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Correlations between composition and provenance of Mycenaean and Minoan pottery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

H. W. Catling ,
E. E. Richards  and
A. E. Blin-Stoyle
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Extract

This investigation into the compositions of Minoan and Mycenaean pottery fabrics was carried out in Oxford at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art by permission of the Director, Dr. E. T. Hall. Mrs. E. E. Richards, co-author of this report, was in charge of the investigation, latterly with the assistance of Mrs. A. Millett. The potential importance of the work undertaken was first suggested by Mr. M. S. F. Hood, then Director of the British School at Athens. Mr. Hood has maintained lively interest in the investigation, and has made many valuable suggestions about the course it should take, as well as providing much of the sherd material. In this connexion we are greatly indebted to Dr. J. Papadimitriou, Director-General of Antiquities in Greece, for granting the necessary export permits. We are also grateful to Mr. M. R. Popham, for scraping selected sherds in the Herakleion Museum and in the Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos, and to Dr. N. Platon, then Ephor of Antiquities in Crete, for allowing this to be done. Sherds from Thebes in the University Museum, Reading, were loaned by Mrs. A. N. Ure; the Rev. Dr. A. J. Arkell provided a set of Mycenaean sherds from Tell el Amarna from the collections in University College, London. Fragments from Rhodes were given by the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum through the kindness of Mr. D. E. L. Haynes and Mr. R. A. Higgins. Other sherds were provided from the reserve collection in the Ashmolean Museum. The sherds tested in the course of the investigation are now housed in the Ashmolean, with the exception of the group from Thebes (Reading).

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 58 , November 1963 , pp. 94 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1963

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References

1 Accession numbers 1962.357–76. The sherds scraped in museums in Crete are, of course, excluded. A summary description of this material is given in the Appendix.

2 See, for example: Wace, A. J. B. and Blegen, C., Klio xxxii (1939) 131 ff.Google Scholar; Kantor, H. J., ‘The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium B.C.’, AJA li (1947), esp. 33ff.Google Scholar; and Furumark, A., ‘The settlement at Ialysos and Aegean history c. 1550–1400 B.C.’, OpArch vi (1950), esp. 203 ff.Google Scholar

3 See Stubbings, F. H., Mycenaean Pottery from the Levant (1951).Google Scholar

4 Sayre, E. V., Murrenhoff, A., and Weick, C. F., ‘The non-destructive analysis of ancient potsherds through neutron activation’, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Report No. BNL 508 (T–1222) (1958).Google ScholarSayre, E. V. and Dodson, R. W., ‘Neutron activation study of Mediterranean potsherds’, AJA lxi (1957) 35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarRichards, E. E., ‘Spectographic analysis of Romano-British mortaria’, Archaeometry ii (1959) 23 and iii (1960) 25.Google Scholar

5 Prelim. Reps. Reference Clay Minerals, Am. Petroleum Inst. Res. Project 49 (1951).

6 Ibid.Archaeometry ii 23 and iii 25.

7 Catling, H. W., Blin-Stoyle, A. E., and Richards, E. E., ‘Spectographic analysis of Mycenaean and Minoan pottery (Interim Report)’, Archaeometry iv (1961) 31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Richards, E. E. and Hartley, K. F., ‘Spectographic analysis of Romano-British pottery’, Nature clxxxv (1960) 194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Ahrens, L. H., ‘The lognormal distribution of the elements’, Geochim. et Cosmochim. Acta v (1954) 49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarSayre, E. V. and Smith, R. W., ‘Compositional categories of ancient glass’, Science cxxxiii (1961) 1824.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Two out of thirteen sherds selected from the Stratigraphical Museum for their non-Knossian appearance: Table 6, nos. 7 and 8.

11 This, of course, takes no account of the specially selected sherds; see note 10.

12 Group J is the only instance where the sherds were visually distinct in fabric.

13 The respective roles of Crete and Greece in Melos are discussed by Furumark in OpArch vi. 192 ff.