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Tradition and innovation in pottery forming technology: wheel-throwing at Middle Minoan Knossos1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Carl Knappett
Carl Knappett
Affiliation:
Christ's College, Cambridge
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Abstract

This paper examines ceramic evidence from Middle Minoan Knossos in an attempt to chart the introduction and development of wheel-throwing technology in Minoan pottery. The technique of wheel-throwing comes into its own in Middle Minoan I B, coeval with the construction of the first palaces and a number of other major changes. Although there are some indications that there could have been some degree of internal evolution towards this point, it also appears that outside contacts with the Near East may have contributed to the innovation process. The main aim is to elucidate the dynamics of choice that led to the adoption and subsequent development of the wheel-throwing innovation. Whilst the use of the wheel is generally considered as a technical development, it is argued here that, in the initial stages, its adoption by certain Minoan potters was as much influenced by socio-political as by technical factors.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 94 , November 1999 , pp. 101 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1999

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117 I would like to thank Sander van der Leeuw for alerting me to this alternative.

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131 Van der Leeuw (n. 102).

132 As highlighted by Roux and Corbetta (n. 2).

133 It would not require a specialist to bring the wheel device from the Near East, but it would to bring the technical knowledge. One might also note that the adoption of the wheel-throwing technique would occur more smoothly if the technical knowledge held by Minoan artisans was predisposed towards it. Coil-building and rotation finishing is a common technique in the later Prepalatial period, and this would certainly have been consistent with the logic of wheel-throwing, cf. van der Leeuw (n. 102), 262.

134 In terms of links to the Near East, Watrous (n. 3) has argued that a cultural ‘package’ is taken on board by the Minoans; this package would include the institution of kingship, along with kingly regalia, administrative practices using scripts, monumental architecture and other crafts. Wheel-thrown pottery and the skilled artisans producing it may have formed part of the package.

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147 Roux and Courty (n. 16): van dor Leeuw (n. 98).

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