existence between humans and animals, domesticated and wild), and
partly by strong interactions with people from peripheral areas. This is
apparent in the case study of grey-faced and Ionian-banded pottery
styles, which became ubiquitous in the eastern and southern parts of
the region from the late sixth centurybconwards, but were preceded by
a more limited pattern of earlier imports and technologies stimulated by
external contacts with other parts of the Aegean. A similar pattern of
cross-currents between the western parts of the region and the islands of
Thasos, Euboia, and more distant parts of the Aegean is apparent in the
Thermaic Gulf.
Scientific analyses of leather, particularly the use of dyes, suggest a
close connection between the techniques of wall decoration and other
craft activities. Wall painting and leather decoration used many of the
same pigments, whilst the copper-based pigments shared materials with
metal smiths. The large-scale consumption of wood for pyrotechnology
produced surplus bark, which, along with lime, would have been in
demand by leather workers. We might expect there to have been prac-
tical synergies between these different crafts. We still have much to learn
in terms of the spatial organization of these various activities; how they
were integrated with residential structures; and how special skills were
disseminated. The investigation of country estates is providing a differ-
ent way of thinking about production and distribution and will help us to
understand more clearly the inter-connectedness of sites across the
landscape.
When we consider social relations, Veblen’s idea of an‘instinct of
workmanship’helps to focus attention on the range of objects that
constituted the material environment. Even the most prosaic everyday
objects, such as household and cooking wares, roof tiles, and shoes, were
made in small workshops, at the domestic or local level, or on country
estates. Dress, as pictured in tomb paintings, provides one way of
evaluating social distinctions that bring social hierarchies together. The
hats and cloaks of the better-off do have something in common with the
ostentation favoured by Demetrios Poliorketes, a style that was not
shared by many of his peers, according to Plutarch.
Thelongue duréein the north Aegean 191