Local Secrets

THE ART OF GREEK CERAMICS

The composition of the Greek soil, coupled with the relatively high sunshine duration, has contributed to the development of ceramic art in the country since the antiquity. To this day, the art of pottery has maintained its importance in many parts of Greece; alongside efforts to record and preserve its traditional cultural heritage, the country sees a new generation of ceramists who explore the possibilities offered by the material’s versatility.

The history of ancient Greek pottery is a long & rich one. The making of pottery, that is the creation of utensils from fired clay, is one of man's oldest & most widespread crafts.

All manner of things could be stored in pottery, both wet and dry, food could be prepared and cooked in it, and people could eat and drink from it. For all of antiquity and, indeed, right up until the twenty first century of οur own era, it has been the all-purpose material.

Ancient Greek pottery has its roots in the Greek peninsula, where the craft of pottery-making goes back as early as about 6000 B.C.

Once Neolithic potters could achieve a smooth surface, they soon began to experiment with painted decoration as well as the use of clay slips. It was, however, only in about 2000 BCE, at the start of the Middle Bronze Age, that potters first regularly used a fast-rotating wheel, a radical advance in ancient Greek pottery technology that enabled them to articulate the clay in a much more sophisticated manner.

Ceramics have continued to evolve over the centuries. In many parts of Greece, there are still pottery workshops that produce objects of high aesthetic value. Especially for many islands pottery remains an important aspect of their identity. The ceramics of each region are distinguished by their colours, decorative patterns and also the words used to describe them.

Thus, depending on the region, the container for transporting and storing liquids is referred to as stamna.

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