An investigation of production technologies of Byzantine glazed pottery from Corinth, Greece in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. Volume 1 : Text

The century of archaeological excavations carried out at Corinth, Greece have resulted
in the accumulation of a collection of Byzantine glazed pottery unparalleled in the
Aegean. The site is set apart from others as being one of only a few sites in the
Byzantine world where glazed pottery manufacture has been confirmed. The glazed
pottery assemblage demonstrates a changing industry there. During the eleventh
century local production consisted of brown glazed, unslipped vessels in a conservative
range of forms that were in use alongside the imported, fine Constantinopolitan slip
painted and polychrome White Wares. By the end of the eleventh century the local
industry had established itself and these imports had ceased as a competitor. At this time
local pottery production went through a major revolution in terms of decorative
techniques and vessel morphology. Instead of the earlier plain glazed products slips and
green and brown glazes were used in combination to produce a range of decorative
styles each lasting only a generation or so.
In this thesis, the development of production technologies of Byzantine glazed pottery
manufactured at Corinth between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries are examined
using a number of archaeometric techniques: pottery fabrics are examined using
ceramic petrography and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy and
their corresponding glazes are investigated using electron probe microanalysis. The
data collected were used to establish patterns of pottery production and trade, and in
particular explore developments in methods of glazing. A period of transition in
glazing technologies is identified, while certain technological practices are shown to be
more sophisticated than has previously been acknowledged for the period in question.