Ergebnisse
The integrated study of pottery from Heraion and the combination of three ceramic assemblages from the old and new excavations has allowed the creation of a complete ceramic sequence and the establishment of the technological profile of the local ceramic production. This included a detailed reconstruction of all stages in the operational sequence, from the identification of raw material sources and their manipulation by the local potters as well as methods employed in forming, finishing and firing of the ceramic vessels. A complex picture of continuity and change has been revealed in the individual stages of the ceramic manufacturing sequence at Heraion at a diachronic level from one phase to the other.
This diachronic study has produced significant patterns of production and exchange. Regarding pottery production, the variation in fabrics implies that there must be several production centres operating in parallel in the vicinity of the site or some perhaps beyond the environs of settlement itself. The majority of the pottery dated to the early phases of the EBA fall into the metamorphic fabric(s), which comprise more than half of the total analysed samples. Combined with the macroscopic information, the petrographic analysis revealed some important associations between shape, assumed function, fabric, and ware. In the subsequent period there emerges a more varied picture with fabrics used for the manufacture of particular vessel types or even a range of similar fabrics that could reflect the existence of several production centres that produce the same types in similar or different recipes. This could point out distinct manufacturing traditions and markedly different clays that can be explained from a chronological and technological perspective. Furthermore, the wealth of ceramic evidence at Heraion presented us with the potential to also explore inter-site relations at a regional level through comparative examination of thin sections from other sites and an extensive bibliographical research on form/finish/fabric comparanda and vessel parallels from across the Aegean and Anatolia during the EBA.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE PROJECT 2013-2019
KOUKA, O., MENELAOU, S. and MANIATIS, Y. forthcoming. Filling in the Puzzle: A Holistic Approach on the Early Bronze Age at the Heraion on Samos In: T. Marketou and T.S. Vitale (eds.), The Southeast Aegean/Southwest Coastal Anatolian Region: Material Evidence and Cultural Identity I. The Early and Middle Bronze Age, International Conference, Athens, 12-14 May 2016, Italian School of Athens.
MENELAOU, S. 2018. A Diachronic Study of the Early Bronze Age Pottery from Heraion on Samos, Greece: An Integrated Approach. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sheffield.
KOUKA, O. and MENELAOU, S. 2018. Settlement and Society in the Early Bronze Age Heraion: Exploring Stratigraphy, Architecture and Ceramic Innovation after mid–3rd Millennium BC. In: E. Alram-Stern and B. Horejs (eds.), Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections between the Aegean and Anatolia during the 3rd millennium BC. OREA 10, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften-Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Oriental and European Archaeology, Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 119-142.
MENELAOU, S. 2017. Πετρογραφική ανάλυση της ύστερης Πρωτοχαλκής ΙΙ-ΙΙΙ κεραμικής από το Ηραίον Σάμου: πρώτη προσπάθεια κατανόησης της σύστασης, της τεχνολογίας και της προέλευσης. In: Π. Τριανταφυλλίδης, (εκδ.), Το Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στα Νησιά του Αιγαίου. Διεθνές Επιστημονικό Συνέδριο, Ρόδος, 27 Νοεμβρίου - 1 Δεκεμβρίου 2013, Αρχαιολογικό Ινστιτούτο Αιγαιακών Σπουδών, Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού και Αθλητισμού, 181-194.
MENELAOU, S., KOUKA, O. and DAY, P.M. 2016a. Pottery Production and Exchange at the Heraion, Samos during the Late Third Millennium BC: First Steps in the Study of Technology and Provenance. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7, 480-488.
MENELAOU, S., KOUKA, O. and DAY, P.M. 2016b. Fashioning Ceramics and Weaving Worlds: the Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age Transition at the Heraion, Samos [Abstract]. In: N. Zacharias and E. Palamara (eds.), ISA 2016, 41st International Symposium on Archaeometry. Book of Abstracts. Panaghiotis Dimitriou Dimopoulos & SIA O.E.: Kalamata, 91-92, [ISBN 978-618-80277-2-5].
MENELAOU, S. 2015. The Heraion of Samos Under the Microscope: a Preliminary Technological and Provenance Assessment of the Early Bronze Age II late-III (ca. 2500-2000 BC) Pottery. In Z. Theodoropoulou-Polychroniadis and E. Doniert (eds.), Aegis: Essays in Mediterranean Archaeology Presented to Matti Egon by the Scholars of the Greek Archaeological Committee UK. Archaeopress, Oxford, 25-34.
MENELAOU, S. 2013. A Preliminary Petrographic Analysis of the Early Bronze Age II late-III Pottery from the Heraion on Samos, Greece: Towards a Compositional, Technological and Provenance Understanding. Unpublished MSc Dissertation, University of Sheffield.
RECENT PAPER AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS
MENELAOU, S. 2019. Maritime connectivity and mobility between the east Aegean and western Anatolia during the third millennium BC: an integrated ceramic approach. Oral presentation, ANAMED Fellows Symposium 2018-2019, Koç University, Turkey, 15-16 May 2019.
MENELAOU, S. 2019. A seascape of change: concepts of maritime connectivity within the east Aegean islands and west Anatolian borderland during the third millennium BC. Oral presentation, International Workshop “Frontiers or Interaction Zones? Borderlands as Areas of Communication and Mobility”. University of Bern, Switzerland, 28/02-02/03/2019.
MENELAOU, S. 2018. Beyond networks and macro-scale analysis: unravelling local micro-histories of pottery through an integrated methodology. Oral presentation, “Methodology and Archaeometry”, Scientific Conference of the Department of Archaeology, University of Zagreb, Croatia, 06-07 December 2018.
MENELAOU, S., KOUKA, O. and DAY, P.M. 2018. Between East and West: positioning the Early Bronze Age Heraion (Samos) within Aegean exchange networks through the ceramic evidence. Poster presentation (co-presented by O. Kouka and P.M. Day), International Conference “42nd International Symposium on Archaeometry (ISA)”. Autonomous University of Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán (Mexico), 20-26 May 2018.
MENELAOU, S. and KOUKA, O. 2016. Filling in the puzzle: a holistic approach on the Early Bronze Age at the Heraion on Samos. Oral presentation (co-presented by O. Kouka and P.M. Day), International Conference “SASCAR: The southeast Aegean/southwest coastal Anatolian region: material evidence and cultural identity. Early and Middle Bronze Age”. Italian Archaeological School at Athens, 12-14 May 2016.
MENELAOU, S., KOUKA, O. AND DAY, P.M. 2015. A technological assessment of ceramics from the Early Bronze Age Heraion settlement of Samos, Greece: towards an integrated approach. Poster presentation, International Conference “13th European meeting on ancient ceramics (EMAC)”, Athens, 24-26 September 2015.
