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Pottery, as an artifact, is often used as evidence of exchange patterns among groups during prehistory. This research incorporates paradigmatic classification and petrography to answer questions related to provenience, production mode, and exchange patterns of handmade prehistoric pottery from Gajtan, Zagorë, Kodër Boks, Tumuli 088 and 099 in Shkodër, in Northern Albania. Pottery samples analyzed in this study were collected from test excavations by the Shkodra Archaeological Project (PASH). The results yielded evidence that the area has sufficient local clay sources and other easily accessible natural resources to produce pottery in a domestic mode. Gajtan and Zagorë appeared as two distinct entities, but the former settlement seems to have played a dominant role as a production and distribution center within the region. Results from this study indicate that pots appear to have played an important socio-economic role in northern Albania, across time and space.

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Many Appalachian women are creative individuals who enjoy making and sharing quilts, songs, paintings, poetry, and other art. However, many women in rural areas of Central Appalachia lack access to basic resources because of poverty. While many agencies help poor women find shelter, clothing, and food, there are few that help them find their creative voices. I assert that women who are given the tools to practice creative expression can overcome the mental oppression of poverty to become self-assured individuals who benefit their communities. This thesis examines the socioeconomic condition of women in Central Appalachia and the positive impacts of pottery in the lives of women potters in the United States to make the case for a non-profit pottery program in Appalachia. The research covers the time period from the early 1900s to 2008 and employs scholarly journal articles, books, Web sites, and interviews to support the thesis.

Samples from nearly 800 Bronze Age pottery sherds from Euboea, Eastern Boeotia and Eastern Thessaly were analysed together with 9 raw clays from the same areas. The-analysis was carried out in an attempt to identify areas of pottery manufacture, to discover the origin of specific groups of pottery, to relate pottery to, raw clays and to see how far pottery compositions can be associated with, and predicted by, geology. The work was done on the same lines as earlier studies at the Oxford Laboratory and at the British School at Athens. The main analytical technique used was therefore optical emission spectroscopy. Some 25% of the total number of sherds were also analysed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry so that the results obtained by the two techniques could be compared. The interpretation of the results was facilitated by the use of, computer program packages for cluster and discriminant analysis. Both optical emission and atomic absorption analysis resulted in broadly similar groupings although the absolute concentrations were not directly comparable. The groupings obtained after atomic absorption analysis had the narrower concentration ranges. Nine elements were measured by both techniques but in atomic absorption potassium was added and proved; useful as an additional discriminant. Six composition groups were distinguished from the data. One of them was identified as Euboean, 2 as Boeotian and 3 as coming from different regions of Thessaly. The greatest movement of pottery within these areas was from Euboea to Thessaly. No composition group which originated from outside these regions was identified. Six of the 9 raw clays were associated with the prevailing composition group in the area from which they came. It was not possible to predict trends in pottery composition by examination of the local geology.

The Neolithic and late Iron Age pottery from the settlement site of Pool, Sanday, Orkney, was studied on two levels. Firstly, a morphological and technological study was carried out to establish a sequence for the site. Secondly an assessment was made of the usefulness of X-ray Fluorescence Analysis, Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry and Petrological analysis to coarse ware studies, using the Pool assemblage as a case study. Recording of technological and typological attributes allowed three phases of Neolithic pottery to be identified. The earliest phase included sherds of Unstan Ware. This phase was followed by an assemblage characterised by pottery with incised decoration, which was stratified below a traditional Grooved Ware assemblage. The change in pottery styles and manufacturing methods with the Grooved Ware indicated that it evolved elsewhere. Grass tempered and burnished pottery characterised the Iron Age assemblage. Pottery samples from all phases of the site were analysed by XRF and ICPS. In addition, pottery from late Iron Age sites in the area was analysed for comparison with the Pool Iron Age pottery. XRF and ICPS analyses did not distinguish between either different phases at Pool or different Orcadian sites. This was attributed to the similarities in geological deposits over much of Orkney and the variations which can occur within a clay source. A clay survey was carried out in the vicinity of the site, and samples taken for comparison with the Pool pottery. Identification of rocks and minerals in thin section, and grain-size analysis, indicated that the Pool pottery was made locally to the site, and that both primary and secondary clays were used. It was concluded that petrological analysis is more suitable than elemental analysis in the study of coarse wares. / Science-based Archaeology'Committee of the Science and Engineering Research Council.

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Greek literature is infamous for its fondness of narrating in horrific detail the violent plots of man versus man, man versus beast, and even man versus god, encompassing conflicts that range from individual vendettas to large-scale warfare. The extant stories of Greek epic and drama preserve merely a snippet of the ancient audience’s fascination with violence in all its forms. Depicted among these bloody confrontations is a subject that seems taboo even to modern viewers—kin murders. Epic conceals the most brutal violations of kinship ties, preferring a more nuanced approach to such horrors. Tragedy, in contrast, relishes translating these particular crimes onto the public stage. However, in dramatic performance the violent acts themselves are only either described in words or alluded to; they are always completed off-stage, and audience members must rely on their imaginations to recreate the most offensive parts of an episode. There is a similar hesitation in visualizing these gruesome stories of parents slaying children, wives murdering husbands, brothers turning against each other, or sons slaughtering mothers in Greek art. In contrast, there are numerous portrayals of lethal violence in other contexts that are unabashedly explicit and shockingly gory. For example, images of quarrels between political rivals or cultural others enjoyed popularity from the earliest periods of Greek art. But depictions of sanctioned violence in the military sphere occupy a different realm than the rare illustrations of the most sinister of transgressions—the murder of one’s own kin. The tantalizing few examples of this exceptional category of violence prompt further study, yet there has never been a comprehensive investigation on portrayals of intrafamilial murder in in the visual repertoire. In Kindred Killers: Intrafamilial Murders in Archaic and Classical Greek Art, I bring together and examine for the first time the evidence for murder against kin in Greek art from the seventh to the fourth centuries BCE. I assemble a catalog of 202 images related to four types of intrafamilial murder within the nuclear family unit: filicide, spousal homicide, parricide, and fratricide. Geographically, the material spans from mainland Greece, including Attica, Corinth, and the Peloponnese, to East Greece, and to South Italy and Sicily; the objects range from pottery, shield bands, seals, and other representatives of the so-called minor arts, to statue groups, temple architecture, and lost monumental wall paintings. I investigate the iconographic patterns of the four typologies, tracing their changes through time, medium, and area of production, while also considering factors, such as manner, intent, and motivation, in order to establish a visual language for “intrafamilial murder.” I frame the images within broader, shifting cultural notions of violence and explore how the various scenes of kinship murder challenge and solidify social norms, negotiate interpersonal power, and express the tensions brought about by ever-changing family dynamics.

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