The Wider Island of Pelops: Studies on Prehistoric Aegean Pottery in Honour of Professor Christopher Mee

The Wider Island of Pelops explores the myriad ways in which pottery was created, utilized, and experienced in the prehistoric Aegean, across a period of more than 4000 years between the Middle Neolithic and the Early Iron Age transition. Pottery is capable both of creating bonds and creating barriers. It serves as a sociocultural call and response, marking similarity and difference, collectivism and individualism, knowledge, and the absence of knowledge. Contextually-bound, it embodies identities, memories and multiple histories. It reflects choice and reinforces orthodoxy; a product of change, and a driver of it, that both creates and curates understanding of the world. Necessity and commodity, at times anachronistic, and at others, avant-garde, it is subversive and slavish, innovative and derivative; visible always, and never without value. The seventeen papers collected here provide a diachronic perspective on the value of pottery in marking and mediating cross-scale sociocultural discourse; in framing and facilitating the transmission of knowledge and meaning; in driving economies; in the preservation of memory, in the practice of cult; and, in more recent times, as a vector in the dialogue of imperialism: at once introducing key themes in the study of Aegean pottery, and providing a snapshot of recent archaeological work in Greece.

Table of Contents:
Preface ; Professor Christopher Mee (1950-2013) ; The Late-Final Neolithic and Early Helladic I Pottery from Midea in the Argolid: Continuity and Change – Eva Alram-Stern, Clare Burke, Katie Demakopoulou, and Peter M. Day ; Kouphovouno and the Cyclades: A Note – Robin Barber ; A Submerged EH II Settlement at Lambayanna in the Argolid: The Preliminary Results of the 2015 Survey – Julien Beck, Patrizia Birchler Emery, Despina Koutsoumba ; Tradition, Transition, and the Impact of the New in Neolithic Greece – William Cavanagh and Josette Renard ; Final Neolithic and Early Helladic Pottery from Geraki – Joost Crouwel ; Understanding Mycenae – E.B. French † ; Localism and Interconnectivity in a Post-Palatial Laconian Maritime Landscape (Late Helladic IIIC to Submycenaean/Early Protogeometric) – Chrysanthi Gallou, Jon Henderson, Elias Spondylis, William Cavanagh ; Similarities and Differences between Korakou and Kolonna in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages – Walter Gauss ; The Ceramic Assemblage of Leska on Kythera – Mercourios Georgiadis ; Regional Diversities or Occupational Gap? Pottery Styles During the Late 14th and 13th Centuries BC at Ayios Vasileios – Eleftheria Kardamaki, Vasco Hachtmann, Adamantia Vasilogamvrou, Nektarios Karadimas, Sofia Voutsaki ; The Expansion of Mortuary Behaviour and Rites Across the Coastal Caves of the Mani Peninsula, Laconia, during the Final Neolithic: Evidence from the Burial Sites of Skoini 3 and Skoini 4 – Stella Katsarou and Andreas Darlas ; Attica during the Final Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age: Regional Ceramic Traditions and Connections with Neighbouring Areas – Margarita Nazou ; The Study of Mycenaean Pottery from Cyprus: A Short Story of the 1895 British Museum Excavations at Site D, Kourion – Angelos Papadopoulos ; Filling a Gap: First Steps in the Discovery of Early Helladic III Laconia – Aris Papayiannis ; Ceramic Surprises from LH IIIC Aigeira – Jeremy Rutter ; Coarse Labours Long Continued: Cooking Vessels, Culinary Technology and Prehistoric Foodways at Phylakopi, Melos – David Michael Smith ; Ritual Pyres in Minoan Peak Sanctuaries. Reality and Popular Myths – Iphigeneia Tournavitou

About the Author :
David Michael Smith holds a doctorate in Aegean Prehistory from the University of Liverpool, where he is a post-doctoral research associate. Author of Pocket Museum: Greece (Thames & Hudson), his analysis of Bronze Age pottery and metalwork from the Cycladic site of Phylakopi, Melos, is currently in press. He is currently preparing the publication of pottery from Keros and Dhaskalio, as well as the results of excavation at the site of Olynthos in Macedonia. William G. Cavanagh is Professor Emeritus of Aegean Archaeology and co-director of the Centre for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies at the University of Nottingham. He is co-director of excavations at the Laconian site of Kouphovouno, Laconia, and has previously co-directed the Laconia Survey and Laconia Rural Sites project. His research focuses on Laconian archaeology, the archaeology of death and mathematical applications in archaeology. He is currently preparing the publication of excavations at Kouphovouno and Pavlopetri. Angelos Papadopoulos holds a doctorate in archaeology from the University of Liverpool and teaches at College Year in Athens and the Open University of Cyprus. His research is focused on various aspects of iconography, trade and warfare in the Bronze Age Mediterranean and the Eastern Mediterranean. Angelos is an active field archaeologist and is currently working towards the publication of the prehistoric cemetery of Kissonerga-Ammoudia in Cyprus and ceramic material from Tell el-Hesi, Israel.

Review :
'[A] varied collection of papers covering interesting material and offering valuable insights on many topics.' – Oliver Dickinson (2024): Journal of Greek Archaeology ‘The Wider Island of Pelops is a substantial contribution to ceramic studies in the Aegean, highlighting the central role pottery played in the lives of prehistoric people and how fundamental it still is to the discipline. ...The initial chapter detailing his life (‘Professor Christopher Mee [1950–2013]’), however, serves as a poignant and a touching tribute to a remarkable scholar and human being, a sentiment echoed through the combined effort of the contributors to this volume.’ – Christopher Nuttall (2024): Opuscula 17