Hellenistic Pottery: The Fine Wares by Sarah A. James (review)

Corinth has always been at the epicentre of studies on ancient Greek ceramics, a situation justified by the importance of its ceramic output, especially during the Orientalizing and the Archaic periods, as well as by its long-term significant geographical location at the junction of important commercial routes. As a result, Corinth’s Hellenistic pottery record was comprehensively researched by Roger Edwards as long ago as 1975 (Corinth VII.3). Apparent shortcomings of Edwards’s absolute chronology, however, called for a re-evaluation of the city’s ceramic evidence. This need was accentuated by the fact that his conclusions were drawn from relatively few and not diverse enough deposits, with most coming from wells from only one building, the South Stoa.

The volume by Sarah A. James under review responds to this call, becoming the second volume in the Corinth series dealing with pottery of the Hellenistic period. Although the scope of this volume is less ambitious than its predecessor’s, focusing on table ware and excluding coarse ware and cooking ware—the study of which by the same author is, however, under way—it has the merit of being primarily based on six large and chronologically discrete deposits, a rather rare phenomenon in Corinth. Consequently, the author, through the careful analysis and quantification of this material (and additional data from other deposits throughout the ancient city), embarks on the task of reassessing and fine-tuning the older chronology and presenting a detailed history of several important local shapes. This new chronology, which is branded as the “Panayia Field chronology,” from the area southeast of the later Forum where the deposits forming the core of this study were discovered, composes the volume’s main contribution. In that respect, the absence of any detailed presentation/discussion of imports is conspicuous, especially considering their importance within the new chronology. Another contribution of the volume is that it adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting the presence of a small community in Corinth in the years between the destruction of the city by Mummius and the foundation of the Roman colony in 44 bc, known also as the interim period.

In fact, James plunges into the so-called “146 dilemma” at once in Chapter 1. After a short introduction discussing the available evidence and the aims of the study, there follows a useful concise account of the political developments in the city during the Hellenistic period. A separate subchapter reviews the inherent difficulties of researching Hellenistic pottery in Corinth and the problems surrounding Edwards’s chronology. In particular, the uncertainty of the dates employed at both its high and low ends is clearly brought out: namely, the construction of the South Stoa and the destruction of the city by the Romans. As James argues, research has now mostly shifted from Broneer’s original dating of the stoa in 338–323 bc towards a later date (late fourth–early third century bc), while those layers identified by Edwards as “Mummian destruction deposits” appear in fact to postdate that destruction. The main part of the chapter recounts the evidence (archaeological and written sources) surrounding the destruction of Corinth: it concludes that this was not total and that life in the city continued even after it. The identification by the author of a local interim-period ceramics industry only strengthens this view. Of special importance in this line of reasoning are the Panayia Field deposits, in particular the stratigraphically discrete floor Deposit M, as well as the re-examined deposits of the South Stoa. These reveal several chronological indicators and display a clear distinction in character/composition between the layers dating before and after the destruction of 146 bc. The nature of the later assemblages could have only resulted from the everyday activity of a local community. The final subchapter briefly presents the nature of the Corinthian Late Hellenistic assemblage—which would, however, fit better into a later part of the volume—and the...