This paper presents results from the Neutron Activation Analysis of 362 samples of Protogeometric and Geometric pottery from the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The focus is on sampled pots whose origin can be located through good reference material such as clays or misfired pottery from kilns. These analysed samples were clustered in already defined geochemical groups, usually named after the first letters of their place of origin (e.g. EuA for Euboea, DelA for Delphi), or in new groups determined through this study (e.g. KlazE for Klazomenai, SinA for Sindos). The geochemical variability of the earliest Greek pottery overseas challenges previous perceptions about the alleged dominance of certain wares such as Euboean and Corinthian in early Greek and Phoenician colonial contexts.

This paper examines the Greek Geometric pottery recovered during the Tunisian excavations by the Heritage National Institute at Utica. Skyphoi decorated with various motifs and dating to the Subprotogeometric IIIb/Middle Geomtric II and Late Geometric I periods represent the most common shape analysed by Neutron Activation Analysis. In the first place, the contexts where these pottery finds were used and deposited are placed under scrutiny. Following a typological examination, the study treats the use of these wares in their local context in association with handmade ceramics and pottery imported from other regions such as the eastern Mediterranean and Sardinia. The emphasis is thus put on the diversity of drinking and eating habits that indicate the multicultural nature of the first Phoenician community of Utica.

The importation of an ensemble of Greek Geometric pottery found in the city of Huelva (south-west Spain) has been attributed to Phoenician trade. Conversely, thousands of Archaic ceramics of both Aegean and local origin must be linked to the establishment of Greeks and the allusions of ancient sources to the emporion of Tartessos. This article explores the domestic, ritual and other social contexts of that pottery’s use at that multicultural site.

This introductory chapter sets out the aim of the project, which is to reassess the social and cultural relations between the Aegean and the Mediterranean through a new examination of some of the earliest Greek pottery finds overseas. The focus is on Protogeometric and Geometric ceramics from Greek and Phoenician colonies, certain Phoenician metropolises and further Indigenous sites in the Aegean and the Mediterranean, which were analysed by Neutron Activation. The analytical results are examined against the background of the social and economic relations that were generated through the production, exchange and consumption of the pottery finds under scrutiny.

This paper treats the contexts of eighteen Late Geometric and Subgeometric pottery fragments from Naxos, Sicily, analysed by Neutron Activiation Analysis. The results do not allow the definition of any local production of pottery of Euboean type at Naxos but provide new insights into the exchange of Geometric ceramic wares of local origin in southern Italy and Sicily. Most recent excavations elucidate the organisation of the earliest settlement. An almost-orthogonal intersection between two streets outlines a chequered urban layout already around 700 BCE. The coaeval enclosure with the bothros and hard-packed floor that occupies the south-west corner of the street intersection indicates the cult of some hero or ancestor. The finding of krater fragment Na 16 with the depiction of an anodos further implies the ritual properties of its context of deposition. Finally, the excavation under the hard-packed floor provides a glimpse of even earlier settlement phases associated with Sikel material culture.

This paper examines social and cultural contexts of consumption by bringing together notions of space and place, chiefly the social setting in which Sidonians used Greek pots. Earlier studies placed primary value on the morphology of this pottery with fine fabrics and decoration that attracted scholarly attention and was thought to have been similarly perceived in the past. We question here the use of Greek vessels as commodities of value, enhanced by their origin from a distant place and their rare representation in the eastern Mediterranean, and explore them as artefacts of special symbolism due to their contexts of consumption that has ritual implications.

The Neutron Activation Analysis of some of the earliest Greek pottery used in the Aegean and the Mediterranean provided results that did not allow the localisation of origin through evidence obtained from the analysis of reference material such as clays and kiln wasters. However, the grouping of our sampled pottery with other members of large geochemical groups allows their localisation through archaeological criteria such as ceramic distribution and concentration patterns. Furthermore, the geochemical groupings contribute to a better understanding of the organisation and economy of pottery production. This is achieved by means of new evidence about the continuity or discontinuity in the use of the same raw material, the correlation of certain pottery types and geochemical signatures and the typological-technological consistency of the newly formed groups.

This paper examines the economic and other social relations that emerged in the colonial landscape of the northern Aegean through a new approach to pottery production, exchange and consumption. Our analytical data about pottery origins allow a new reconstruction of the exchange networks between the northern and central Aegean. The chapter suggests that the gradual increase in non-local pottery use along the northern Aegean shores and certain changes in local pottery production cannot be taken as a result of any growing colonial agency. They are interpreted instead as the low residue of locally driven transformations in the economic organisation of the northern Aegean. The new analytical data support a recently expressed view that these advances represent a pull factor of migration from central Greece towards its so-called northern Aegean periphery.

The use of Aegean pottery – comprising a few drinking vases – is rather limited in the Iron Age cemetery of al-Bass in Tyre despite the large number of investigated tombs. This finding stands in contrast to the evidence recovered from the excavations at the settlement site of Tyre, on the ancient island, where a broad range of typologically variable Greek ceramics came to light. Nevertheless, the imported wares at the settlement seem to be represented by even lower percentages than those at the cemetery. This paper aims to analyse this discrepancy through various perspectives that include examination of typology, functionality, social dynamics and economics. The conclusions drawn from this analysis suggest that these non-local artefacts did not significantly alter the way in which the community of Tyre consumed wine. Instead, their deposition in burial and possibly other social contexts can be associated with issues of social status manipulation.

This paper summarises some of the results obtained from Neutron Activation Analysis of early Greek pottery that was sampled in the Mediterranean. It provides an overview of analytical evidence about the provenance and geochemical clustering of major pottery wares such as the Protogeometric and Geomtric transport amporas and K-22 or common pottery types such as PSC, chevron, Thapsos and Aetos 666 bowls. Their historical implications include aspects of specialisation in pottery production, modes of technology transfer, appropriation and exchange of ‘colonial’ pottery types. Finally, this concluding chapter presents new insights into the economic and cultural relations among remote communities in the Mediterranean, and the chronological implications of our pottery analysis on the correlation of Phoenician and Greek migrations.

The earliest Greek pottery at the coast of Málaga comprise two Middle Geometric II skyphoi from La Rebanadilla, on the mouth of the Guadalhorce River. They are associated with local, Phoenician, Cypriot and Villanovan ceramics, all of them part of feasting tableware. The Geometric pottery from La Rebanadilla is dated to the second half of the 9th century BCE by means of calibrated radiocarbon dates. In the 8th century BCE, Greek imports were not consumed at coastal Málaga, except for a transport amphora from Cerro del Villar. Despite the scarcity of Greek imports during the 8th century BCE, skyphoi of Greek type were produced in Phoenician workshops in the region of Málaga and became surprisingly common in the next century. This new local shape became common at sites such as Toscanos, demonstrating that the ritual consumption of wine with skyphoi was appropriated by the Phoenicians.