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Practical use and social function: a neglected aspect of Mycenaean pottery1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Iphigeneia Tournavitou
Iphigeneia Tournavitou
Affiliation:
British School at Athens
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Abstract

This article is concerned with the aspect of pottery function in both the domestic/personal and the public/commercial sphere, and particularly with the function of the most common pottery forms current in the Mycenean period, with special reference to material from a group of four LH III B1 houses outside the walls of Mycenae (West House, House of Shields, House of the Oil Merchant, House of Sphinxes). The primary division being between open and closed shapes, the different forms are individually examined both through practical experimentation and through a comprehensive assessment of their structural elements (size, lip form, handles, base, fabric, etc.), as well as from the point of view of current potters' practices. Many of the forms have also been encountered in earlier or later periods, the conclusions being thus applicable to a much wider context. The final section examines the distinction between primary (originally intended) and secondary functions, as well as that between containers of dry or liquid substances, with a detailed discussion of the criteria involved. Finally, the entire corpus of vessels is divided into six categories, corresponding to their usage, with special reference to primary function.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 87 , November 1992 , pp. 181 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1992

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References

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7 Arnold ch. 6, p. 127.

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9 van der Leeuw (n. 6).

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12 See Kingery (n. 4).

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14 Furumark 207.

15 The only possible valid exception to this rule is perhaps related to the production of pithoi for use within the palatial storerooms: even in this case, mass production is perhaps not the right word to describe the number of extant pithoi, especially if compared with the preserved numbers for other shapes and forms (e.g. kylikes, stirrup jars).

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75 The general idea behind the decoration of the inside of a vessel is that it should be visible and admired, preferably when full.

76 French 175, fig. 18; MT II, fig. 54.

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81 Furumark 640.

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85 French 177.

86 Mylonas-Shear 000.

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106 No specimens of this type of vessel have been recorded at Pylos or Thebes, at least to my knowledge. This is particularly significant in the case of Pylos, where evidence of a perfumed oil industry has been presented; see Shelmerdine (n. 57).

107 It is possible that a single type of vessel, although possibly devised for a certain function, was also used differently at different times in different contexts; it is not necessarily either the one thing or the other.

108 Mylonas-Shear 100.