Chicken or Egg? Rethinking the Relationship Between the Silver and Tinned Ceramic Vessel Assemblages

Abstract

Since the 1960s, when the existence of tinned ceramic vessels in the Late Bronze Age Aegean was first recognised, our knowledge of this phenomenon and the catalogue of known examples have expanded significantly. Even before the nature of these objects was fully understood, scholars had suggested that their primary purpose was to imitate metal, particularly silver, vessels. Several silver vessel assemblages, including one from the tholos at Kokla, have been singled out for their perceived special relationship with tinned ceramics. However, closer analysis of tinned vessels has suggested that they were less similar to silver vessels than previously thought, especially in terms of their range of forms, details of shape and even colour. Recent scholarship has also emphasised that the concept of imitation is very complex and its investigation requires a more nuanced approach. Yet references to tinned vessels as straightforward imitations of, or even substitutes for, silver vessels remain common. In 2014, an opportunity arose to examine the Kokla silver vessels in greater detail. A strong connection between the Kokla group and tinned vessels is evident, although this does not mean that the latter depended upon assemblages such as the former for inspiration. The unique features of the Kokla group suggest it may have been a local innovation to emulate the usage of tinned vessels while simultaneously stressing the higher social status of its users. This paper concludes that situating tinned vessels within the ceramic tradition and thus regarding them as an enhanced form of ceramic, rather than an inferior form of metal vessel, better explains the nature of this phenomenon.

Sending Laurion Back to the Future: Bronze Age Silver and the Source of Confusion

“…Figure 3: Map of the Cycladic islands and other sites mentioned in the text These narratives, however, have failed to provide an explanation for the absence of any archaeological evidence to suggest centralised control over Laurion until the Archaic period (Mussche 1998, 17-55) and for the scarcity of silver in post-shaft grave contexts (after c. 1600 BCE) at Mycenae (Kelder 2016, 309-19). (Author note: We appreciate that silver is not completely absent after the Mycenaean shaft-grave period as discussed by Aulsebrook (2018). Furthermore, the opulent grave goods found in an undisturbed tomb at Pylos in 2015 by the University of Cincinnati team are of interest here in that the intact tomb of an adult male (whom they named Griffin Warrior) contained a number of silver vessels (Davis and Stocker 2016;.…”

The Gold and Silver Vessels and Other Precious Finds From the Tholos Tomb at Kokla in the Argolid

“…The fact that these two shapes are rooted in different ceramic traditions – the kylix continuing the long-lived mainland preference for stemmed vessels whereas the conical cup was clearly a predominantly Cretan phenomenon – may indicate that the seven silver vessels in the Kokla tholos were unlikely to have been intended to be used together as a single group. However, as discussed previously (Aulsebrook 2018b), the Kokla silver vessels are an unusual group that in some ways demonstrate greater affinity with the make-up of tinned ceramic assemblages than with the few known Aegean precious-metal assemblages. This is significant because, although kylikes dominate these assemblages of tinned ceramics, they are often found in conjunction with conical/handleless cups.…”

“…24) and the accompanying larger silver krater, whose similarities to the Kokla silver kylikes have already been discussed above, could also have been manufactured deliberately for use as a set (Persson 1942, 87–9, fig. 99:1–3; see also Aulsebrook 2018b). Overall, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the Kokla kylikes were made to be used together.…”