This material will be updated as we go. The current information is based on the lecture material to date and the midterm study material.
IMPORTANT EXPLICIT
- Kairos – The ancient Greek god of opportunity.
- Sanctuary of Zeus at Juktas – Located at the highest point in Crete, serving as the first evidence of permanent religious facilities (peak sanctuaries) dating to the Middle Minoan period.
- Discobolos – A statue used to illustrate the point that ancient objects usually carry both ancient and modern meanings.
- Nude of the Elderly Man – Demonstrates ancient artistic realism by showing the thickening of the abdomen and flabby arms.
- Field Dressing and Splitting – Removing excess stone with chisels and wedges at the quarry before transport to minimize weight and reduce costs.
- Technological Lag – The phenomenon where older technologies survive alongside new inventions (like bronze) because they remain cheaper or more convenient.
- Diachronic vs. Synchronic – Examining one specific location over multiple time periods (diachronic) versus examining different places at the exact same time period to compare technological capabilities (synchronic).
- Hierarchy of Vessel Prestige – The social status order of materials: Gold is for the super-rich, followed by Metal (Bronze/Silver), then Glass, with Ceramics at the absolute bottom.
- Technological Readiness – A technology becomes prevalent only when society is ready for it and the environment can support it, not simply when it is first invented.
- Kiln Residue Identification – Deposits left on the interior walls of kilns (like lime, glass, or metals) are crucial for identifying the specific industry the kiln was used for.
- Trade Classifications – Trade is geographically categorized into internal, regional, empire-wide, and beyond the boundaries of the empire.
CORE CONCEPTS
- Techne: An art or skill, such as woodworking or sculpting, requiring specialized training, tools, and techniques.
- Taxonomy: The principles of scientific classification used to organize and describe objects or concepts with shared characteristics.
- Slipper Slapper: An Aphrodite and Pan statue group from a private house chapel in Delos, demonstrating how individuals dedicated art to ancestral deities.
- Stone Working: Techniques include pulverizing (beating soft stones into dust), cutting (restricted to soft stones lacking structural strength), abrading (sharpening), burnishing (polishing for water-tightness), coring (drilling hollows), and flaking (inefficient striking for arrowheads).
- Early Kiln Types: Bonfire kilns (inefficient, low-heat using dung), updraft kilns (tremendous heat loss and smudging), downdraft kilns (forces heat downward to maintain uniform high temperatures for sintering), and muffle kilns (double-skinned to prevent smoke from touching pots).
- Sintering vs. Vitrification: Sintering is the process where clay grains liquefy and weld together at high temperatures (1000°C+), while vitrification transforms super-levigated clay slip into a glass-like waterproof skin during a reducing firing phase.
- Three-Phase Firing: A ceramic process involving Phase I (oxidizing/turns red), Phase II (reducing at 950°C/turns black and vitrifies), and Phase III (re-oxidizing/unpainted parts return to red).
- Tempering: Purposefully adding inclusions like flint or mica to clay for high-heat absorption in cooking pots, or lime for cooling in beehives.
- Glass Production: Began with frit (incomplete glass paste), evolved to cullet (remelted broken glass ideal for shipping), and advanced with glass blowing developed around 30 BC in Syria.
- Wasters: Misfired or broken ceramics discarded immediately outside a kiln, providing the most reliable proof of a kiln’s exact historical location.
- Ancient Scripts: Evolved from early accounting tokens held in clay envelopes (bullae) to cuneiform, hieroglyphics, and boustrophedon (alternating reading directions mimicking an ox plowing).
- Specialized Ancient Vessels: The amis (urinal for aristocratic dinner parties), patera (shallow ritual bowl with a central knob for gripping), panathenaic amphora (prize vases faked for Etruscan markets), and eye cups (large vessels with funerary or apotropaic significance).
THEORIES FRAMEWORKS
- Six Basic Machines: A mathematical framework defined by Pappus of Alexandria identifying the inclined plane, wedge, worm gear, lever, wheel, and pulley, along with their physical risks and mechanical implications.
- Stratigraphic Deposition: The archaeological principle that older materials are found at lower earth levels; however, when a mound degrades, its newest top materials slide down into the very bottom of adjacent trenches.
- Pharaonic Monopoly: The economic model in New Kingdom Egypt where high-value industries like colored glass production were strictly controlled by the state to raise revenue and restrict status symbols.
- Iconography / Visual Shorthand: The interpretive framework where specific visual attributes instantly identify figures in art without requiring text.
- Polyvalency: The characteristic of an object admitting multiple, simultaneous interpretations or receptions (e.g., the dual ancient and modern meanings of the Discobolos).
SCHOLARS
- Aristotle: Established early taxonomy across disciplines including physics and biology based on his students’ notes.
- Theophrastus: Successor to Aristotle who systematically categorized plants, stones, and human characters.
- Pappus of Alexandria: Fourth-century AD mathematician who defined the six traditional basic machines.
- Hesiod: Greek agricultural writer who authored a farming calendar out of financial necessity after losing his inheritance.
- Cato the Elder & Varro & Columella: Roman writers who authored detailed manuals on agriculture and farming.
- Pliny the Elder: Compiled 35 books of natural history and asserted glass was preferable to metal dining wares because it imparts no taste to food.
- Sheramy Bundrick: Debunked the theory that eye cups were used as drinking masks, proving their funerary or apotropaic importance.
- Scott Gallimore: Established the conservative estimate that 40% of finished glass and amphorae broke during maritime transport.
- Dyfri Williams: Analyzed depictions of Greek potters, explicitly highlighting rare evidence of female potters at work.