Mycenaean pottery has a remarkable continuity. In LH I and LH II pottery is based on Minoan principles. MH styles continue but the lustrous paint technique is introduced from Crete first in Ayios Stephanos, Laconia in LH I, and the lustrous decorated style developed. Marine, Ephyraean and the monumental palace style mark the LH II. Gradually though naturalism fades, tendency to abstraction and standardization appear leading to the uniformity of the famous Mycenae ‘koine’. In LH III, often inspired by wall-paintings, the Pictorial style expanded, kraters representing mainly chariot scenes being the typical vessels. The revival of the pottery after the destruction of the palaces brings to the pictorial an explosion of new themes. Close and granary styles mark the end of the pottery sequence. Clay painted larnakes, rare in Greece, appeared first in Crete under bathtub or rectangular form; exception is a unique set discovered in Tanagra depicting in a realistic vivid way scenes related to death and funeral rites.

This paper examines the Protogeometric neck-handled type I transport amphoras at the sites of Elateia and Kynos in Locris, central Greece. Our NAA showed that these vases were imported to Locris most probably from the northern Aegean together with containers of other types such as belly-handled amphoras, which were all previously thought to have been local. The analytical evidence allows a new understanding of economic relations in the Aegean, especially between its northern and central parts. Finally, the PTAs from these sites represent evidence for their variable use in settlement and mortuary contexts such as those of the port site of Kynos and the cemetery of Elateia, where they were deposited as domestic refuse and burial gifts respectively.