This book represents the sum total of many years of extensive, in-depth research by the author on the Penteskouphia pinakes, painted ceramic plaques that come in one-sided and two-sided varieties and offer important evidence about the craft of Corinthian potters during the sixth century bc. These small pinakes (averaging H. 7.2 × W. 10.0 × Th. 0.7 cm), mostly painted in the black-figure technique or occasionally using only silhouette, consist of around 1,000 examples in the form of approximately 1,200 fragments and were discovered near the village of Penteskouphia west of Corinth, in the north east Peloponnese. The artefacts were unearthed in two major batches: the first in 1879 by a farmer, and the second in 1905 in a three-day excavation carried out by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA). Since 1905, more fragments have been, and continue to be, found in small numbers. Joins across the 1879 and 1905 pinakes indicate that the ASCSA excavation was conducted at the same location where the 1879 pinakes were uncovered. The pinakes found in 1879 eventually made their way into the collections of the Louvre in Paris and the Antikensammlung in Berlin, while those excavated by the ASCSA in 1905 and those found since are housed in the archaeological museum at Corinth. Although the pinakes with images of potters, which give the book its title, are the best known, the ninety-seven instances represent only a small portion of the entire corpus at around seven percent (p. 179). The bulk of the iconography on the pinakes consists primarily of portrayals of mounted warriors, animals, and the sea god Poseidon—the deity to whom the Penteskouphia pinakes were dedicated. The plaques showing potters at work, nevertheless, constitute the single largest extant source of visual evidence for ancient Greek ceramic production.
Long well-known among classical archaeologists for the depiction of various stages of pottery production (including the collection of clay, the forming of vessels, and the firing of the kiln) as well as their extensive inscriptions, Hasaki's main goal is to carry out not only a systematic exploration of iconography, but to treat these specific pinakes and the larger corpus contextually. She rightly conceives of context in the plural, arguing that the Penteskouphia pinakes have four: archaeological, iconographical, technological and organizational, and religious. Hasaki also asserts that the pinakes, dating to the mid-sixth century bc, were dedicated by anxious potters in response to the decline in demand for fine Corinthian sympotic (related to the ancient Greek symposium) vessels, in the wake of the ascension in the Mediterranean of Athens as a major production centre. The pinakes, then, tell us both about the production of pottery and ‘industrial religion’ in sixth-century bce Corinth.
Excluding the introduction and conclusion, which offer a useful overview and summation respectively, and seven appendices which contain extensive data on both the pinakes with images of potters at work and the entire corpus, the text is divided into six core chapters. All are written by Hasaki with the exception of Chapter 2, which deals with the findspot of the pinakes and which is contributed by I. Tzonou (Associate Director) and J. Herbst (Architect) of the ASCSA Corinth Excavations. Tzonou and Herbst, using the notebooks from the 1905 excavation, additional legacy data, and previous publications to guide them, carried out a topographical examination ‘to locate and map the findspot of the pinakes […] in order to ascertain what precisely can be inferred about their deposition; and second, to consider their place in the Corinthian landscape in light of recent work’ (p. 26). Given the nature of both the discovery of the pinakes in 1879 and the lack of systematic stratigraphic methods in the 1905 ASCSA excavations, Tzonou and Herbst admit that they are limited in terms of what can be said of the specific archaeological context. It is impossible to tell, for example, whether the findspot was a dump from the clearing out of a sanctuary or an in situ votive deposit. What they are able to suggest, however, is that the site is near the ancient Phliasian road and they speculate that it might have been a roadside shrine to Poseidon. They caution that systematic excavation is needed before such a hypothesis can be considered definitive (p. 42).
Chapters 3-6 deal with the pinakes themselves, and in Chapter 7 Hasaki brings all of the threads of the book together to offer an overarching interpretation of the impetus for the creation of the Penteskouphia pinakes and their meaning. Chapter 3 is an overview of the entire corpus of the pinakes, wherein Hasaki considers the circumstances of their manufacture, their possible function as objects used to practice sketching and painting in workshops (pp. 56–57) and later as dedications to Poseidon (pp. 64–65), and the full range of iconography. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between the pinakes and potters who specialized in the production of sympotic ceramics, which is supported by the similarity in size of many of the pinakes and the handle plate of Corinthian column kraters (p. 46). Likewise, Hasaki stresses the connection between the painting on the pinakes and Corinthian vase-painting more broadly. Chapter 4 is a catalogue of all the pinakes which are decorated with the titular scenes of ‘potters at work.’ Each entry provides information on the following: clay, technique, inventory number, dimensions, a description, orientation, piercing, inscriptions, date, bibliography, and reconstruction (pp. 84–85). The last element is especially helpful: for every fragmentary pinax that is accompanied by an illustration, a reconstruction is visually conjectured. Moreover, complete or mostly complete pinakes illustrated with a photograph are also reproduced with a drawing.
In Chapter 5, the pinakes collected in the catalogue are given a full iconographic and epigraphic discussion. Hasaki's examination is arranged by the stages involved in the process of creating pottery, from the collection of clay and fuel through firing in the kiln. Given her profound knowledge of ancient Greek kilns, it is unsurprising that pinakes depicting the firing are given an extended treatment (pp. 186–94). An in-depth comparison of the pinakes and Athenian representations of potters at work follows, and an exploration of the inscriptions closes the chapter. Chapter 6 further broadens the picture by contextualizing the pinakes within the other extant evidence on ceramic production throughout Greece, from the Archaic period through the present. Here, Hasaki marshals an impressive array of archaeological, archaeometric, experimental, and ethnographic data, resulting in one of the best overviews of the ancient Greek pottery industry. Chapter 7 is the full interpretation of the Penteskouphia pinakes as evidence of stress on the potters’ workshops that created the artefacts stemming from the rise of Athens as a major rival producer of pottery. Against the backdrop of industry and religion at Corinth more broadly, Hasaki hypothesizes that the vicinity of the findspot of the pinakes may have been home to a community of potters (pp. 281–83), or perhaps some kind of sacred grove or shrine to Poseidon (pp. 293–95). Even though such a view can only be validated through new archaeological work, Hasaki creates a vivid and compelling picture.
A major contribution of Hasaki's investigation is that it brings analysis of Corinthian ceramic production in line with that of Athenian pottery. The study of Corinthian ceramics has been for many decades an important avenue of inquiry (Payne, Reference Payne1931; Amyx, Reference Amyx1988; Green, Reference Green2023), but Athenian pottery has received greater attention and tends to be what comes to mind when one thinks of ‘Greek ceramics’. No doubt this is in part due to the fact that Athenian ceramics are characterized by extensive figure-decorated pottery with iconography populated by gods, heroes, and mortals, whereas the repertoire of Corinthian vase-painting, though not at all devoid of human or divine figures, is known for its decorative ornament and animal imagery. The examination of the pinakes is a welcome entry in the existing scholarship not only on these artefacts in Corinthia and elsewhere in the ancient Greek world, but on portrayals of the quotidian in the iconography of ancient Greek vase-painting, often labelled genre scenes or scenes of daily life. While there has been continued interest in the phenomenon in Athenian vase-painting (Bazant, Reference Bazant1985; Oakley, Reference Oakley2020), Hasaki's focus on such imagery in Corinthian vase-painting is a much-needed addition to the scholarly literature. Likewise, the broad contextual approach employed by Hasaki that does not merely confine itself to archaeological context has been increasingly important for the study of Athenian ceramics in the last decade (Alexandridou, 2011; Lynch, Reference Lynch2011; Smith, Reference Smith2012) and enriches her exploration of the pinakes. Although archaeological context is the most important, it is by no means the only type of context.
Furthermore, Hasaki's research adds depth to the existing scholarship both on the Penteskouphia pinakes themselves as well as on pinakes in ancient Greece beyond Corinthia. Recent work on the Penteskouphia pinakes has been carried out by Palmieri (Reference Palmieri2016), who focuses primarily on the iconographic repertoire of the pinakes. Palmieri's research is based on 182 pinakes, with autopsy being conducted on a few examples in Corinth and observation via photographs of some in the Louvre. Hasaki, then, has greatly expanded on this earlier work, which Palmieri herself frames as a starting point rather than the final word on the pinakes. Furthermore, while Hasaki is correct when she emphasizes the fact that the Penteskouphia pinakes have no exact comparanda on account of their sheer number, types of iconography, and inscriptions, such objects are known from elsewhere in the ancient Greek world, such as Athens and Sicily. Hasaki places the Penteskouphia pinakes in dialogue with those from Athens in particular, a choice that makes sense given the city's status as another major centre of ceramic production in Greece. The Athenian pinakes are the subject of a study by Karoglu (Reference Karoglu2010) which is in some ways more similar to Hasaki's approach to the Penteskouphia pinakes than is Palmieri's, given that it is interested not only in iconography, but other significant issues including provenience, cult, inscriptions, and the dedication of pinakes.
Finally, beyond its significant scholarly merits, the presentation of the text is worthy of comment, as are its potential audiences. The prose is clear and generally free of errors. Like all ASCSA publications, the volume itself is of high quality. Fittingly for a book dealing with artefacts known for their visual qualities, the book is amply illustrated, with over 230 illustrations. As far as audience is concerned, the book is best-suited for ancient Mediterranean specialists interested in ceramic production and vase-painting. Given the many issues with which the Penteskouphia pinakes intersect, however, it is also a worthwhile read for those interested in craftspeople, craft production, and epigraphy. In sum, Potters at Work in Ancient Corinth: Industry, Religion, and the Penteskouphia Pinakes is an essential new entry in Greek archaeological research that sets the stage for the full publication of the corpus of the Penteskouphia pinakes.
