Traditional Pottery and Potters in Cyprus: The disappearance of an ancient craft industry in the 19th and 20th centuries

Ashgate
Ioannis Ionas
ISBN: 0754603237
price: $84.95   hardcover

The conservative character of traditional handmade pottery in Cyprus has long attracted the interest of archaeologists and ethnoarchaeologists. But these have mainly been concerned with manufacturing techniques, while this book considers the subject from wider perspectives and highlights the complementary relationship between handmade pottery produced by peasant-potters and wheel-made pottery issuing from urban workshops. By considering the social position of the potter and modes of pottery production, Ionas opens out the discussion of craft production and illustrates its dependency on socioeconomic organization.
At the core of the book is a classification of more than 100 hand- and wheel-made objects according to their function, and a detailed analysis of techniques, from earth-gathering to firing. By then exploiting all existing data - including ancient writings, etymologies and toponyms - the static nature of ethnographic information is partially overcome and the author shows how craft-production is an integral aspect of the troubled history of the Eastern Mediterranean. The conclusions reached in this important study will undoubtedly encourage new research into the evolution of craft-production from the medieval period onwards in the lands of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.
Contents: Preface; List of illustrations; Administration, economy and daily life; Traditional pottery: Centres of production and repertoires; Classification; Surface treatments: decoration, inscriptions, coating for impermeability and glazing; Use; Pottery manufacture: The potter's implements; Raw materials and their treatment; Forming and finishing methods; Kilns and firing; Potters, production and distribution: Potters; Discussions of the modes of production; Words linked to the pottery craft: Older names for the classes of potters and etymologies; Toponyms; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.