A Foreign Potter in the Pylian Kingdom? A Reanalysis of the Ceramic Assemblage of Room 60 in the Palace of Nestor at Pylos

by Bartłomiej Lis

Hesperia, Volume 85, Issue 3
Page(s): 491-536
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.85.3.0491
Year: 2016
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ABSTRACT:

This article offers a reanalysis of the ceramic assemblage from room 60, one of the pantries of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos. The study is based on the original 1966 publication by Blegen and Rawson, excavation notebooks, archive photographs, and personal investigation of the pottery recovered from that room. It is argued that a particular manufacturing technique, characteristic of a group of shapes from room 60 but distinct from the standard Mycenaean potting tradition, betrays the activity of a foreign potter. This study also demonstrates that pottery from room 60 served at least two different functions—as paraphernalia used during funerary feasts and as utensils for manufacturing perfumed oil, a crucial commodity for the Pylian economy.