Amphorae and more -

Long-term poƩery producƟon in Halasarna, Kos

InsƟtute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
NCSR “Demokritos”
15310 Aghia Paraskevi, Aƫca, Greece
a.hein@inn.demokritos.gr
v.kilikoglou@inn.demokritos.gr
Department of Archaeology and History of Art
NaƟonal and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Anno Hein, Dimitris Grigoropoulos, Viktoria Georgopoulou,
Maria Koutsoumbou, Eleni Nodarou and Vassilis Kilikoglou
Introduction
Greece
Kos (town)
During the Hellenis c period Halasarna, a cult centre at the South coast of the eastern Aegean island of Kos,
was one of the six demes of the island. Wine from Kos was exported all over the Mediterranean region, the
Black Sea and beyond, which in turn demanded an increased produc on of Hellenis c transport amphorae. S
The characteris c “Koan” wine amphorae were manufactured at several produc on centers, such as Kos/Meropis
in the north-east of the island, but also in Halasarna as it has been demonstrated by recent archaeological and 100 km
KO
Kardamaina
archaeometric evidence (Hein et al. 2008). The present study expands the inves ga on of the local amphora Halasarna
produc on into the Roman period. For comparison further po ery wares discovered at Halasarna are included in
the study covering a period from the Archaic to Roman.
10 km
By now, the study comprises c. 200 ceramic samples and raw materials from the area. The chemical analysis by
NAA is complemented by petrographic examina on of thin sec ons. The results indicate that for the po ery
Map of Kos, indicating the archaeological site of Halasarna at the south coast and
produc on in the area local raw materials were used already prior to the mass produc on of transport amphorae

l
the ancient and modern centre in the northeast.
15784 Zografou, Athens, Greece during the Hellenis c period and that local po ery tradi ons con nued at least un l the Roman mes.

dimitris.grigoropoulos@hotmail.co.uk

a
Samples and analyƟcal approach
vickygeo@hotmail.com
In a former study fragments of Hellenis c amphorae from the sanctuary of Halasarna had been analysed by

u
NAA together with compara ve material from the island (Hein et al. 2008). The main chemical group could be
linked to the area of Kardamena on the basis of samples from a local clay deposit. In the present study another
90 ceramic finds from Halasarna, among them fragments of Roman amphorae, were analysed by NAA. The

t
analysed ceramic assemblage comprised furthermore Hellenis c and Roman table and cooking ware, fragments
of Archaic fine ceramics and three waster fragments of Hellens c amphorae. In order to further inves gate

r
the results of the chemical studies selected fragments of both examined assemblages were selected for

i
petrographic examina on.
Ephorate of AnƟquiƟes of Cyclades
Ministry of Culture, EducaƟon & Sports, Greece Results

 Archaic fine ware
Fragments of Hellenistic Koan transport amphorae discovered at Halasarna.

V
 Hellenis c table ware
 Hellenis c cooking ware
200  Hellenis c amphorae

mkoutsoumpou@culture.gr 

Roman table ware
Roman cooking ware
Chemical variaƟon

r
 Roman amphorae


 
  

 


In order to assess the variability of the ceramics the total varia on of the data set was
rubidium in ppm

  
   

 
     
150     

   

determined. Therefore two elements were first removed from the 27 measured: arsenic
    
      150

 
 
   
  
80

e


because of its known natural inhomogeneity and stron um because of missing values.



 
 



100 


The total varia on of 1.54 was quite high indica ng an inhomogeneous assemblage 60 100

INSTAP Study Center for East Crete,



comprising various produc on groups. A er removing calcium from the data set the total

t

40

varia on could be reduced to 1.15, which is s ll too high for a ceramic assemblage from 50

Pacheia Ammos, 72200 Ierapetra, Crete, Greece



0 5 10 a single produc on. The elements contribu ng most to the comparably high total 20

s
calcium in wt%
varia on were chromium and nickel. Repeated evalua on of the total varia on of sub 0
0 1 2 3 4
0
0 1 2 3 4

enodarou@yahoo.gr






Archaic fine ware
Hellenis c table ware
Hellenis c cooking ware
sets, with 10 or 30 randomly selected samples, suggests that the high varia on is probably Total varia on (10 random samples) Total varia on (30 random samples)

400 

 









Hellenis c amphorae
Roman table ware
Roman cooking ware
related to a small group of samples within the assemblage. A bivariate plot of chromium
 

o
and nickel indicates indeed that some of the Roman cooking ware presents extremely Total variation of randomly selected subsets of 10 (left) and 30 (right) samples out of teh examined assemblage:
 Roman amphorae


 



 The histogramms show 1000 consecutive runs. The total variation of all 90 samples is 1.15.


high concentra ons, probably related to an ophioli c environment of the clays used for
nickel in ppm


 
 












 


 their produc on. On the other hand a plot of rubidium against calcium reveals a high


calcium varia on from non- to low calcareous Hellenis c table wares to high calcareous



  
200  

P



 






Roman transport amphorae. In the case that only the 33 Roman amphorae are examined 0 2 4 6 8 10 12


for their chemical variability, they show a total varia on of 0.63 for all elements including






 

n
KOS 14/80



 stron um and 0.44 if calcium and stron um are not considered. This is an indica on that frying pans KOS 14/25
KOS 14/24

KOS 14/97
0
0 1000 2000 at least the examined amphorae present in their majority a single produc on group. KOS 14/11
KOS 14/12

chromium in ppm KOS 14/23

KOS 14/05
KOS 14/34
KOS 14/20
Bi-variate plots of rubidium and calcium and nickel and
StaƟsƟcal evaluaƟon

o
KOS 14/40
chromium: The symbols indicate the pottery wares KOS 14/48
KOS 14/21
KOS 14/22

i
KOS 14/32
For an ini al hierarchical clustering the data set was log-ra o transformed with the KOS 14/53
KOS 14/60
KOS 14/57


samarium concentra on as common divisor. The clustering indicates a large main KOS 14/55
KOS 14/58
 KOS 14/94
cluster which can be divided in two sub-clusters. Furthermore, one cluster can be

s
60  KARD 14/07

  KOS 14/04

 
 KOS 14/63

   


separated comprising mainly Hellenis c table ware and one small cluster comprising KOS 14/91
Roman amphorae    





  
 
 KARD-A KOS 14/96
KOS 14/90


Roman frying pans. The data were further evaluated using modified Mahalanobis
lanthanum in ppm

 
 
 
50   
KOS 14/75

s
 HellenisƟc amphorae KOS 14/98
distance. Chemical groups were built and compard with reference pa erns on the

 


  KOS 14/65



 KOS 14/93


KOS 14/95



 ceraDAT database (www.ims.demokritos.gr/ceradat) (Hein and Kilikoglou 2012). KOS 14/92
KOS 14/99
40   KOS 14/62
The main cluster corresponds basically to two chemical groups, which resemble

KOS 14/74

KOS 14/02

e

  KOS 14/09
the known chemical group of the Hellenis c amphorae from Kardamaina and the KOS 14/50

5
KOS 14/06
30 
local clays, Kos-A and Kos-A-Roman. The group Kos-A-Roman, which comprises KOS 14/38
KOS 14/46
KOS 14/47
most of the Roman amphorae, presents, however, generally lower trace element KOS 14/52
KOS 14/18

S 1
60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 KOS 14/51
cerium in ppm concentra ons. This can be demonstrated with the lanthanum and cerium KOS 14/33
KOS 14/39
KOS 14/42
concentra ons, which clearly differ but which can be adapted by examining their KOS 14/36
KOS 14/15

0
KOS 14/16
ra os over scandium. In prac ce a best rela ve fit is considered for the es ma on KOS 14/07
5
 
KARD-A KOS 14/10
 of distances. The reason for the differences between Kos-A and Kos-A-Roman could KOS 14/17
KOS 14/35
Roman amphorae 
 
 


(Roman) KOS 14/27

2


 
be technological, either tempering with a non-plas c component, which is low in KARD 14/08
lanthanum / scandium

 

   
 



  



 KOS 14/03

   
   KOS 14/72
4


 

 


HellenisƟc amphorae trace elements, or the selec on of a coarser clay. It has to be noted that most of KOS 14/41
KOS 14/26
  KOS 14/45

.




the Archaic fine wares belong to group Kos-A, indica ng local po ery produc on KOS 14/13
KOS 14/43
KOS 14/01
3 in the area at least since the Archaic period. A further group Kos-J is up to some KOS 14/19
KOS 14/37


extent similar to this local composi on, presen ng, however, higher concentra ons KOS 14/28

p
 
 KOS 14/89
 KOS 14/54

2 



 
of cobalt, chromium and nickel. Group F, which presents a clearly different composi on, KOS 14/61
KOS 14/87
KOS 14/88
comprises lot of the Hellenis c table wares. Compared with other ceramic composi ons KOS 14/82

e
Knidos? KOS 14/64
KOS 14/08
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 an origin from Knidos or the coast of Asia Minor in general can be considered. Finally, KOS 14/85
KOS 14/14
cerium / scandium KOS 14/86
the Group Kos-H comprising Roman frying pans presents a very dis nct pa ern, which

S
KOS 14/73
Bi-variate plots of lanthanum and cerium and their ratios over
up to now cannot be linked to any other ceramics on the database. Hellenis c KOS 14/84
KOS 03/01
Bibliography scandium: Presented is an assemblage of Hellenistic amphorae
and the 33 Roman amphorae of the present study table wares KOS 14/76
KOS 14/79

th
KOS 14/83
KOS 14/71
KOS 14/81
Petrography KOS 14/77
KOS 14/78
A. Hein, V. Georgopoulou, E. Nodarou and V. Kilikoglou
Koan amphorae from Halasarna – InvesƟgaƟons in a Fabric 1
HellenisƟc amphorae producƟon centre

25
Hierarchical clustering of the dataset, which was logratio transformed with samarium as common divisor.
Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 4 (2008) 1049-1061.
This is the most common fabric in all three xamined periods. It is characterized by a fine
A. Hein and V. Kilikoglou calcareous matrix which ranges in color from golden brown to dark brown and from
ceraDAT – Prototype of a web based relaƟonal database op cally moderately ac ve to inac ve. The non-plas c inclusions are fairly well-sorted;
for archaeological ceramics they consist primarily of muscovite mica laths which give the surface of the vessel a KOS-A KOS-A -Roman KOS-J KOS-F KOS-H
Archaeometry 54, 2 (2012) 230-243. 10 samples 21 samples 9 samples 8 samples 3 samples
shiny appearance. There are also frequent bio te laths, small bio te fragments and ave. stdev. ave. stdev. ave. stdev. ave. stdev. ave. stdev.
As 11.3 5.5 16.1 2.7 13.8 2.0 13.5 8.0 10.3 1.6
I.K. Whitbread Fabric 1 small amounts of monocrystalline quartz fragments (rarely medium-, mainly small-sized). Ba 652 82 648 66 670 67 464 50 538 45
Greek transport amphorae: In some samples there are also a few microfossils iden fied by their casts. Ca(%) 5.9 1.0 6.8 1.1 5.9 1.1 1.1 0.5 8.0 1.1

A petrological and archaeological study Ce

Co
105
21.0
2
1.0
96
20.3
2
1.5
101
27.9
2
1.7
89
16.7
1
1.9
129
34.7
20
1.5
Fitch Laboratory occasional papers 4. A varia on of this fabric is slightly coarser and contains few fragments of volcanic glass.
Cr 286 23 333 36 481 44 145 12 1861 450
The Bri sh School at Athens, Athens, 1995. Cs 12.6 0.3 10.9 0.9 11.9 0.6 10.9 1.5 9.5 0.9
The matrix is very similar and, therefore, they do not seem to represent a different origin. Eu
Fe(%)
1.5
4.3
0.0
0.0
1.4
3.9
0.0
0.1
1.4
4.2
0.0
0.1
1.5
4.8
0.0
0.2
1.2
12.8
0.0
2.6
Rather, they must belong to the volcanic end member of the Koan fabrics (Whitbread 1995, 89). Hf 6.4 0.1 6.4 0.3 6.3 0.1 7.0 0.3 11.4 2.2
La 55.6 1.0 50.3 1.1 52.7 0.8 43.9 0.8 72.0 13.5
Another varia on has a darker matrix (dark brown) and, most important, contains less Lu 0.4 0.0 0.5 0.0 0.5 0.0 0.5 0.0 0.5 0.0
monocrystalline quartz and a higher amount of micri c limestone (lime-rich) and crystalli c-b fabric. Na(%)
Ni
1.2
235
0.1
22
1.2
234
0.1
44
1.0
377
0.1
40
1.0
81
0.1
21
0.8
333
0.0
33
Rb 160 4 142 8 140 5 155 5 104 11
Sb 1.7 0.2 1.7 0.2 1.7 0.1 1.1 0.1 1.3 0.1
Fabric 1 appears to coincide with the main cluster and the chemical groups Kos-A and Kos-A-Roman. Sc 13.6 0.2 11.8 0.3 12.3 0.4 17.5 0.5 12.4 0.5
Fabric 1 coarser variaƟon
Some of the Roman amphorae belong to the coarser varia on of the fabric. Sm
Sr
8.0
398
0.1
40
7.3
438
0.1
70
7.3
396
0.1
46
7.5
136
0.1
29
7.1
354
0.2
60
Ta 1.6 0.0 1.5 0.0 1.5 0.0 1.4 0.0 1.7 0.1
Tb 1.0 0.0 0.8 0.0 0.8 0.1 1.0 0.1 0.8 0.1
Fabric 1b Th 26.8 0.6 23.1 0.6 25.4 1.1 17.0 0.4 27.1 2.6
U 6.3 0.4 5.6 0.5 5.2 0.4 3.7 0.4 4.5 0.3
Yb 2.9 0.1 2.7 0.1 2.7 0.1 3.5 0.2 2.8 0.2
These samples are characterized by the same micaceous matrix as the ones described above Zn 93 7 84 7 88 6 121 7 158 20
Zr 200 11 208 29 220 24 177 17 409 106
but the fabric is slightly coarser. The main non-plas c inclusions are also similar and consist of
quartz, plagioclase fragments, micri c limestone and rarely volcanic glass and basalt. The vessels Main compositional groups found in the assemblage: The concentrations are given
are two frying pans and a cup, all Roman. Maybe this fabric presents a kind of table ware recipe. in ppm if not indicated elsewise

The samples appear to belong to group Kos-J.

Fabric 1 micriƟc variaƟon
Fabric 3

This is a very homogeneous fabric group which seems to represent a Roman recipe. It is characterized
by a very fine, highly micaceous and highly calcareous matrix which is op cally inac ve. The non-las c
inclusions consist primarily of micri c limestone but there are also fragments of monocrystalline quartz,
birefringent serpen nite in an orange-red color and rare clinopyroxene. The most striking component
though is an isotropic mineral (i.e. black in PPL and in XP) with high relief. These fragments are rather
large (there are no small grains) and fairly evenly distributed along the sec ons. It is not clear though
if they are part of the original raw material or if they were deposited post deposi onally. The ceramics
Fabric 1b seem to be imported and the fabric coincides with group Kos-H. Fabric 3
Large part of the recent research was conducted in the
framework of the project: Conclusions

THALES - UOA - The Apollo Sanctuary and the Late Roman As a main result of the present study it can be ascertained that po ery produc on in the area of Kardamaina
Settlement in Halasarna (Kos). The history of an ancient had started already before the Hellenis c period, in which eventually a mass produc on of transport amphorae
was established. A considerable part of the table ware and par cularly the cooking ware, on the other hand,
sanctuary, its decline & its final transformation into a
appear to have been imported during the Hellenis c and the Roman period. Concerning the transport
Late Roman/Early Christian settlement. amphorae a shi towards coarser clay pastes can be observed from the Hellenis c to the Roman period.
The reason for this has further to be inves gated. First results of the mechanical proper es indicate indeed
funded by: a degrada on of fracture strength of the amphora bodies.