Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:28:08.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

By
Anelia Bozkova  and
Stefanos Gimatzidis
Edited by
Stefanos Gimatzidis
Stefanos Gimatzidis
Affiliation:
Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna
Get access

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.

Keywords

ceramic technology transfercultural identityK-22 WarePirin Macedonia
Type
Chapter
Information
Greek Iron Age Pottery in the Mediterranean World
Tracing Provenance and Socioeconomic Ties
 , pp. 154 - 184
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexandrov, S. 2002. ‘The Late Bronze Age Settlement at Koprivlen’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 63–82. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Alexandrov, S. 2005. ‘The Earliest Mycenaean Pottery Imports in Bulgaria’. In The Culture of Thracians and their Neighbours: Proceedings of the International Symposium in Memory of Prof. Mieczyslaw Domaradzki, edited by Bouzek, J. and Domaradzka, L., 47–49. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Bhabha, H. K. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bozkova, A. 2002. ‘Pottery with Geometric Decoration and Related Wares’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 133–44. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Bozkova, A. 2005. ‘A Pottery Group with Geometric Decoration from a Thracian Site at Koprivlen in South-Western Bulgaria’. In The Culture of Thracians and Their Neighbours: Proceedings of the International Symposium in Memory of Prof. Mieczyslaw Domaradzki, edited by Bouzek, J. and Domaradzka, L., 85–90. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Bozkova, A. 2006. ‘Pesht za bitova keramika ot sredata na I hil. pr. Hr. pri Koprivlen, Goce-Delchevsko’. Arheologia 47: 130–38.Google Scholar
Bozkova, A. 2016. “Pits of the First Millennium b.c. in Thrace, sine ira et studio’. In Southeast Europe and Anatolia in Prehistory: Essays in Honor of Vassil Nikolov on His 65th Anniversary, edited by Bacvarov, K. and Gleser, R., 475–83. Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Bozkova, A., and Delev, P., eds. 2002a. Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Bozkova, A., and Delev, P.. 2002b. ‘Koprivlen i kulturnata obshtnost na Yugozapadna Trakiya prez VII – V v. pr. Hr.’. In Izvestiya na narodniya muzey v Burgas 4 (Studia in honorem Ivani Karayotov), 80–97. Burgas: Arheologicheski muzei.Google Scholar
Bozkova, A., and Delev, P.. 2011. ‘Otnovo za keramikata s risuvana geometrichna ukrasa ot Yugozapadna Bulgaria’. Arheologia 52: 17–24.Google Scholar
Bozkova, A., and Delev, P.. 2012. ‘Archaic Pottery with Painted Geometric Decoration from South-Western Bulgaria’. In Archaic Pottery of the Northern Aegean and Its Periphery (700–480 BC), edited by Tiverios, M., Misailidou-Despotidou, V., Manakidou, E., and Arvanitaki, A., 69–78. Thessaloniki: Archaeological Institute of Macedonian and Thracian Studies.Google Scholar
Bozkova, A., Delev, P., Alexandrov, S. and Vulcheva, D.. 2002. ‘Koprivlen: A Thracian Settlement on the Middle Nestos’. In Thrace and the Aegean: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Thracology 1, edited by Fol, A., 469–84. Sofia: Institute of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Delev, P. 2002a. ‘The Middle Mesta Region in Antiquity’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 13–28. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Delev, P. 2002b. ‘Pliniy Stari (N. H. 4.40) i trakijskite plemena v rayona na sredna Mesta’. In Πιτύη. Izsledvaniya v chest na prof. Ivan Marazov, edited by Gicheva, R. and Rabadzhiev, K., 273–81. Sofia: Anubis.Google Scholar
Delev, P., and Popov, H.. 2005. ‘Das antike Strassennetz im mittleren Mestagebiet’. In The Culture of Thracians and Their Neighbours: Proceedings of the International Symposium in Memory of Prof. Mieczyslaw Domaradzki, edited by Bouzek, J. and Domaradzka, L., 103–6. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Delev, P., Bozkova, A., Vulcheva, D. and Hadzhiangelov, V.. 2000. ‘Koprivlen: une agglomération thrace sur le Nestos Moyen’. In Pistiros et Thasos: Structures économiques dans la Péninsule Balkanique aux VIIe–IIe siècles avant J.-C., edited by Domaradzki, M., Domaradzka, L., Bouzek, J. and Rastropowicz, J., 151–60. Opole: University of Opole.Google Scholar
Domaradzki, M. 1999. Pametnitsi na trakiyskata kultura po gornoto techenie na reka Mesta (Razkopki i prouchvania XXVI). Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Efstratiou, N. 2002. Εθνοαρχαιολογικές αναζητήσεις στα Πομακοχώρια της Ροδόπης. Thessaloniki: Vanias.Google Scholar
Georgieva, R. 2015. ‘Ritual Pits’. In A Companion to Ancient Thrace, edited by Valeva, J., Nankov, E. and Graninger, D., 144–57. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gimatzidis, S. 2010. Die Stadt Sindos. Eine Siedlung von der späten Bronze- bis zur Klassischen Zeit am Thermaischen Golf in Makedonien. Rahden/Westf.: Verlag Marie Leidorf.Google Scholar
Gimatzidis, S. 2011. ‘Counting Sherds at Sindos: Pottery Consumption and Construction of Identities in the Iron Age’. In Early Iron Age Pottery: A Quantitative Approach. Proceedings of the International Round Table Organized by the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece, Athens, November 28–30, 2008, edited by Verdan, S., Theurillat, T. and Kenzelmann Pfyffer, A., 97–110. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Gimatzidis, S. 2014. ‘Time Still Flows in Kastanas’. In 1912–2012: A Century of Research in Prehistoric Macedonia. Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, 22–24 November 2012, edited by Stefani, E., Merousis, N. and Dimoula, A., 303–12. Thessaloniki: Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.Google Scholar
Gimatzidis, S. 2016. ‘Reich und arm: Weltsystemtheorie-Kontroversen in der früheisenzeitlichen Ägäis’. In Arm und Reich: Zur Ressourcenverteilung in prähistorischen Gesellschaften Rich and Poor – Competing for Resources in Prehistoric Societies, 8. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 22. bis 24. Oktober 2015 in Halle (Saale), edited by Meller, H., Hahn, H., Jung, R. and Risch, R., 579–96. Halle/Saale: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen Anhalt.Google Scholar
Gimatzidis, S. 2021a. ‘Patterns of Pre- and Post-colonial Connectivity at Argilos’. In Argilos, 25 années de recherches: Organisation de la ville et de la campagne dans les colonies du Nord de l’Égée, VIIIe – IIIe siècles av. n.è. Argilos, edited by Bonias, Z. and Perreault, J., 95–123. Athens: Publications of the Canadian Institute in Greece.Google Scholar
Gimatzidis, S. 2021b. ‘Greek Dates and Chronologies Revised: The Historical and Archaeological Context of the Radiocarbon Dates from Sindos’. In Time and Materiality: Periodisation and Regional Chronologies at the Transition from Bronze to Iron Age in Eurasia (1200–600 bce), edited by Kaiser, E. and Schier, W., 83–107. Rahden: Leidorf.Google Scholar
Gimatzidis, S. 2023. ‘North Greece and the Central Balkans’. In The Oxford Handbook of the European Iron Age, edited by Haselgrove, C., Wells, P. S., and Rebay-Salisbury, K., 449–75. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jung, R., Alexandrov, S., Bozhinova, E. and Mommsen, H.. 2017. ‘Mykenische Keramik in der Rhodopenregion: Herkunft, regionaler Kontext und sozialökonomische Grundlagen’. Archaeologia Austriaca 101: 269–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ninov, L. 2009. ‘Animals from the Archaeological Complex nearby Koprivlen Village, Gotze Delchev Region (Part 1)’. Interdisciplinarni izsledvaniya 20–21: 166–70.Google Scholar
Papadopoulos, J. K. 1998. ‘From Macedonia to Sardinia: Problems of Iron Age Aegean Chronology, and Assumptions of Greek Maritime Primacy’. In Sardinian and Aegean Chronology: Towards the Resolution of Relative and Absolute Dating in the Mediterranean. Proceedings of the International Colloquium ‘Sardinian Stratigraphy and Mediterranean Chronology’, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, 17–19 March 1995, edited by Balmuth, M. S. and Tykot, P. H., 363–69. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Popov, C. 2006. ‘Eine ältereisenzeitliche Fibelgruppe aus Koprivlen (Südwestbulgarien): Problemkreis und Interpretationsversuche’. Archaeologica Bulgarica 10: 9–36.Google Scholar
Popova, T. 2002. ‘Archaeobotanical Investigation’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 279–88. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Popova, T. 2005. ‘Palaeobotanical and Anthracological Analysis from the Koprivlen Site (Gotze Delchev Dstrict)’. In The Culture of Thracians and Their Neighbours: Proceedings of the International Symposium in Memory of Prof. Mieczyslaw Domaradzki, edited by Bouzek, J. and Domaradzka, L., 99–102. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Prokopov, I. 2002. ‘The Coin Finds from Koprivlen: Hellenistic and Early Roman Coins’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 247–57. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Prokopov, I., and Manov, M.. 2005. ‘Ranni tasoski moneti ot VI–IV v. pr. Hr. ot rayona na gr. Gotse Delchev’. Izvestiya na istoricheski muzej Kyustendil 12: 35–42.Google Scholar
Roux, V. 2013. ‘Spreading of Innovative Technical Traits and Cumulative Technical Evolution: Continuity or Discontinuity?’ Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 20: 312–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roux, V. 2015. ‘Standardization of Ceramic Assemblages: Transmission Mechanisms and Diffusion of Morpho-functional Traits across Social Boundaries’. JAnthArch 40: 1–9.Google Scholar
Roux, V., and Courty, M. A.. 1998. ‘Identification of Wheel-Fashioning: Technological Analysis of 4th–3rd Millennium b.c. Oriental Ceramics’. JAS 25: 747–63.Google Scholar
Stanev, V. 2002. ‘Koprivlen and the Middle Mesta Valley in Modern Times: A Historical, Geographical and Economic Description’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 33–39. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Stockhammer, P. W., and Athanassov, B.. 2018. ‘Conceptualising Contact Zones and Contact Spaces: An Archaeological Perspective’. In Archaeology across Frontiers and Borderlands: Fragmentation and Connectivity in the North Aegean and the Central Balkans from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, edited by Gimatzidis, S., Pieniazek, M. and Mangaloglu-Votruba, S., 93–112. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todorova, N. 2016. ‘The Final Chalcolithic Site in the “Gradishteto” Locality near the Village of Dolno Dryanovo, Southwest Bulgaria’. In The Human Face of Radiocarbon: Reassessing Chronology in Prehistoric Greece and Bulgaria, 5000–3000 cal bc (TMO 69), edited by Tsirtsoni, Z., 169–86. Lyon: Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée.Google Scholar
Todorova, N. 2017. ‘Ot Egeya i pontiyskite stepi do … Matnitsa. Mikroregionalni specifiki i nadregionalni elementi v keramichniya stil ot finala na chalkolita. Dannite ot Ilinden – Klisura’. In ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΟΣ: Volume in Honour of Professor Peter Delev, edited by Popov, H. and Tzvetkova, J., 183–214. Sofia: St Kliment Ohridski University Press.Google Scholar
Tsvetkova, Y. 2002. ‘An Archaeological Overview of the Middle Mesta Region: The Prehistoric and Thracian Periods’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 41–50. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Vaklinov, M. 2002. ‘An Archaeological Overview of the Middle Mesta Region: The Roman Imperial Period, Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 51–55. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Vulcheva, D. 2002a. ‘The Pit Sanctuary.’ In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 103–23. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Vulcheva, D. 2002b. ‘Hand-Made Pottery of the Early Iron Age’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1. Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev – Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 125–32. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Vulcheva, D. 2002c. ‘Bronze Ornaments of the Early Iron Age’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 189–94. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar
Vulcheva, D., and Dimitrova, S.. 2005. ‘The Pit Sanctuary at the Village of Koprivlen’. In The Culture of Thracians and Their Neighbours: Proceedings of the International Symposium in Memory of Prof. Mieczyslaw Domaradzki, edited by Bouzek, J. and Domaradzka, L., 193–200. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Vulcheva, D., Bozhkova, A., Delev, P. and Hadzhiangelov, V.. 2000. ‘Settlement System of the 1st Millennium bc along the Right Bank of the Middle Nestos’. In Pistiros et Thasos: Structures éconimiques dans la Péninsule Balkanique aux VIIe–IIe siècles avant J.-C., edited by Domaradzki, M., Domaradzka, L., Bouzek, J., Rastropowicz, J., 145–50. Opole: University of Opole.Google Scholar
Yurukova, Y. 2002. ‘The Coin Finds from Koprivlen: Early Coins’. In Koprivlen, Volume 1: Rescue Archaeological Investigations along the Gotse Delchev–Drama Road 1998–1999, edited by Bozkova, A. and Delev, P., 242–46. Sofia: Nous.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×