How to Make a Cooking Pot on Lesvos, Greece

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Cooking pots do a job, a hard job. As a result, we have enshrined them as a special measure of ceramic functional suitability, a witness to know-how, and even technological progress. This paper explores the production of cooking pots by three different groups of potters on the island of Lesvos, Greece over the course of the twentieth century until the present day. Located only a short distance from the mainland of modern day Türkiye, Lesvos has hosted the influx of potters from both coastal Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean, as well as the long-established production on the island itself. Cooking pots have been produced by these groups in different styles and under contrasting circumstances. Distinct choices in terms of raw material selection, vessel morphology and surface finish characterize the three pottery traditions discussed: potters from Agios Stephanos, Siphnos and Menemen. We contemplate the role of practice, narratives of tradition and the changing political landscape in the production of this basic ceramic household equipment, in the face of wars of independence, the demise of the Ottoman Empire and, more recently, the arrival of electricity and piped water.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50629