Athenian Pottery Project

New findings on materials and techniques used to create red-and-black-figure pottery in ancient Athens

Project Details

A person wearing blue latex gloves holds up a broken piece of detailed Athenian pottery

Photo: Scott S. Warren

About

Goal

By analyzing examples of pottery produced by artisans in Athens from the 6th to the 4th centuries BCE, the Athenian Pottery Project sought to better understand how ancient Greek pottery was made. The project aimed to shed light on the relationships between ceramic technology, artistic expression, and artists’ workshop practice.

Outcome

Conservators and scientists’ discoveries about the methods and materials used by ancient Athenian artisans were featured in the 2006 Getty Villa exhibition, The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases

Background

The study of ceramics is an important part of understanding ancient culture, including the development and spread of technologies. Detailed studies of ceramic composition can help elucidate workshop fabrication methods, geological sources of the raw materials, and trade routes. Such studies also have the potential to uncover novel materials or behavior that may have relevance to modern ceramic technology. An understanding of the composition and material properties of ancient ceramics at the microstructural level may also help predict its response to proposed conservation treatment methods or storage/display environments.

Project History

Partners

J. Paul Getty Museum, the Aerospace Corporation, the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, and Northwestern University, NU-ACCESS program

Supporter

The National Science Foundation