localities in which they appeared, these were thefirst types of ceramics
made on the fast potter’s wheel known in these areas (this is certainly
true north of Aeolis and the Hellespontine Straits). Single turn-tables,
which require turning by hand, very likely continued to be used along-
side the double kick-wheel; differently weighted wheels would in any case
have been appropriate for different sizes of ceramic vessel. So this rather
modest-looking pottery represents a significant technical innovation,
which was probably accompanied by dietary innovations too. The new
pottery includes fabrics with a black or grey lustrous slip, as well as those
with a matt surface, and includes storage vessels as well as table wares,
lamps, cooking wares, terracottas, and architectural ceramics.
A large range of local products has been identified, which broadly
correspond to models known from sites in Ionia and Aeolis in Asia
Minor, both in typological and technological terms. In overall appear-
ance and technique this form of pottery resembles Aeolianbucchero,
whose colour was the result offiring in conditions with reduced oxygen.
The black-slipped forms do not seem to have travelled widely, whereas
those without the black slip were extensively disseminated. The range
and complexity of these different ceramic types means that issues of
provenance, production, and distribution are best resolved through
collaborative laboratory initiatives. A series of research projects, involv-
ing researchers from all the producing and recipient countries around
the Black Sea, has resulted in advancing our understanding of this vast
technological phenomenon during the last decade.
The study of grey-faced fabrics emerged in close connection with the
investigation of Greek colonial sites along the northern and western
shores of the Black Sea. Ceramics of local Balkan origin appear to
outnumber, by a considerable margin, surviving examples of pieces
imported from Anatolia. Local kiln evidence, as well as close typological
Fig. 4.10.‘Greyware’cup from Adjiyska Vodenitsa (ancient Pistiros), resembling
a Greek skyphos.
166 Thelongue duréein the north Aegean