special thanks to all of the many people who have opened their homes to me for days to weeks to months at a time. Noémi and Kostas, Artemi and Naoum, Denitza and Hüseyin, Pete, Carly and Ed Hommel, Christina Kolb, Tom Laughlin and the people from the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens (IIHSA), Doug Domingo-Forasté, Tim and Jack, be it bed or couch or floor, I am grateful for your generosity and hospitality. I have gained many friends over the course of completing this thesis, and every one of you should be thanked, but Artemi Chaviara, Naoum Kakkalas, Derek Pitman, Liam Lee, Lenore Thompson,Nic Mullin, Sue Kay, Rich Light, George Kazantis, Stylianos Sortanos, Miguel del Pino, Jose Carvahal Lopez, Kostas Alexiou, Noèmi Müller, Rich Ames, Matt Wong, Erick Robinson, Heather Greybehl, Clare Burke, Brecht Lambrecht, Jake Nickles and everyone from the Red Deer- past and present, Ged Poland, Tim Foy, Dave Cahill, Jack Blue, Sam Garwood, Mike Howath, Jonathan Tomlinson, Yannis and Catherine Georganas and everyone who played darts on Tuesdays at the Red Lion in Athens all deserve special mention. Lastly, I want to thank my wonderful parents for their ever present support. You both may not have always understood the choices I made in life, inside and especially outside academia, but you have always been there standing tall by my side.