Étude en laboratoire des céramiques dites de Vassiliki (Crète orientale)

Olivier Pelon and Anne Schmitt, Laboratory Study of the So-called Vasiliki Ware (Eastern Crete) p. 431-442. The Minoan pottery known as Vasiliki ware is dated from Early Minoan II and occurs for the most part at Cretan sites of this period; highly recognisable, it is characterised by a mottled decoration consisting of irregular red, orange and black patches. To determine its place of production, we proceeded to make a chemical study by x-ray fluorescence backed by a petrographic study of different samples from Malia, Myrtos-Pyrgos, Myrtos-Fournou Koryphi and Vasiliki itself. This study enabled us to distinguish two groups of a different chemical composition.The first, well represented at Malia and Vasiliki — which permits the hypothesis of exchanges between the two sites —, could come from Malia. The second, much more coarsely made and much commoner than the first at Malia, is in all probability of local provenance: the characteristics of the clay used make it closer in fact to that from the metamorphic formations of the Selinari massif some kilometers east of the site.