Posted by vrcvanderbilt on Monday, October 29, 2018 in Events, HART, Lectures, News, Vanderbilt University, VRC.

Greek pots, with their delicate shapes, lively scenes, and varied contexts of use and deposition have enjoyed great popularity with ancient and modern viewers alike. They have also been scrutinized as documentation of gender roles, extent of literacy, social and economic status, and as media for political propaganda.

Scholars have recently widened their research scope to highlight the potters who produced these vessels. On Thursday, November 1, at 6 pm in the Nashville Parthenon, Eleni Hasaki, associate professor of anthropology and classics, University of Arizona, will lecture on the expanded understanding produced by this latest research: The World of Ancient Greek Potters: Production Places, Practices, Prayers. A closer look at the spatial layout and technological equipment of their workshops and at the workforce relationships brings these establishments alive with masters, apprentices, middlemen, and purchasers, constantly negotiating their roles inside and outside the workshop.

Even when technical secrets were well-guarded in an environment of relentless competition, everyone knew and appreciated the long hours that a potter had to practice to achieve perfection. A potter’s apprenticeship at the wheel was so long and arduous that even Greek philosophers used it as the most effective metaphor for conveying the importance of mastering all topics in a slow and structured manner. While patiently controlling forms and fire, Greek potters often prayed to the gods to secure successful firings and to protect their businesses from local and global competitors in ever-changing configurations of trade networks.

Hasaki, a Mediterranean archaeologist who received both her MA and PhD in classics from the University of Cincinnati, is the AIA’s Caskey Lecturer for 2018. Among her research interests are craft technology and apprenticeship in classical antiquity, Mediterranean pottery technology, ancient pyrotechnology, experimental archaeology, and ethnoarchaeology. She is project director for the creation of a searchable online database of ceramic kilns from prehistoric to Byzantine times and is senior pottery analyst for the excavations at the Sanctuary of Apollo on Paros (Greece).

Free and open to the public, the lecture is cosponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, the Program in Classical and Mediterranean Studies, the Department of History of Art, and the Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park. Those who plan to attend the AIA lecture are encouraged to call the Nashville Parthenon at 615.862.8431 to reserve a seat. The Parthenon is located at 2500 West End Avenue in the Centennial Park.