Mug

Pottery in the Ancient World

Ceramic vessels mediated diverse interactions in the ancient world, from trade and commerce to domestic and civic life, from drinking parties to athletic competitions, and from birth to the grave. Pottery production was a dynamic enterprise in which potters and painters were inspired by other media, such as metalwork and carved ivory, and by images produced by other cultures. Extensive trade connections between the Near East, Greece, Southern Italy, and Etruria ensured the movement of goods and people throughout the Mediterranean world, resulting in some shared trends in material culture and local tradition. Athens in particular came to dominate pottery production, and Athenian vases were produced in great numbers both for local use and for export. Many fine Athenian vases survive today because they were buried in Etruscan tombs in Italy.

Ancient pottery has long been of interest to scholars, and has been collected since the Renaissance. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when art history was emerging as an academic discipline, vessels and vases offered concrete connections to ancient societies. Today, pottery contributes some of the most important evidence for life in antiquity.