Reading the Clay
Craft-Specialisation in Handmade Pottery of Late Antique Cyprus
Reading by Dr. Smadar Gabrieli, Marie-Curie research fellow at the Saxo Institute, UCPH.
Abstract
The handmade pottery of Late Antique and Medieval Cyprus has been considered for a long time as the product of rural, localised, non-specialised production which cannot be used as a dating- or interpretation-tool for archaeologists. More generally, archaeologists of late periods resist the notion that handmade pottery can be the product of anything but non-specialised ‘cottage industry’. Demonstrating the fallacy of both beliefs is necessary in order to resolve the so-called gap in the archaeology of Cyprus between the mid7th and 12th centuries, and is at the core of the Marie-Curie project “Bridging the Gap”. I shall discuss the possibilities of recognising craft-specialisation in the archaeological record of Late Antique Cyprus, a period for which there are no outside sources to consult.
