Production Technology of Glazed Pottery in Chalcis, Euboea, during the Middle Byzantine Period

Adamantia Panagopoulou,Joanita Vroom,Anno Hein,Vassilis Kilikoglou

doi:10.3390/heritage4040247

Adamantia Panagopoulou, Joanita Vroom + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage4040247

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Abstract

This paper focuses on various categories of glazed pottery, which were in circulation in western Euboea (Greece) during the Middle Byzantine and Late Byzantine periods. The production technology and particularly the surface treatment of Byzantine glazed pottery have been investigated on the basis of 56 ceramic fragments from a rescue excavation in Orionos street in Chalkis, Euboea. This paper focuses on the manufacture of glazed pottery within the local pottery repertoire of Chalkis, while trying to contextualise the pottery typology and to consider the issues of technology. The chemical analysis by non-invasive energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) provided information about the compositional variation of the examined glazed ceramics assemblage. Moreover, sections of the samples were examined by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to determine the microstructure of the samples, as well as the vitrification and the porosity of the ceramic body. Finally, X-ray diffraction (XRD) was applied for qualitative mineralogical analysis indicating presence or absence of high temperature phases and information about firing conditions.

Highlights

Given that pottery has always been one of the main fields of study of archaeological material, seen from many different viewpoints, the application of material analysis to the investigation of compositions and production technologies of archaeological pottery and glazes has been a growing research field during the last decade stemming from the discipline of archaeometry
What appears to be more crucial is the combination of the traditional archaeological research with the archaeometric research, as in this case the literature is limited about Chalkis in Euboea during the Byzantine and Early Modern periods
High Pb and Cu contents in the ceramic bodies are assumedly related to intrusion by the lead glaze in some cases, including copper-bearing pigments during firing

Summary

Introduction

Given that pottery has always been one of the main fields of study of archaeological material, seen from many different viewpoints (art historical, economic, daily-life related etc.), the application of material analysis to the investigation of compositions and production technologies of archaeological pottery and glazes has been a growing research field during the last decade stemming from the discipline of archaeometry. Despite the increasing interest in archaeological pottery technologies in recent years, Byzantine glazed pottery has received scant attention. What appears to be more crucial is the combination of the traditional archaeological research with the archaeometric research, as in this case the literature is limited about Chalkis in Euboea during the Byzantine and Early Modern periods. Chalkis served as the port of call in the Aegean for nearby Thebes (Figure 1) [1,2,3]. This city was the harbour of Byzantine Thebes and later a Venetian hub with the name of Negroponte [4]. Historical documents for Chalkis within the Byzantine administrative system are rather scarce

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