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Five - Geometric Pottery Production and Consumption in the Balkan Hinterland

Patterns of Ceramic Technology Transfer in the Early Iron Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2024

Stefanos Gimatzidis
Affiliation:
Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna
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Summary

The pattern of pottery consumption at the site of Koprivlen in south-eastern Bulgaria radically changed in the Early Iron Age after the appropriation and mass consumption of a ceramic ware of particular technology and of northern Aegean Geometric style. This ware, which was common in three micro-regions, around the Thermaic and Strymonic gulfs and also in the Nevrokop basin, and which probably originated in coastal Macedonia, was surprisingly more common in the remote inland site of Koprivlen than at any other site. This chapter explores issues of technology transfer and consumption of this conspicuous pottery, which is the most noticeable common cultural feature in the material culture of central, eastern and Pirin Macedonia during the Early Iron Age. Contextual analysis of this pottery demonstrates both copying and demic diffusion in its technology transfer and spatial differentiation in its consumption pattern.

Type
Chapter
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Greek Iron Age Pottery in the Mediterranean World
Tracing Provenance and Socioeconomic Ties
, pp. 154 - 184
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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