A changing place of Greek black– and red-figure pottery in archaeological method and theory: From evolution of style to entanglement and objects’ ontology

Abstract

This chapter aims to present a short history of archaeological interest in style in ancient Greek black- and red-figure pottery – two distinct but related production techniques, which roughly date from the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic periods (c. 6th to early 3rd century BC) – and how this issue changed from initial culture-historical perspectives toward more recent epistemologies. A special focus is placed on consumption studies and some recent object-oriented approaches (e.g. I. Hodder’s concept of entanglement), and how these theoretical perspectives could benefit from a plethora of information about the nature of Greek ceramics and its production obtained by J. Beazley and other culturehistorical pottery specialists.