[Authors and titles are listed at the end of this review]
Over the last half century, Greek Iron Age pottery has moved to the forefront of debates about intercultural exchange, emerging mobility networks, and the formation of complex polities in the early first millennium BCE. Editor Stefanos Gimatzidis assembles a multinational and interdisciplinary group of scholars to examine the provenance (here used to mean source of raw material), production, and consumption of Protogeometric (PG) and Geometric (G) pottery across the Mediterranean. The volume’s shared emphasis on Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) sets high standards for rigor in ceramic provenancing, while the authors’ region-specific expertise, from the Levant to Greece, Italy, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula, yields fresh interpretations of the many social and economic roles played by “Greek pottery.”
In what follows, the reviewer discusses each chapter, beginning with the first three, which establish the book’s methodological focus and main argument. In the Introduction (Chapter 1), Gimatzidis highlights earlier Hellenocentric perspectives on Iron Age ceramics and lays out the project’s overarching aims: to identify ceramic origins more scientifically and to interpret the social relationships behind these new data. In Chapter 2, Gimatzidis and Hans Mommsen outline their NAA approach, demonstrating how elemental fingerprints can pinpoint distinct regions (clay sources) or workshops, and clarifying the volume’s chemical groupings. This section forms the basis for the project’s ambitious output: 362 analysed samples (ceramic and clay), many from newly excavated or lesser-studied sites, which prompt a re-evaluation of long-held assumptions about “Euboean,” “Attic,” “Corinthian,” or “local” pottery in the Mediterranean. Further elaboration in Chapter 3 addresses the earliest Aegean transport amphoras, K-22 Ware (a distinct northern Aegean fabric), and other Geometric ceramics. Gimatzidis focuses on problematic categories—particularly the early Aegean transport amphoras and K-22 Ware. Merging NAA data with typological observations, he identifies which workshops in northern Greece or elsewhere produced these morphologically similar but chemically distinct vessels, thus challenging earlier notions of a single mother workshop.
Moving from the volume’s methodological framework to regional case studies, the contributors show how NAA results reshape our understanding of cultural or economic connections. The subsequent chapters examine specific sites and regions of the Mediterranean.
Chapters 4 (Gimatzidis) and 5 (Bozkova and Gimatzidis) focus on Macedonia in northern Greece and the Balkan hinterland, reviewing finds from indigenous sites (Sindos, Polichni, Kastanas) and three colonial sites (Mende, Argilos, Thasos). Their work demonstrates that northern Aegean workshops were no mere imitators of southern Greek pottery (like pendent semicircle skyphoi). Instead, potters met local demands, occasionally adopting decorative motifs from the Aegean heartland. Further north, in the Balkan hinterland, Bozkova and Gimatzidis reveal that vessels once deemed southern Greek Euboean imports frequently come from local workshops. K-22 Ware—mainly closed shapes—appears to have travelled north for the first time as transport vessels, later acting as a cultural marker along Macedonian river valleys. The authors conclude that the groups bringing these K-22 transport vessels moved through the northern Aegean before the arrival of the earliest Greek colonizers who founded Mende, Argilos, or Thasos.
Many chapters illustrate how older approaches linking style and ethnic identity (Euboean versus local) often oversimplify the data. In Chapter 5, Bozkova and Gimatzidis show that ceramics bearing Greek decoration can emerge from indigenous Balkan contexts, demanding a thorough rethinking of what “Greek” entails in Iron Age material culture.
In Chapter 6, Jalkotzy-Deger and Gimatzidis, examining Kynos and the cemetery at Elateia in central Greece argue that Protogeometric transport amphoras (PTAs) indicate that wine reached this region from the northern Aegean. After being consumed at feasts for the deceased, the empty amphoras were deposited as grave goods, while the drinking vessels remained in the dromos. The transport vessels’ decoration seems tied to their producing region or workshop. Again, these amphoras primarily served to carry commodities, mainly wine, rather than operating as luxury items or markers of identity.
Shifting to the eastern Aegean, Chapter 7 (Vaessen and Ersoy) presents new findings from Ionian Klazomenai, where Aegean amphoras attest to the site’s central role in maritime networks. The authors note that local potters adopted or adapted typically Greek shapes, such as skyphoi, though chemical data confirm multiple clay sources. Rather than forming a single Ionian style, this suggests a dynamic, overlapping manufacturing environment. They also propose that the PSC skyphos may have resembled a favoured metal vessel type, which enhanced its popularity and possibly facilitated simultaneous stylistic development over a broad region.
Chapter 8 (Mermati) reviews early Greek colonies in Campania, Kyme and Pithekoussai, and their links to indigenous groups in the Sarno Valley. By comparing NAA data with local clay sources, Mermati finds that certain Greek-type vessels were produced regionally, highlighting the complexities of trade and ceramic production. She concludes that large-scale pottery imports from the homeland were not common in Italy’s earliest Greek colonies; rather, potters and their methods travelled along Euboean trade routes, bringing Greek models with them.
Further in Magna Graecia, Chapter 9 (Lentini) focuses on Sicilian Naxos, one of the earliest Greek sites in Sicily, and its interplay with indigenous Sikel and Phoenician communities during the Late Geometric and Early Archaic periods. By mapping the chemical makeup of different contexts, Lentini shows that large kraters and storage vessels retained strong ties to the Greek mainland, whereas some shapes quickly localized. She concludes that Sicilian Naxos effectively became a centre for producing Euboeanizing pottery during Geometric times.
Here is another good example of the central strength of the volume: its rigorous integration of archaeometric data and archaeological context. By analysing stratified ceramic sets, such as Lentini’s work on Sicilian Naxos (Chapter 9) or Castro et al. on Utica (Chapter 12), these papers go beyond attributing scattered Greek vessels to a solitary mother city. Instead, they detail intricate exchange networks among local workshops, Greek metropoles, Phoenician enclaves, and indigenous communities, calling into question straightforward notions of colonization and calling for more nuanced perspectives on cultural entanglements.
Turning to the Iberian Peninsula, Chapter 10 (Alfonso) examines an assemblage from coastal Málaga, noting that middle Geometric Greek bowls are rare, and apparently fall out of use in the Late Geometric period. These vessels appear mostly in Phoenician domestic contexts and likely entered local banqueting customs, possibly marking social standing. Meanwhile, Chapter 11 (de Canales et al.) studies Huelva, a site associated with the hybrid Tartessian culture of Phoenician settlers and native peoples. Their NAA results show numerous Greek shapes (skyphoi, oinochoai) with multiple Aegean origins, suggesting a more polycentric import process than once presumed. Local potters may have produced Greek-inspired shapes for various domestic, funerary, or ritual purposes, though the specific consumers—whether Greeks, Phoenicians, or indigenous communities—remain unclear.
In North Africa, Chapter 12 (Castro et al.) challenges older ideas of Phoenician exclusivity at Utica. A closed deposit from Well 20017 yielded Greek Geometric pottery whose elemental fingerprint matches specific Aegean origins, pointing to maritime ties established prior to Utica’s traditionally assumed development. It is important that these authors argue that ceramics played only a secondary role in long-distance commerce; raw materials, metals, wine, oil and other goods were presumably the primary items driving exchange. While residue analyses of transport amphoras are absent here, it remains an open question what future investigations might uncover regarding the contents of the Greek transport amphoras recovered in Utica. Chapter 13 (Jerbania) continues this discussion, expanding the Greek-type assemblage at Utica. The early presence of such wares underscores broader Phoenician expansion and suggests that Greek-influenced ceramics may have served elite or ritual roles in communities mixing multiple cultural traditions.
Chapters 14 (Gimatzidis and Doumet-Serhal) and 15 (Núñez) move to Sidon and Tyre in the Levant, emphasizing Greek pottery’s place in Phoenician ritual or funerary use. At Sidon, Greek vessels appear alongside local bowls, showing functional overlap. As Gimatzidis notes (pp. 447–448), the question of raw materials—iron, silver, etc.—remains underexplored, given that pottery was not usually the main commodity. Instead, vessels might have served as containers for more valuable resources like wine or oil, or simply as space fillers in maritime trade. In Tyre’s al-Bass necropolis, Núñez similarly finds Greek shapes in mortuary contexts, again highlighting the varied networks Phoenician elites pursued, even if Aegean imports in this cemetery are comparatively few next to, for instance, Cypriot wares.
The inclusion of regions such as North Africa, the Levant, and Iberia broadens the scope beyond an exclusively Hellenocentric lens, illustrating a myriad of local appropriations of Greek pottery. Sidon and Tyre in particular underscore how culturally specific consumption patterns and values could be, though Núñez’s study at al-Bass reminds us that Greek imports often remained numerically modest next to other foreign ceramics.
In the concluding Chapter 16, Gimatzidis synthesizes these findings, contending that older narratives of Greek migration or colonial expansion cannot adequately explain the multiplicity of production, exchange, and usage patterns observed. A more integrated final summary of regional data and a consolidated chronological reference table could have further aided readers, especially those new to Iron Age studies.[1] The absence of a broader theoretical synthesis, for instance, drawing explicitly on postcolonial theory or entanglement approaches, leaves room for future scholarship.
While the volume offers a significant step toward revising Iron Age ceramic studies, some aspects could be enhanced. Many chapters go beyond diffusionist models, yet a more explicit engagement with sociocultural theories of materiality and agency might deepen interpretations. This is particularly the case regarding “hybrid” pottery in the Balkan hinterland (Chapter 5). Brief postcolonial or entanglement-based discussions would underscore the editor’s call to move beyond Hellenocentric outlooks.[2] Finally, a more comprehensive discussion of how “foreign objects” like Greek pottery fit into local social structures would satisfy some readers. The concept of the lifeworld, informed by action theory clarifies how quickly foreign items and expertise were incorporated into local lifeways.[3] On the other hand, newcomers adapted to host cultures without discarding their own identities.[4]
Overall, this volume sets a high bar in Iron Age ceramic studies. By blending the scientific rigor of NAA with a broad cultural perspective, it demonstrates just how much our understanding of “Greek” pottery shifts when we consider the realities of localized production, imitation, and consumption. The volume fundamentally refines our view of how Greek ceramics circulated and were recontextualized in the broader Mediterranean, paving the way for future investigations of local production, hybridization, and Morris’s Mediterraneanization processes .[5] Whether one’s interests lie in Greek colonization, Phoenician archaeology, or the vast panorama of Mediterranean exchange in the Iron Age, this volume provides new data, interpretive approaches, and a range of comparative case studies. Despite minor issues, such as nonfunctioning color reproduction links at the time of review, a somewhat limited theoretical conversation on Greek-inspired wares, and the need for additional interregional comparisons, the book’s accomplishments are notable. Ultimately, the editor and contributors succeed in their main objective: rethinking early Greek pottery to better understand how Iron Age communities developed in increasingly interconnected cultural spheres. Future interdisciplinary partnerships will likely continue to expand our knowledge of Iron Age ceramics and cross-cultural dynamics in the ancient Mediterranean.
One hopes future studies will delve further into residue analyses on PTAs or integrated materiality theories, building on this volume’s achievements. In sum, Greek Iron Age Pottery in the Mediterranean World is essential reading for anyone investigating early Iron Age connectivity, Greek–Phoenician interactions, or the broader tapestry of ancient Mediterranean exchange.
Authors and Titles
- Introduction to the Analysis of Greek Iron Age Pottery in the Mediterranean World – Stefanos Gimatzidis
- Greek Iron Age Pottery in the Mediterranean World: Provenance Studies by Neutron Activation Analysis – Stefanos Gimatzidis and Hans Mommsen
- Greek Iron Age Pottery in the Mediterranean World: Provenance Studies of the Earliest Aegean Transport Amphoras, K-22 Ware, and Other Geometric Ceramics – Stefanos Gimatzidis
- The Social Context of Pottery Production, Exchange, and Consumption in the Northern Aegean – Stefanos Gimatzidis
- Geometric Pottery Production and Consumption in the Balkan Hinterland: Patterns of Ceramic Technology Transfer in the Early Iron Age – Anelia Bozkova and Stefanos Gimatzidis
- The Aegean Connection of East Locris: Exchange of Protogeometric Transport Amphoras and Other Ceramic Wares at Elateia and Kynos – Sigrid Jalkotzy-Deger and Stefanos Gimatzidis
- Early Iron Age Klazomenai: The Evidence from Neutron Activation Analysis – Rik Vaessen and Yaşar E. Ersoy
- The Earliest Greek Colonisation in Campania: Pottery from Kyme, Pithekoussai and the Sarno Valley in the Light of Neutron Activation Analysis – Francesca Mermati
- Late Geometric and Orientalising Pottery from Sicilian Naxos in Its Context – Maria Costanza Lentini
- Early Greek Pottery on the Coast of Málaga, Andalusia, Spain: Feasting, Cultural Contacts and Trade in the Phoenician West – Eduardo García Alfonso
- Consumption of Geometric and Archaic Greek Pottery in the Emporion of Huelva (Tartessos, South-Western Spain) – Fernando González de Canales, Jorge Llompart, and Aurelio Montaño
- Greek Geometric Ceramics from Phoenician Utica: The Closed Context of Well 20017 – José Luis López Castro, Imed Ben Jerbania, Alfredo Mederos Martín, Víctor Martínez Hahnmüller, and Ahmed Ferjaoui
- The Greek Geometric Pottery from the Tunisian Excavations at Utica – Imed Ben Jerbania
- Early Iron Age Greek Pottery at Sidon: The Ritual Context of Consumption – Stefanos Gimatzidis and Claude Doumet-Serhal
- The Role of Aegean Imports and Aegeanizing Wares in the Phoenician Cemetery of al-Bass, Tyre – Francisco J. Núñez
- Concluding Remarks on Early Greek Pottery Production, Exchange and Consumption Overseas – Stefanos Gimatzidis
Notes
[1] Gilboa, A. and Sharon, I. 2003. “An Archaeological Contribution to the Early Iron Age Chronological Debate: Alternative Chronologies for Phoenicia and Their Effects on the Levant, Cyprus, and Greece.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 332, 7–80; Kaiser, E. and Schier, W. (eds) 2021. Time and Materiality. Periodization and Regional Chronologies at the Transition from Bronze to Iron Age in Eurasia (1200–600 BCE). Prähistorische Archäologie in Südosteuropa 31. Rahden/Westf.: Verlag Marie Leidorf.
[2] Dietler, M. 2010. Archaeologies of Colonialism: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France. Berkeley: University of California Press; Hodos, T. 2017. “Globalization: Some Basics.” In T. Hodos (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Globalization, 3–11. London: Routledge.
[3] Schütz A. and Luckmann Th. 1979. Strukturen der Lebenswelt. Neuwied/Darmstadt: Suhrkamp Verlag; Habermas, J. 1981. Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Band 2: Zur Kritik der funktionalistischen Vernunft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
[4] Stockhammer, P. 2011. “Von der Postmoderne zum practice turn: Für ein neues Verständnis des Mensch-Ding-Verhältnisses in der Archäologie.” Ethnographisch-Archäologische Zeitschrift 52.2, 188–214; Maran, J. 2012. “Ceremonial Feasting Equipment, Social Space and Interculturality in Post-palatial Tiryns.” In J. Maran and P. Stockhammer (eds.) Materiality and Social Practice. Transformative Capacities of Intercultural Encounters. Oxford: Oxbowbooks, 122–136; Maran, J., and Papadimitriou, A. 2021. “Der lange Schatten der Palastzeit: Die nördliche Unterstadt von Tiryns: ein Großbauprojekt palast- und nachpalastzeitlicher Entscheidungsträger.” Archäologischer Anzeiger 1 Halbband 2021, 1–141.
[5] Morris, I. 2005. “Mediterraneanization.” In I. Malkin (ed.), Mediterranean Paradigms and Classical Antiquity, 30–55. London: Routledge.