Greek and Roman Pottery from Sphakia, South-West Crete: From the White Mountains to the Deep Blue Sea

Analyzes Greek and Roman pottery from the Sphakia Survey in western Crete, integrating morphological and fabric analysis to explore local ceramic traditions, site history, and broader regional connections.

This volume presents the Greek and Roman pottery collected and analysed by the Sphakia Survey project and provides a ceramic model for a large section of western Crete, where ceramic traditions, both domestic and imported, are little known. This research integrates two approaches. It first presents a morphological and functional study of a body of pottery from a sizeable part of Crete with little known archaeological evidence. Second, fabric analysis identifies and defines clays and clay mixtures, with macroscopic and petrographic analyses providing results from two perspectives. The rigorous application of fabric analysis, combined with the morphological examination, contribute to reconstructions of sites and areas within Sphakia. This data provides information about the history of individual sites, but then more broadly about that of Sphakia itself. Elements like site chronology, activities undertaken in particular areas, available landscape resources and their exploitation, and contact within the region, with other parts of Crete, and the wider Greek and Roman worlds are explored.