Abstract
This study examines the Hellenistic pottery with relief decoration found in the excavation of shipsheds (1989-1995) of Oiniades / Acarnania. The study is divided in five chapters.
Chapter I is dedicated to a review of the city’s history. Chapter II presents the basic topographical elements of the city and the excavation evidence of the ship-sheds. The study of stratigraphy and of all the findings of the excavation (see Appendices 1 and 2) shows that the ship-sheds are in use until the end of the second or the early first century BC.
Chapter III focuses on the history of research of Hellenistic pottery with relief decoration in Aitoloakarnania and the Ionian Islands. It outlines the special characteristics of local production (and especially those of Arsinoe, Nafpaktos, Thermos and Stratos).
Chapter IV, which constitutes the main focus of the study, discusses the relief pottery found in the shipsheds. Despite the fact that more than 750 fragments have been studied in total, in the ...
This study examines the Hellenistic pottery with relief decoration found in the excavation of shipsheds (1989-1995) of Oiniades / Acarnania. The study is divided in five chapters.
Chapter I is dedicated to a review of the city’s history. Chapter II presents the basic topographical elements of the city and the excavation evidence of the ship-sheds. The study of stratigraphy and of all the findings of the excavation (see Appendices 1 and 2) shows that the ship-sheds are in use until the end of the second or the early first century BC.
Chapter III focuses on the history of research of Hellenistic pottery with relief decoration in Aitoloakarnania and the Ionian Islands. It outlines the special characteristics of local production (and especially those of Arsinoe, Nafpaktos, Thermos and Stratos).
Chapter IV, which constitutes the main focus of the study, discusses the relief pottery found in the shipsheds. Despite the fact that more than 750 fragments have been studied in total, in the first part of the chapter 487 of those (mainly skyphoi) are selected and analyzed according to laboratory, typology and iconography. In the second part, respectively, 13 molds are analyzed, which were used for the pottery’s manufacture. For the most part, the relief pottery in question (the 2/3 approximately) comes from other production centers (Athens, Argos, Corinth, Ephesus-Delos, Olympia and Elis, Aigion and Lousoi, Central Italy and the Adriatic region/present Croatia) and dates from the third quarter of 3rd century BC until the first decades of the 1th century BC. Of all these workshops, there is a special interest of the relief pottery imported from Aigion, a workshop for which our knowledge so far has been minimal. The study demonstrates that the city has produced the "superior" quality relief pottery in the area, with Efecian-Ionian and Italian influences. Also, it is shown that the range of export was wider than that set by the Siebert in 1978, and that it extends well outside the Peloponnese (probably up to the South Italy). The plethora of traded pottery from all these regions in Oiniades (mainly until the mid-second century BC), which is noted in most cases for the first time and in some other instances in unprecedented quantities, proves the flourishing and the importance of the port of Oiniades for the transit trade (until the end of the second-early first century BC).
The remaining 1/3 of the vases found in shipsheds are manufactured by two local workshops of the city, but seems that these relief bowls are produced exclusively for "internal consumption" (not having been identified elsewhere outside Aitoloakarnania). The production of local workshop A dates in the second half of the second century BC and is slightly earlier than workshop B. These bowls are decorated by original themes and do not seem to have a particular personality or "uniformity" relating to their repertoire of decoration. The production of this workshop shows heterogeneous influences, a common feature in the production of certain other laboratories of Aitoloakarnania (Arsinoe, Stratos and Thermos). The local workshop B (in the late 2nd century BC and until the first three decades of the 1st century BC) produces mainly imitations of Efecian-Ionian skyphoi. However, these vessels have completely prototype medallions (local inspiration) at the base, which are encountered simultaneously in several other cities of Aitoloakarnania, Achaia and Arcadia (mainly in Nafpaktos, Aigion and Loussoi). It is thus established that there was a "common language" in the manufacturing laboratories in the region (both in terms of the shape of the vessel, and as well as in the repertoire of decoration). This is certainly due to the proximity and the intense trading of vases, but also suggests the trading of "stamps" and perhaps molds which were used for manufacture. Therefore, the workshops which produced relief pottery in the area of Patraic and West Corinthian Gulf demonstrate a completely original character (stylistic genre), which is influenced to a maximum degree by the maritime trade routes of the period.
Chapter V is essentially a summary of conclusions drawn from the study of relief pottery of all the workshops.
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