Scenes from the past: CT in the archaeologic study of ancient Greek ceramics.

Abstract

Introduction The first pottery was made about 6,000 b.c. during the transition between the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. It was during this time that man developed a new method of providing himself with food: agriculture. This new method largely replaced hunting and gathering, which had been used since the dawn of mankind. This important change took place in Mesopotamia, an area between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Agriculture produces food supplies and made it necessary to store food. The need for solid containers emerged, and a technique for making pots developed. At first, pottery was made without the use of a potter’s wheel. About 2,500 b.c., the slow-turning wheel was invented in the Levant (ie, the area along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea). The Greeks introduced the fastturning potter’s wheel in 900 b.c. The use of a potter’s wheel made it possible to produce more sophisticated pottery (1). Ever since its inception, pottery has performed functions related to eating and drinking, storage, and transport. Once pottery material has been fired, it is virtually indestructible and cannot be recycled. Therefore, for any culture, pottery is the richest category of archaeologic finds, and its abundance makes it the best tool for dating. The shape and decoration of pottery demonstrate gradual development over time. The development of shape depends on many factors, the most important being changes in the use of ceramics and the reigning fashion. Other factors include improvement or decline in pottery-making techniques for economic reasons, the fuel used in the firing process, and the quality of the available clay. Decorations are unique and are dictated by the reigning fashion and by influences from abroad due to foreign trade (1). The archaeologist has to establish the time frame involved. Comparative stratigraphy is the method used to determine relative chronology in development. This method operates on the assumption that artifacts found in the same bottom layer are of the same age and that the deepest layer is the oldest one. Comparative stratigraphy enables archaeologists to reconstruct the relative chronology of a painter’s or potter’s output. Graves and destruction levels, which can be assumed to contain contemporary materials, link the various developmental stages of the material they contain (1). This information, combined with data gleaned from ancient authors, yields the framework for absolute dating. Because of its abundance as well as the continuous and rapid changes in fashion and in details of shape and decoration, Greek pottery underlies the chronology of all archaeologic phenomena in Europe, North Africa, and the Near East dating from the first millennium b.c. Thanks to their excellent clay, ancient Greek potters were able to turn pottery with highly sophisticated shapes on their wheels. Greek pottery