Pottery Production in Mycenaean Laconia: NAA Results from the Palace of Ayios Vasileios

Abstract

Abstract This paper deals with the provenance of Mycenaean pottery found in the palace of Ayios Vasileios in Laconia. It focusses on painted and plain fine wares and reports the results of neutron activation analysis (NAA). The analyzed ceramics cover all of the habitation phases of the palace as well as the short, post-palatial use of the site, i. e. LH IIB to LH IIIC Early 1 (ca. 1450–1180 BCE). A large part of these fine ware pots represents a compositional pattern, which probably relates to local or regional production during the palatial periods LH IIIA and IIIB. Very similar patterns are known from other sites in the Eurotas valley as well as on the southeastern Laconian coast. The diachronic analysis shows that a reduction of paste variability towards the use of a more homogeneous clay recipe occurred after LH II, i. e. approximately contemporaneously with the establishment of the palace at Ayios Vasileios. Relatively few samples of the painted fine wares are imports and can be assigned to the wider region of Mycenae. Interestingly, these imports are restricted to the earlier phases up to LH IIB/IIIA1.