Knowra Ancient Greek pottery Ancient Greek pottery Ceramic vessels and objects made in Greek communities from shaped clay and fired in kilns. Their forms, painted decoration, and archaeological contexts reveal changing craft practices and social life.
Potter's wheel : A rotating platform that lets potters shape clay vessels with controlled, even walls. Greek workshops used the wheel to form many vessel bodies quickly and symmetrically.
Amphora : A two-handled vessel used chiefly for storing and transporting liquids or other goods. Amphorae show how pottery served storage, trade, and transport.
Dipylon Amphora : A monumental Geometric-period funerary vase found at the Dipylon cemetery in Athens. Its dense geometric decoration and funerary use exemplify early monumental pottery.
Geometric art : A style of ancient Greek art marked by geometric patterns, especially prominent from about 900 to 700 BCE. Geometric pottery provides some of the earliest extensive evidence for this visual style.
Greek mythology : The body of myths about Greek gods, heroes, origins, and the natural world. Vase paintings preserve mythic scenes, including versions not recorded in surviving texts.
Attic black-figure pottery : A pottery-painting technique in which figures appear black against the red clay ground. Its incision and firing stages show one influential method for decorating Greek vessels.
Kylix : A shallow, two-handled drinking cup used in ancient Greek banquets. Its interior paintings emerged as drinkers emptied the cup during a symposium.
François Vase : A large Attic volute krater signed by the potter Ergotimos and painter Kleitias. Its many labeled mythological scenes display the narrative ambition of Archaic pottery.
Orientalizing period : A phase of Greek art from the late eighth and seventh centuries BCE marked by Near Eastern influences. New motifs and animal forms entered Greek pottery through eastern Mediterranean exchange.
Ancient Greek religion : The diverse rituals, beliefs, and cult practices through which ancient Greeks honored their gods. Pottery served offerings and funerary rites, while its images depicted religious stories and practices.
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