Cretan Bronze Age Pithoi

Book excerpt: The pithos is one of the most distinctive utilitarian forms of the Cretan Bronze Age ceramic repertoire. Because of its use as a storage container, a pithos is the foremost parameter for the evaluation of the economic organization of palatial and domestic sectors of Cretan Bronze Age society. The pithoi as pottery and their significance for the understanding of the Cretan Bronze Age economy has been the focus of a research project carried out from 1989 to 1999. This book is not a pithos handbook in the narrow sense, although the study offers a typological division of the data with comments on chronology and spatial distribution. It integrates stylistic considerations with broad fabric and technological observations in order to understand the production and consumption of pithoi.