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An unglazed ware pottery workshop in twelfth-century Lakonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Olga Vassi
Olga Vassi*
Affiliation:
3rd Ephoreia of Byzantine Antiquities, Chios
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Abstract

During a rescue excavation in the village of Magoula near Sparta, a pit was revealed which contained a heap of fragments of large and small vessels, the products of an unglazed ware pottery workshop. This paper presents the distinctive features of the workshop; the characteristic incised decoration on the strap-handle is considered its ‘trade mark’. The operation of the workshop is dated to the first half or the middle of the 12th cent., and its production is identified in large closed vessels (stamnia) and small jugs for everyday use.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 88 , November 1993 , pp. 287 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1993

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Footnotes

1

I would like to express my warm thanks to Mrs Ang. Vavylopoulou-Charitonidou and Mr G. D. R. Sanders for their support and valuable suggestions. I am especially indebted to Guy Sanders for help with the final text in English. I am also grateful to Pamela Armstrong for her encouragement; the UK Editor also thanks Pamela Armstrong for checking the final text.

References

2 Cavanagh, W. G. and Crouwel, J. H., ‘Lakonia Survey 1983–1986’, Lak. Spoud. 9 (1988)Google Scholar; cf. A. Delt. 41 (1986), Chr. 38–40; 42 (1987), Chr. 130–1.

3 Armstrong, P., ‘Lakonian amphorae’, in Déroche, V. and Spieser, J.-M. (eds), Recherches sur la céramique byzantine (BCH supp. 18; 1989), 185–8.Google Scholar

4 Ibid. 188.

5 A. Delt. 45 (1990), forthcoming.

6 Traquair, R., ‘The Roman stoa and the fortifications of the acropolis’, BSA 12 (1905–1906), 428–9.Google Scholar

7 Keramopoullos, A., ‘Χριστιανικαὶ καὶ βυζαντιακαὶ ταφαὶ ἐν Θήβαις’, A. Delt. 10 (1926), 126–33Google Scholar; Koukoules, Ph., ‘βυζαντινῶν ταφικὰ ἔθιμα’, Epet. 16 (1940), 60–5.Google Scholar

8 MacKay, T. S., ‘More byzantine and Frankish pottery from Corinth’, Hesp. 36 (1967), 278 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, no. 58, pl. 66 (late 12th cent.); Sanders, G. D. R., ‘An assemblage of Frankish pottery from Corinth’, Hesp. 56 (1986), 187 Google Scholar, fig. 8, pl. 24 (late 13th–early 14th cent.).

9 For the use of the term stamnion for vases of this kind, see Bakirtzis, Ch., Βυζαντινὰ τσουκαλολάγηνα (Athens, 1989), 95–8.Google Scholar

10 For parallels see Armstrong (n. 3), 187, fig. 2, no. 3; Pikoulas, G., Η νότια Μεγαλοπολιτική χώρα από τον 80 αι π.Ξ ήωσ τον 40 αι. μΞ. (Athens, 1988), 151 Google Scholar; 104, fig. 98 (two examples).

11 Armstrong (n. 3), 187, fig. l (the two shown on r.).

12 For parallels see Armstrong (n. 3), 187, fig. 1 (the two shown on 1.); Pikoulas (n. 9), 112; 66. 1, fig. 61. The handle in Arcadia was found together with a coin (anonymous follis) of the 11th cent. (1030/35–1042?): ibid. 112 n. 319.

13 Dawkins, R. M. and Droop, J. P., ‘Byzantine pottery from Sparta’, BSA 17 (1910–1911), 27 Google Scholar; pl. 18, no, 65. The sherd is classified by the authors in the category of Painted ware (class VI), and is described in the text as bearing ‘a black design on a cream ground’. Rice uses the term ‘slip-painted’ for the decoration of some sherds from Sparta, but does not distinguish by the publication number the pieces bearing this sort of decoration ( Rice, D. T., ‘The pottery of Byzantium and the Islamic world’, in Studies in Islamic Art and Architecture in Honour of Prof. K. A. Cresswell (1965), 212).Google Scholar

14 Franz, M. A., ‘Middle byzantine pottery in Athens’, Hesp. 7 (1938), 438.Google Scholar

13 Morgan, C. H., Corinth, xi: The Byzantine Pottery (Harvard, Mass., 1942), 96–103.Google Scholar

16 Ibid. pls. 30–1, nos. 706, 722, 738.

17 MacKay (n. 11 ), 281–2, no. 64 and n. 56; pl. 65.

18 Morgan (n. 15), 162.

19 Ibid. 95. Cf. Dawkins and Droop (n. 13), pl. 17, nos. 56, 59.

20 Morgan (n. 15), 122.

21 A. Franz (n. 14), 432 (group A, period I–II). Cf. Dawkins and Droop (n. 13), pl. 15, no. 9 (Sparta I type).

22 MacKay (n. 11), 263 n. 35.

23 Morgan (n. 15), 131.

24 Found in early contexts both in Athens and Corinth: Morgan (n. 15), 36; Franz (n. 14), 433 (group B).

25 Morgan (n. 15), 169: from late 11th to late 12th cent. in Corinth. Rice, D. T., The Great Palace of the Emperors: Second Report (1958), 111 Google Scholar: from mid-12th to early 13th cent, (turquoise glazed vessels found together with many Sparta I types). Megaw, A. H. S., ‘Glazed bowls in byzantine churches’, Δελτίο Χριστιανικῆς Ἀρχαιολογικῆς Εταιρείας, 4.4 (1964–1965), 158: mid-12th cent.Google Scholar Scott, J. A. and Kamilli, D. C., ‘Late byzantine glazed pottery from Sardis’, in Actes du XVe Congrès International d'Études Byzantines, ii (Athens, 1981), 686–7: 13th cent.Google Scholar

26 Dawkins and Droop (n. 13), 24.

27 Armstrong (n. 3), 188.

28 Dawkins and Droop (n. 13), 26, no. 25.

29 Bakirtzis, Ch. and Papanicola-Bakirtzis, D., ‘De la céramique byzantine en glaçure à Thessalonique’, in Byzantino-Bulgarica, 7 (Sofia, 1981)Google Scholar; Papanikola-Bakirtzi, D., ‘Εργαστήριο εφυαλωμένης κεραμεικής στηνν Θεσσαλονίκη’ in Αφιέρωμα στην μνήμη Στυλιανού Πελεκανίδη (Thessaloniki, 1983). 377–8.Google Scholar

30 Stamina produced by the Lakonian pottery workshop mentioned in this paper were found in early 13th-cent. strata in the BSA excavations of the Roman stoa on the acropolis of Sparta. To the same period (early 13th cent.) is dated a slip-painted bowl similar to the one from Magoula presented here. See G. D. R. Sanders, ‘Medieval pottery’ (above, pp. 251–86), nos. 12, 14, 35–6.