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XII/2/2021
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA
NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
Diferent Shades of Grey Minyan: Dissecting an “Iconic” Ceramic Class of
Middle Bronze Age, Mainland Greece
Anthi Balitsari
1*
1
Fonds de la Recherche Scientifque -FNRS, Université catholique de Louvain, Place Blaise Pascal 1, bte L3.03.01, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
1. Introduction
Grey Minyan is considered an emblematic ceramic class of
the Middle Helladic (hereafter MH) period (ca. 2100–1700
BCE) in mainland Greece. It is a ceramic tradition particularly
related to central Greece, mainly Boeotia, where it was
frst recognised by H. Schliemann, during the Orchomenos
excavations back in the 19
th
century, and named after the
mythical king Minyas (Sarri, 2010a, pp.55–56). Because
of the radical changes that took place in the material record
towards the end of the Early Helladic (hereafter EH) period,
which are traditionally described in terms of backwardness,
Grey Minyan was not simply considered as a new ceramic
trend of tablewares but as a product of the new population
that had just arrived, the frst ancestors of the Greeks,
according to the cultural-historical approach (Blegen, 1928;
Haley, 1928; Caskey, 1960; Syriopoulos, 1994, pp.771–775;
for a latest overview of the matter, see also Dickinson, 2016).
Although the MH material excavated at Orchomenos had to
wait for a century to be fully published (Sarri, 2010a), the
characteristics of Grey Minyan as frst described in some
detail by E. J. Forsdyke, namely the use of fne clay pastes,
the grey colour throughout the section due to the reduction
fring, the nicely burnished surfaces with the so-called
“soapy texture”, and the systematic use of the potter’s wheel,
became archetypical (Forsdyke, 1914, pp.129–130; Wace
and Blegen, 1916–1918, pp.180–181). Consequently, any
variation observed that could not ft into the above criteria
-especially in terms of the use of the potter’s wheel – was
considered to represent an inferior product, an imitation of
the “True Grey Minyan” (Zerner, 1993, p.43; Sarri, 2010b).
Modern research though emphasises that regionalism was
a signifcant component of the MH culture, with variability
being particularly expressed in ceramics (Rutter, 2007, p.36;
Voutsaki, 2010, p.100), something that could explain the
inability to produce a uniform nomenclature, the necessity
of which has been recently proposed (Gauss and Lindblom,
2017). Therefore, any distinction made between a classic
example of quality and a less carelessly made “replica”
seems arbitrary and pointless. Common interregional
cultural traits did exist, and the production of well-burnished
eating and drinking pots fred in a reducing atmosphere
Volume XII ● Issue 2/2021 ● Pages 217–233
*Corresponding author. E-mail: anthoula.balitsari@uclouvain.be
ARTICLE INFO
Article history:
Received: 15
th
January 2021
Accepted: 17
th
July 2021
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2021.2.8
Key words:
the Argolid
Attica
Middle Helladic
Grey Burnished
potter’s wheel
wheel-fashioning methods
handmade
ABSTRACT
The Middle Helladic Grey Minyan ware is usually assigned with archetypical features, including the
systematic use of the potter’s wheel. However, because of the signifcant variation observed, terms
such as “True Grey Minyan” and “Imitations of Grey Minyan” were commonly applied in order to
emphasise the diferences, which, nonetheless were never systematically analysed. The main subject of
the present paper is to highlight the diferences existing in the potting traditions of Grey Minyan in two
nearby regions, namely the Argolid and Attica, which seem to belong to diferent cultural spheres, given
the divergence observed especially in the shape repertoire. The identifcation of diferent production
and consumption practices is obviously related to diferent cultural phenomena, as evidenced through
(a) the production of similar wheel-fashioned and hand-built Grey Minyan shapes in Attica, and (b)
the introduction of foreign potting traditions, namely wheel-fashioned Grey Minyan pots, which are
completely alien to the local, handmade ceramics of the Argolid.
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IANSA 2021 ● XII/2 ● 217–233
Anthi Balitsari: Diferent Shades of Grey Minyan: Dissecting an “Iconic” Ceramic Class of Middle Bronze Age, Mainland Greece
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