The Emergence of Lead-Glazed Pottery in the Late Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean: New Investigations at Mytilene, Athens, and Ostia

The circumstances and chronology of the emergence of lead-glazed pottery in the Late Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean remain heavily debated. This article presents a multidisciplinary discussion of pottery provenance and glazing technology based on the analysis of 94 samples from three sites: Mytilene, Athens, and Ostia. Through a critical review of published data and comparisons with other glazed ceramics, we discuss the emergence of lead-glazed pottery against the background of a highly interconnected, “global” world. We argue that mainland Greece played an important but hitherto unrecognized role in this development.