from different origins; as a result, the detailed intra-regional pattern of
technological dissemination remains opaque. Nevertheless, this research
has opened up a new range of possible scenarios for the dissemination of
advanced pyrotechnic methods.
Among the most popular and widely distributed shapes in this grey
fabric were the inturned-rim bowl, a jug with a high, elevated strap
handle, and thefish plate. The latter was evidently based on Attic models,
while the jug with a strap handle (also called a mug, beaker, jug type 8)
has otherwise been compared to akyathos(a kind of dipper). It was
widely disseminated along the northern and western Pontic coast, as well
as in many inland locations. The wide, shallow, footed bowl, orlekane,
with vertical handlesfixed onto the horizontal rim, may ultimately be of
Milesian origin. These are comparatively common at Apollonia, Mesam-
bria, Callatis, Tomis, Istros, Orgame, Tyras, Pantikapaion, and occur in
several different variants.
Comparatively few relevant fabrics of genuine Aeolian and Ionian
origin have been studied at all closely.^65 Grey wares continued to be
made at Troy in the eighth to sixth centuriesbc, but the initiative for the
dissemination of the new ceramics does not seem to be connected
directly with that city. Actual Aeolian imports have been identified at
Berezan, Istros, and Tariverde, alongside other imported ceramics,
including Attic blackfigure. Milesian‘fruit stands’with moulded feet
are also known from other Ionian sites, notably Samos. In Aeolis (as at
Larissa) this form seems to derive from Bronze Age ceramic types. These
particular forms do not seem to have been reproduced in colonial or
more distant settings.
Perhaps the most striking result of these technical analyses of pottery
is the absence of a linear set of connections between north Aegean
models and Balkan imitations. The popularity of shapes in the recipient
centres is different from those that were dominant in the putative
originating communities. The vogue for‘inturned rim’bowls is one of
the most recognizable regional characteristics of local tableware in the
east Balkans. Another shape, the‘sessile’kantharos, a popular type of
drinking cup known from Mytilene and other sites on Lesbos (although
this form also had Attic, Boeotian, and Chiot variants), enjoyed a special
significance in the Balkans and Black Sea area, and for a prolonged
period of time.^66 The likeliest explanation seems to be that itinerant
Greek potters may have provided the initial technical know-how for
(^65) Principally Mytilene: see Dupont and Lungu 2008.
(^66) Lungu 2009, 22 and refs nn.71, 72, 73.
168 Thelongue duréein the north Aegean