Without a Trace: Reexamining Relationships between Matt-Painted Pottery in Albania and Italy (20 min)

Presenters

Leah Bernardo-Ciddio, University of Michigan

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a systematic overview of technical choices and production methods characteristic of the producers of matt-painted pottery in southeast Italy and southeast Albania in the Iron Age. These results were generated through firsthand autoptic study of materials, and are interpreted through a producer-centered lens that considers production traces as reflections of the culturally embedded habits of and interactions between communities of producers (“communities of practice”).

The matt-painted pottery of southern Italy is a material class known to reflect the complexity of interactions between indigenous groups and their nonpeninsular neighbors—those from across the Adriatic. The incorporation of certain morphological and stylistic traits from the matt-painted repertoires of southeast Albania and northwest Greece has long been interpreted as confirmation of the Illyrian migration hypothesis—that is, that the indigenous peoples of southeast contained a strong Illyrian influence and presence, accumulated through a serious of significant migrations through the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age.

Close study of the material reveals both substantial diversity in production choices at the regional level and significant differences in forming and finishing choices between the communities of producers of the two areas in question. There are, however, a limited number of examples from Italy that potentially indicate a hybrid method, using local forming methods but a finishing method (high-quality, glossy burnish) more characteristic of the Albanian examples.

I discuss the implications of this study on how we can discuss the interactions between southeast Italy and the western Balkans in this period before substantial Greek migrations. While these preliminary results do not suggest a mass influx of potters from Albania into Italy, the adoption of new visual traits nevertheless indicate a dynamism among the southeast Italian potters who responded to new social realities while also adhering to traditional methods.