Our Terminology
What is “Kerameikos”?
The word “Kerameikos” refers to the district in ancient Athens where the potters’ quarter was situated. The Kerameikos takes its name from the ancient Greek word for “clay” or “pottery,” keramos — the root of the English word “ceramic.” In antiquity the Kerameikos served as both the potters’ quarter and the city’s largest and most important cemetery. Our project takes its name from the ancient potters’ quarter to reflect our original focus on Athenian pottery.
artist
An “artist” is the individual who painted or potted a vase. Individual artists can sometimes be identified by their signatures (e.g. “Exekias painted me”), but most painters and potters did not sign their works. Instead, modern scholars like Sir John Beazley have developed methods for attributing unsigned vases to specific artists by closely analyzing drawing habits, anatomical details, and favorite motifs. These artists are then given modern names like “The Amasis Painter,” “The Berlin Painter,” or “The Achilles Painter.” It is likely that many of these artists worked together in groups or workshops, and some of these workshops have been identified based on stylistic similarities (e.g. “The Workshop of the Penthesilea Painter”).
shape
The term “shape” refers to a vase’s physical form and function. Some shapes have conventional names derived from Greek (e.g. “amphora,” “krater,” “kylix,” “oinochoe”) that describe their structure and often their intended use (e.g. “amphora” meaning “two-handled;” “oinochoe” meaning “wine-jug”). Others have modern names (e.g. “plate,” “salt-cellar,” “bottle”). In scholarship, identifying a shape helps determine a vase’s purpose, chronological range, and sometimes its place of production.
technique
“Technique” refers to how a vase was made, treated, decorated, and fired. In Greek vase studies, the term “technique” is frequently used to denote a vase’s decorative scheme such as black-figure, red-figure, and white-ground. In some scholarship, “technique” is used interchangeably with “style” or “ware.”
period
“Periods” are spans of time designated by archaeologists and historians to track patterns of cultural change and organize material evidence. The historical and stylistic period in which an artist worked often had a significant effect on the choices they made when making their vases — for example, the way the human body is rendered noticeably changes between the different periods of Greek art (e.g. “Archaic,” “Classical,” “Hellenistic”). Because artistic change is gradual, periods sometimes overlap or vary by region. They are best understood as tools to help describe general trends in Greek art and archaeology, not rigid or universally experienced phases.
place of production
“Place of production” refers to where a vase was made. Artists typically used clay that was locally available, and so often a vase’s “fabric” (the source, type, and treatment of clay) will tell us about where it was produced. Some of the most common places of production in ancient Greece include Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Boeotia.