Ceramics from Makriyalos II, northern Greece.

Recent theoretical and methodological developments in pottery studies have
altered the way archaeologists handle and interpret prehistoric pottery. The
technology and use of pottery, and the symbolic and social meaning of pots, are
considered as anthropological phenomena, the products of human action. Excavations
at Late Neolithic Makriyalos offered the opportunity to explore several aspects of
Neolithic society in Greece from a new perspective. This thesis explores the ceramic
assemblage of the second phase of Makriyalos. The study is structured around the
concept of the ceramic chalne operatoire in an attempt to move beyond the traditional
concern with typology and chronology and towards an approach that foregrounds the
producers and consumers of ceramics. Ceramics are studied in terms of their
production, use, function, and discard and, as far as the available data permit, in terms
of the spatial distribution and social contexts in which these activities took place.
The choices made by potters at successive stages of ceramic production show
that pottery from Makriyalos II exhibits a level of complexity and diversification in
terms of ware, ceramic paste, surface finishing and firing conditions, directly linked,
on the one hand, to practical considerations and, on the other hand, to cultural and
social distinctions or contexts of use, consumption and discard. Spatial and contextual
differences in a series of variables related to the ceramic material suggest differences
in the intra-site organisation of space, some of which may plausibly be interpreted in
terms of an opposition between smaller (perhaps `household') and larger ('interhousehold')
scales of social activity.