'Prehistoric painted pottery in Malta' : a century later

In 1911 T.E. Peet pointed out for the first time the difficulty of interpreting the earliest examples of Maltese prehistoric painted pottery. After a century of excavations and research this issue is still largely open especially with regard to Bronze Age wares. This paper deals with the Bronze Age painted pottery class named 'dribbled ware', characterized by decoration produced with the partial application of a thick slip instead of paint. This ware has been reported from several sites in the Maltese archipelago. Focusing on the evidence from In-Nuffara in Gozo, a new hypothesis about the chronology and function of the dribbled ware will be presented.peer-reviewe

The Distribution of Negative Painted Pottery in the Caddo Area

Negative painted pottery (NPP) is one of the most distinctive kinds of pottery made by Mississippian peoples during the Middle Mississippian period (ca. A.D. 1200-1500) in eastern North America. This pottery is decorated with a “resist painting technique, which creates a lighter-colored design outlined by a black pigment” over an underlying slip/wash. Principal production areas for NPP include the lower Ohio River valley, the Nashville Basin, and the Bootheel of southeast Missouri, and there are four main types: Kincaid Negative Painted, Nashville Negative Painted, Sikeston Negative Painted, and Angel Negative Painted. This NPP has been found in several sites in the southern and northern Caddo areas, and its occurrence in Caddo sites constitutes compelling evidence for some form of contact and interaction between Caddo peoples and peoples from various Mississippian polities, most particularly Mississippian polities in the Nashville basin

Pottery Production, Mortuary Practice, and Social Complexity in the Majiayao Culture, NW China (ca. 5300-4000 BP)

The Majiayao Culture: ca. 5300-4000 BP) is famous for its stunning painted pottery vessels. First discovered in the 1920s in northwestern China, these Neolithic painted pottery vessels have become one of the most popular icons used to depict the rich material culture of ancient China. Today, many museums throughout the world hold Majiayao painted pottery vessels in their collections. We know much about the pottery, but research on the associated Majiayao Culture has been limited to cultural histories that emphasize chronology and trait-list classification. These approaches present the Majiayao Culture as static and simplify the social and economic complexity of the people who composed this society. Although scholars commonly assume that Majiayao painted pottery vessels were made by specialized craftspeople, the social and economic processes behind the production of these vessels have long been overlooked. Materials discussed in this dissertation include firsthand attribute and physicochemical analyses of hundreds of ceramic vessels and samples selected from multiple sites in Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan provinces. These data are supplemented with settlement pattern and mortuary analyses of thousands of published sites and burials. By synthesizing these data, this study illustrates a positive correlation between regional density of settlement distribution, intensification of pottery production, and degree of social inequality in each phase during the Majiayao Cultural period. Rather than showing a simple linear process of social complexity, however, there are distinct regional variations in each phase and significant regional fluctuations over time. Results of this study demonstrate economic and social patterns related to Majiayao ceramics were far more complex than we have previously thought. Specifically, intensive ceramic production among these Neolithic agricultural communities was primarily driven by the increasing demand to offer large quantities of painted pottery vessels at funerals. These Neolithic communities fulfilled the increasing demand for painted pottery vessels in mortuary practices by sacrificing vessel quality to promote production efficiency. When the demand for vessel quantity reached its peak, no products were made with the skill and care comparable to the most high-quality vessels dated to earlier phases. Further, the great demand also encouraged the development of inter-regional exchange involving painted pottery vessels. Certain production groups in the core area of site distribution in each phase were able to make relatively high quality vessels and successfully increased their output to best meet the needs of both internal and external consumers. Therefore, I argue that the distribution and consumption of these craft goods was not limited by kin organization. I emphasized these vessels were marketable objects--commodities. The way these craft goods moved from the hands of potters to the consumers was associated with complicated social and economic interaction/exchange, about which we still have limited understanding. The development of social hierarchy in this region is indicated by the disparity of painted vessels unearthed from graves. The preference for painted storage jars may relate to the development of agriculture in this region. These vessels seem to be used as a symbol of wealth. However, these craft goods were generally available for most social members of different ranks. Exchange of goods also led to an exchange of cultural and social experiences. Diverse social values might have been delivered and structured through the circulation of Majiayao painted pottery vessels among the living and between the living and the dead. Patterns identified in this study shed new insights into conceptualizing the dynamic social and economic relationships among Neolithic village-scale communities

Postcard: Hand Painted Pottery

This color photographic postcard features two Mexican men hand painting pottery outside. The man on the left is painting a large vase. The man on the right is painting a plate. A stack of completed pottery are in the background. Printed text is on the back of the card.https://scholars.fhsu.edu/tj_postcards/1845/thumbnail.jp

Les productions protobyzantines de céramique peinte en Grèce Continentale et dans les îles

The article deals with an almost neglected category of early Byzantine pottery: painted pottery. The most important group in terms of number of examples and their dissemination is the group of pieces J. Hayes called “Central Greek Painted Ware”, dated in the 6th century. In line with our current knowledge, its attribution to the workshops of N. Anchialos must be correct. Earlier series of painted pottery (2nd to 3rd centuries and 5th century, 3rd to 5th centuries.) can be traced respectively to Northern Greece and Attica whilst another important production appeared in Crete at the end of the 6th century. The later series of Greek painted pottery must have been influenced by Egyptian painted pottery

Pyrotechnological connections? Re-investigating the link between pottery firing technology and the origins of metallurgy in the Vinča Culture, Serbia

The present paper re-examines the purported relationship between Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic pottery firing technology and the world's earliest recorded copper metallurgy at two Serbian Vinča culture sites, Belovode and Pločnik (c. 5350 to 4600 BC). A total of eighty-eight well-dated sherds including dark-burnished and graphite-painted pottery that originate across this period have been analysed using a multi-pronged scientific approach in order to reconstruct the raw materials and firing conditions that were necessary for the production of these decorative styles. This is then compared to the pyrotechnological requirements and chronology of copper smelting in order to shed new light on the assumed, yet rarely investigated, hypothesis that advances in pottery firing technology in the late 6th and early 5th millennia BC Balkans were an important precursor for the emergence of metallurgy in this region at around 5000 BC. The results of this study and the recent literature indicate that the ability to exert sufficiently close control over the redox atmosphere in a two-step firing process necessary to produce graphite-painted pottery could indeed link these two crafts. However, graphite-painted pottery and metallurgy emerge at around the same time, both benefitting from the pre-existing experience with dark-burnished pottery and an increasing focus on aesthetics and exotic minerals. Thus, they appear as related technologies, but not as one being the precursor to the other

Appendix II: Marked Pottery at Pyla-Kokkinokremos, 2010-2011

Seven marked vases or vase fragments were discovered in the course of the 2010-2011 excavation season at Pyla-Kokkinokremos. Six are handles with incised marks and there is a Mycenaean pictorial amphoroid krater with two marks painted on its lower body. Two of the marks occur on Cypriote pottery (Plain White jugs), two on imported pottery (Minoan and Mycenaean amphoroid kraters); the three marked amphoras are also probably imported. Of special significance are the inscription (no. 72) and the amphoroid krater with painted marks found in a non-funerary context (no. 76)

Bernard Leach: graphic artist

Bernard Leach was one of the first, great, donors to the emerging Crafts Study Centre. He donated a substantial body of his own ceramics, including rare early pieces; he also gifted his personal study collection of Oriental ceramics and early English pottery (inspirational pots 'that gave me joy'). His archive of prolific writings, diaries, photographs and extensive correspondence is an unrivalled source for research and study and is called on by scholars internationally. More recently, gifts have been made of new personal papers as well as the etching plates that Leach worked on between 1907-8 as a student and then in Japan until 1920. These etching plates remind us that Leach began his career intending to be a fine artist. Whilst he produced etchings in Japan during his first creative steps, he remained committed to drawing throughout his life and his skill as a painter of pots remains one of his distinguishing attributes. This new exhibition brings together archives. etchings and drawings together with his early ceramics to present a rounded portrait of an eminent artist discovering a life-long interest in and aptitude for ceramics, set in the context of his first love of drawing. The exhibition has been curated by Jean Vacher, Collections Manager of the Crafts Study Centre. Many of these etchings have rarely been seen in the museum environment, and the project, generously supported by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, is intended to stimulate a wider understanding of Leach's output as an etcher, and possibly to bring new etchings to light. The project is published in partnership with The Leach Pottery, St Ives

Girikihaciyan: A Halafian Site in Southeastern Turkey

This report presents the results of excavations undertaken at the site of Girikihaciyan in southeastern Turkey during 1968 and 1970 by the Joint Prehistoric Project, Istanbul-Chicago under the overal direction of Professor Halet Cambel, University of Istanbul, and Professor Robert J. Braidwood, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.Series: Monographs 3

Production technology of Nabataean painted pottery compared with that of Roman terra sigillata

The Nabataeans, who founded the city of Petra (southern Jordan) in the late first millennium BCE, are noted for the production of a distinctive very fine pottery with painted decoration and a wall thickness sometimes as little as 1.5 mm; this pottery appears largely locally made and not widely circulated. Using a combination of OM, SEM with attached EDS, surface XRF, and XRD, it is shown that the Nabataean fine pottery bodies were produced using semi-calcareous clays which were fired to temperatures of about 950 °C. In contrast, published data indicate that contemporary and in many ways apparently functionally equivalent Roman terra sigillata, which was traded throughout the Roman Empire, was produced using fully-calcareous clays which were fired to temperatures in the range 1000–1100 °C. Furthermore, the high gloss slip applied to Roman terra sigillata is fully vitrified whereas the red-painted decoration applied to the Nabataean pottery is unvitrified. The more robust Roman terra sigillata is therefore better suited as tableware for serving and consuming food than would be the case for Nabataean fine pottery, and would be a more successful export material