This thesis examines the various forms of ceramic technology being practised on the Greek mainland during the Early III to Middle Helladic 11 periods(henceforth the LEMH, or Late Early to Middle Helladic period, from 2200-1700 B. C. ). Cross-cutting conventional chronological units, the remit of this thesis encompasses a coherent phenomenon of material culture and settlement patterning that has often been stereotyped as simple,unsophisticated and even stagnant. In order to challenge this, and to understand the range of production behaviors being practiced within these LEMH communities, I examine the ceramic assemblage from two significant LEMH settlements: Lefkandia and Asine. I utilise a methodology that allows me to isolate specific technological attributes of the ceramics(namely fabric, forming, firing, surface treatment and decoration),in addition to petrographic and chemical analyses that ensure that the ceramics I discuss are locally produced. I then undertake a detailed analysis of the diachronic changes in manufacturing technology employed at these sites over the duration of the LEMH period. Extensive comparative assemblages from published material are then examined, allowing a wide corpus of local LEMH ceramic technologies to be identified. The results of these analyses are interpreted using a theoretical model widely informed by recent ethnoarchaeological work about(i) the 'fixedness' of certain manufacturing traits and the nature of human interaction that allow for their transmission across time and space and (ii) the socio-economic structures needed to support certain forms of ceramic production. The interpretation of my results shows a technological divergence between communities of the central Greek and those of the the southern mainland, with the former region displaying traits suggestive of specialised ceramic production,while the latter region appeared to maintain a strong tradition of household based production. This unexpected emergence of a strongly coherent regional production tradition in central Greece not only belies many suppositions about the complexity of systems of craft production during the LEMH, but may contribute to explaining the consumption of a much more homogeneous body of material culture in the central Greek region during the LEMH.

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This thesis explores the meaningful character of traces of earlier occupation and burial locations visible in the late 8th century BC landscape of the Argolic Plain in the northeast Peloponnese, Greece. It will be argued that, where ruined former habitation remains and burials were observed in the contemporary landscape, these locations were regarded as meaningful places. In the past, scholarly interest has predominantly focussed on late 8th century BC votive activity and burial reuse in connection with Bronze Age chamber tombs and tholoi. However, this thesis will demonstrate that these activities should not be dislocated from the wider landscape but, rather, should be considered alongside contemporaneous interconnected behaviour. In support of this position, evidence of ritual performances among the ruins of abandoned former Bronze Age acropolis locations; placing of burials within the ruins of Bronze Age buildings; and establishment of shrines within areas of Bronze and Early Iron Age cemeteries will be considered along with data specific to late 8th century BC activities in connection with Bronze Age chamber tombs and tholoi. It will be established that these trends should be viewed collectively as a single phenomenon acknowledging locations where earlier occupation and burial remains were observed as places appropriate for the performance of rituals or burial of the dead in the late 8th century BC. This thesis will implement a landscape archaeology approach along with contextual analysis of the data and will propose an interpretation of late 8th century BC interest in earlier constructions visible in the contemporary landscape. This interpretation will assert a potential ideological connection between the location of ritual performances in association with previous occupation or burial areas and the regenerative qualities of the earth.

Les recherches précédentes sur la coroplathie de Métaponte ont abordé ce matériel comme un objet de culte circonscrit dans le sanctuaire. Face à l'abondance des données dont on dispose, ce travail cherche à actualiser nos connaissances en le considérant d'abord comme une production artisanale. L'étude se centre sur les VII0-VI° siècles avant J.-C., époque durant laquelle la polis structure progressivement son territoire et met en place ses lieux de culte. Le choix d'un corpus provenant de plusieurs sanctuaires a conduit à la définition de types techniques et à l'analyse de leur diffusion dans la cité. L'étude combine trois approches complémentaires visant à éclaircir les spécificités du matériel métapontin : en premier lieu, les chaînes opératoires et les espaces artisanaux qui introduisent la question des ateliers locaux et des moyens d'identifier leurs productions; ensuite, la diffusion du matériel dans le Métapontin et au-delà, mettant en évidence les réseaux de contacts ; enfin, les spécificités fom1elles de ce corpus et les dynamiques créatives qui s'inscrivent dans des courants à plus grande échelle. Les résultats obtenus sont placés en dernier lieux dans une perspective plus large à travers trois axes: la place de l'artisan, l'analyse iconographique et l'emploi de l'artisanat dans la définition de l'identité des ltaliotes. Cet exercice méthodologique ouvre de nouvelles perspectives en considérant la production d'une cité dans son ensemble. Il met en évidence l'intérêt d'analyser la globalité du contexte de déposition et de replacer le matériel à l'intérieur des dynamiques productives et communautaires qui lui sont propres. / Previous research on metapontian coroplastic material has focused on their ex voto dimension, circumscribed to the sanctuary. Given the abundant data that we have, this work aims to update our knowledge considering this material first of ail as a craft production. The study focuses on the VII1h-VI1h centuries B.C., period during which the polis progressively structured its territory and established its places of worship. The constitution of a corpus with material from different sanctuaries enables us to define technical types and analyse their diffusion within the city. The study combines three complementary approaches aimed at determining the specificities of metapontian materials: on the first place, the operational chains and craft spaces which introduce the question of local workshops and how to identify their productions; then, the diffusion of the material within Metaponto and beyond, highlighting the contact networks; lastly, the formal specificities of the metapontian corpus and the creative dynamics the city integrates on a larger scale. Finally, these observations are placed on a wider perspective from three different angles: the place of the craftsman, the iconographic analysis and the use of crafts in the definition of the ltaliote identity. This methodological exercise seeks to bring new perspectives by considering the city's production as a whole. JI brings out the appeal of analysing the entire depositional context and approaching the material through its own productive and communitarian dynamics.

Cette thèse propose de faire une étude des usages antiques et modernes d'un passage du deuxième chant de l’Iliade, connu depuis le Ve siècle avant notre ère sous la désignation de Catalogue de vaisseaux. Ce passage est devenu une sorte de paradigme d'un type d'énonciation, I'« énonciation en catalogue» (καταλέγειν), qu'une grande partie des études modernes a interprété comme un manière idéale de décrire la réalité du passé dans un ordre discursif étroitement lié à la transmission d'une« vérité», voire comme étant à l'origine de l'écriture de l'histoire. Cette lecture, à notre avis, eu un effet sur un certain nombre d'études modernes, et est aussi un effet de ces études. Ces effet sont loin d'être anodins car ils ont conduit à considérer le catalogue comme un document jugé utile pour trouver la « Grèce homérique» et, qui sait, pour répondre à d'autres « question homériques» La qualification de ce passage en «catalogue» fait néanmoins écho à une pratique qui, comme l'on montré d'autres études, remonte non seulement à la production poétique diversifiée de l'époque archaïque -y compris l’Iliade où cette pratique se présente comme un mode d'interlocution original -mais se prolonge bien au-delà. En se tournant vers quelques usages anciens des discours e catalogue et, en particulier, du Catalogue des vaisseaux, nous cherchons à comprendre à quelle autres fonctions (qu'elles soient proches ou non des fonctions repérées par les textes modernes) cette pratique énonciative répond et comment elles se manifestent dans la dialectique avec les texte antérieurs mobilisés et avec leurs propres enjeux. / This thesis proposes a study of the ancient and modern uses of a passage from the second Book of the Iliad, known since the 5th century before our era under the designation « Catalogue of Ships ». This passage became a sort of paradigm of a particular mode of utterance, the « catalogue mode of enunciation » (καταλέγειν), which great number of the modern studies had interpreted as an ideal way to describe the reality of the past in a discursive order closely related to the transmission of a « truth », or rather being in the origins of the writing of history. We assume that this reading had an impact on a number of modern studies and it is a consequence of them as well. Such impacts are far from being meaningless, once they had led to consider the catalogue as a document judged reliable to find the « Homeric Greece » and, who knows, to answer to other « Homeric questions». The status of « catalogue » in this passage nevertheless echoes the practice which, as other studies had shown, goes back not only to the diversity of the poetical production from the archaic period - including the Iliad where this practice presents itself as an original interlocution mode - but extends it far beyond. On turning towards some ancient uses of the speeches in catalogue, particularly the ones from the Catalogue of Ships, we aim to understand to what other functions (those being close or not from the ones identified by the modern texts) this enunciative practice answers and how they appear in the dialectic with the previous texts concerned and with their own issues.

A travers l’analyse des déplacements des souverains hellénistiques et des imperatores romains en Orient, ce travail entend éclairer le concept moderne de voyage officiel et démontrer la validité de cette catégorie pour caractériser les voyages de ces personnalités politiques antiques. Au-delà du critère du statut du voyageur, les sources mettent en lumière le rôle discriminant de l’infrastructure du voyage, ainsi que l’importance des procédures d’accueil public dans la reconnaissance collective de l’officiel. L’enquête conduit à souligner la dimension à la fois protocolaire et populaire de ce type de déplacement dont le caractère spectaculaire contribuait à assurer le retentissement exceptionnel pour en faire un [événement] local de grande ampleur. Manifestation de souveraineté, le voyage officiel s’inscrivait dans un processus de légitimation du pouvoir et constituait le cadre privilégié de la mise en scène de la personnalité politique : l’apparat et la théâtralisation du voyage autant que ses enjeux politiques majeurs peuvent être considérés comme des caractéristiques déterminantes du déplacement officiel. Cette réflexion pose également le problème de la pertinence de la dichotomie public/privé. Celle-ci n’est opératoire qu’à Rome où le concept de voyage fonctionnel est attesté, mais où l’on peut néanmoins observer une confusion entre la sphère de l’officium et celle de l’otium dans le cadre des déplacements des imperatores qui étaient l’occasion de démarches touristiques, culturelles ou religieuses révélatrices de la curiosité intellectuelle de ces personnages dont les séjours d’études puis les voyages officiels en Orient permettaient de satisfaire le philhellénisme. / Through the analysis of the travels of the hellenistic kings and the roman imperatores in the East, this work intends to throw light on the modern concept of official trip and to demonstrate the validity of this category to characterize the travels of these ancient political personalities. Beyond the criterion of the status of the traveller, sources bring to light the discriminating role of the infrastructure of the trip, as well as the importance of public reception in the collective recognition of the official. The inquiry leads to underline the formal and the popular dimension of this kind of trip whose spectacular character contributed to ensure his exceptional impact and turn it into a large-scale local event. As a demonstration of [sovereignty], the official trip was part of a process of legitimization of power and provided the privileged framework for the staging of the political personality : the pageantry and dramatization of the journey as much as [its] major political stakes can be considered as distinctive characteristics of the official trip. This study also raises the problem of the relevance of the public/private dichotomy. The latter is only effective in Rome where the concept of functional trip is attested, but where a confusion of the sphere of the officium and the otium can nevertheless be observed within the travels of the imperatores which were the opportunity of touristic, cultural and religious initiatives revealing the intellectual curiosity of these characters whose study tours and official trips in the East made it possible to satisfy their philhellenism.