A potter's workshop from Middle Bronze Age Cyprus: new light on production context, scale and variability. (1st June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Frankel, David; Webb, Jennifer M.
• Is Part Of: Antiquity. Volume 88:Number 340(2014)
• Page Start: 425
• Page End: 440
• Publication Date: 2014-06-01
• Subjects: Cyprus, -- Ambelikou Aletri, -- Middle Bronze Age, -- pottery kiln, -- cutaway-mouthed jugs, -- coefficient of variation; Archaeology -- Periodicals; Antiquities -- Periodicals; 930.05
• DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00101097
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-598X

Abstract

Abstract : When fire swept through a workshop at Ambelikou Aletri on Cyprus in the nineteenth or twentieth century BC it brought a sudden halt to pottery production, leaving the latest batch of recently fired vessels. The remains of the kiln and its immediate surroundings provide a rare opportunity to gain direct insight into the technology and organisation of a Middle Bronze Age pottery workshop in the eastern Mediterranean. Analysis of the batch of cutaway-mouthed jugs adjacent to the kiln reveals a level of standardisation focused more on vessel shape than capacity, and shows that at a detailed level, no two jugs were alike. This pottery production site provides vital background for the study of contemporary pottery assemblages on Cyprus and elsewhere in the broader region.