the north they were overrun by the Germanic tribes, and
in the south they were under pressure from the expand-
ing Roman Empire, which imported its technologies and
craftwork into the regions it conquered. The Celts found
themselves isolated on the British Isles, the only place in
Europe where they continued to f lourish. They carried
with them the craft traditions they had learned on the
Continent, continuing to work with bronze, silver, gold,
and enamel as well as with iron and wood. After the advent
of Christianity, craftwork was directed to the production
of objects of religious significance, including such items as
chalices and crosses.
GREECE
BY SPYROS SIROPOULOS
Th e appreciation of craft smanship by the Greeks is evident in
the fact that one of their supreme gods was Hephaestus, the
craft sman-god, responsible for the construction not only of
weapons (such as the famous armor of Achilles or the thun-
derbolts of Zeus) but also of various objects for daily use, such
as tripods and statues. In addition to Hephaestus, the goddess
Athena was the protector of craft smen; not only was she wise,
she was also an expert in ceramics, weaving, and woodwork-
ing. In the National Museum of Berlin there is a red-fi gure
vessel (with red fi gures on a black background) dating to the
fi ft h century b.c.e., on which Athena is depicted fi nishing up
with great care the clay molding of a large horse, while wood-
working tools hang behind her.
Th e economy of almost all Greek cities depended mainly
on farming, fi shing, small industry, and trade. However, dur-
ing the height of the fi ft h century b.c.e. the Athenians estab-
lished an almost civic way of life, meaning that many people
turned away from farming for a living. A new cast of skilled
craft smen developed, practicing special skills necessary for
the well-being of the polis, or city-state, and its citizens. Not
all professions enjoyed the same respect, and not all work-
ers were considered worthy of being free citizens. Manual
labor was frowned upon, considered something only slaves
or metics (“resident aliens,” who did not enjoy citizenship)
did. For free citizens only professions such as the practice of
medicine, rhetoric, or sculpting, painting, and teaching were
considered appropriate.
In Sparta it was inconceivable for freeborn citizens to
work and be paid for working, but this was not true every-
where. In Corinth, for example, people respected and hon-
ored craft smen and manual labor. Th e Republic of Plato (ca.
427–347 b.c.e.) is a valuable source of information about the
kinds of craft s and professions that developed within an orga-
nized city. In the Republic, Socrates and Adeimantos discuss
a great number of the craft s and professions necessary for the
smooth functioning of the civic mechanism. Equally useful
is an excerpt from Pericles, written by the Roman Plutarch
(ca. 46–120 c.e.), in which the statesman Pericles, the leader
of the Democratic Party in Athens during the fi ft h century
b.c.e., names all the craft s and professions necessary for the
construction and decoration of the Acropolis.
It seems that glassmaking was passed from Egypt to
Greece via Crete, where fi ndings date from the second mil-
lennium b.c.e. Th e earliest glass objects were beads. Various
vessels begin to appear about 1500 b.c.e. Some fi ne artifacts
of dark blue glass, in imitation of lapis lazuli, are found in
Mycenae. Glassworkers adapted techniques used by potters
and metalworkers, modeling molten glass around a core of
hardened glass and pressing it into open molds to produce
inlays, small vases, jars, and bowls. A more complex process
was the heating and fusion of preformed rods of glass.
Not much glass survives from Greece during the Archaic
(600–400 b.c.e.) and Classical (480–323 b.c.e.) periods, and
it seems that pottery was the craft used to provide tableware.
Small vases found in Greece, made by the sand-core tech-
nique are dated to the sixth century b.c.e., but their origin
is unknown. (In the sand-core technique threads of molten
glass were wound around a shaped core of sand. Aft er the
glass hardened, the sand was removed.) It was not until the
Hellenistic Period (323–31 b.c.e.) that glassmaking became
more common, when the invention of glassblowing in the
fi rst century b.c.e., probably in Syria, made work simpler for
glassmakers.
Baskets were a very functional item of daily use, the old-
est preserved artifacts dating to the Mesolithic Period (8000–
4000 b.c.e.). Basket making takes skill but only simple tools,
such as a knife, a needle, and a pair of pliers. In Classical
Greece, lower-class women or metics would supplement their
income by constructing baskets and bags, mats, rugs, and
other items using weaving, plaiting, or coiling techniques.
Materials varied from reed, cane, rush, and sisal fi ber to ash-
wood splints. Baskets were used by traders in the market,
fi shermen, and even miners. A vase of the sixth century b.c.e.
from Corinth shows miners loading baskets with clay from a
pit, while younger slaves pull the baskets up with ropes.
Th e construction of weapons was not the only task of
metalworkers. A number of items for daily use, for farming,
hunting, fi shing and other work, were constructed by free-
born citizens or metics with the help of slaves. Vase paintings
oft en depict a tall shaft for melting metals. Blasts of air were
introduced at the back by hand, while the mass of wrought
iron was extracted at the base. Th e most common fuel was
charcoal. Iron was especially diffi cult to work; the furnace
had to be broken in order to extract the wrought iron, so it
could be used only once.
Woodworkers skilled at sawing, joining, and fi nishing
produced a wide variety of useful and ornamental objects,
from jewelry boxes to furniture. Woodcarving, a quite dif-
ferent craft , produced objects such as bowls, toys, and other
items that could be created from a piece of wood with only a
saw, a mallet, fi les, gouges, and sandpaper. Even items used
in worship were constructed from wood. A red-fi gure cup by
Epictetus (fl. 520–500 b.c.e.) shows a youth adding the fi nal
details to a wooden herm. A herm is a statuette of the god292 crafts: Greece