Contextualizing rare shapes of Athenian Kerameikos from coastal and inland Thrace (6th–4th c. BC): an approach through the AtticPOT repository

Abstract

Although Attic pottery is found even at the edges of the ancient world, different geographic areas constituted different markets, thus Attic production was to fulfil various needs. Shapes seen in context has always been a fundamental way of tracing the interrelation between ancient markets and the production of Athenian Kerameikos. However, not all shapes share the same popularity. And although studying those that come in large numbers is the first and understandable impulse, tracking the distribution of rare shapes in space as well as time can also be very fruitful. For more than three years the team of the project Attic POttery in Thrace (AtticPOT; http://atticpot.athenarc.gr/) has recorded and studied a substantial part of the published Attic figured pottery dated between the 6th and the 4th c. BC, from numerous sites of ancient Thrace. With this article, we aim to outline the spatial as well as temporal distribution of shapes that appear with 20 items or less (vessels or sherds) in the extensive geographic area covered by ancient Thrace and to study them within their contexts. In this effort, we will use all the tools provided by our digital repository and the archaeological GIS laboratory of the Athena R.C. (http://aegis.athenarc.gr/).

Keywords

• Attic pottery
• ancient Thrace
• AtticPOT
• context
• pottery distribution