@inproceedings{2932206, title = "Ρωμαϊκά και πρωτοβυζαντινά εργαστήρια κεραμικής στον ελλαδικό χώρο", author = "Πλάτων Πετρίδης", year = "2010", pages = "81-96", publisher = "ΥΠΟΥΡΓΕΙΟ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΥ", booktitle = "Κεραμική της Ύστερης Αρχαιότητας από τον ελλαδικό χώρο (3ος -7ος αι. μ.Χ.), Εκδ: Δ. Παπανικόλα-Μπακιρτζή, Ντ. Κουσουλάκου", keywords = "Αρχαιολογία, Ρωμαϊκή περίοδος, Πρωτοβυζαντινή περίοδος, Κεραμική, Εργαστήρια κεραμικής, Οικονομική ιστορία", abstract = "Despite the promising turn by research in recent years to the study of the Roman, and especially the Early Byzantine pottery that has come to light in Greece, very little local production has been certainly identified, and consequently very little has been written about the relations between the workshops of different towns from the 2nd to the 7th c. The present article attempts to draw conclusions about the centres producing known categories of ceramic material, the limits of the originality of a particular output or the freedom of design of the material produced, and finally, the form taken by the self-sufficiency of small towns towards the end of the period under examination. Special mention is made of lamps that form a group with features enabling them to be classified and dated relatively easily, and making comparisons between local workshops possible. Beginning with Corinthian lamps, the first very popular type created in mainland Greece in Roman times, and with reference to the doubt cast on their Corinthian origins, I refute the view that Patras was the main place where they were manufactured. Given that such lamps were also produced in Patras, however, I suggest a new schema, according to which the major, famous workshops had facilities not only in their main place of production (that is, Corinth), but also at other places in the north Peloponnese, where clay beds made it possible to produce goods of similar quality and colour scale. I suggest that there probably existed a chain of workshops with a very large output that will have been controlled by large owners. The course followed by the other types of lamp that made their appearance in the 7th c. (Attic, Asia Minor, North-African) is then traced, and a close relationship is detected between the local output of small towns in Central Greece and the Peloponnese with regard to imitations of lamps of North-African type. Essentially, a variation of this type of lamp is created with a special preference for particular motifs, such as a cross on the disc, and a branch on the rim. This common artistic expression is probably owed to mutual copying in the context of a specific fashion. With regard to the production of categories of pottery other than lamps, the relations between the workshops of different towns, though more difficult to trace, are of great interest. Down to the 5th c. the large towns exported a wide variety of vases to the small towns, and also exercised an influence on their output. From the middle of the 6th c. onwards, in contrast, local production became independent and could boast fine-quality vases and a wide variety of shapes, attaining a high degree of autonomy. Particular interest attaches to a category consisting mainly of open vases, the production of which has not been studied yet; the centers of production of those painted vases were mainly Crete and Central Greece. In the case of the latter, I conclude by precluding other production centres suggested in the past, and argue that the production center was at Phthiotic Thebes, where the greatest number of such vases has been found. The creation and dissemination of painted wares at this time should also be set in the context of a fashion originating in the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. Influences of this kind from remote areas, and the common artistic expression in the production of lamps of North-African type, provide a picture of local output in towns of different sizes. Despite the attempts made by the local workshops to secure their autonomy with regard to variety of shapes, these local outputs cannot be regarded as isolated during what are generally considered the difficult years of the late 6th and early 7th c." }