Minoan pottery

Catling, H.W., Blin-Stoyle, A.E. and Richards, E.E. (1963). Correlations between composition and provenance of Mycenaean and Minoan pottery. Annual of the British School at Athens 58 94-115. 

The most intense NAA study of archaeological ceramics has been focused on the Bronze Age Mycenaean and Minoan pottery of Greece and Crete, and related areas around the eastern Mediterranean (Mommsen et al. 2002). This work began in Berkeley, California, in the 1960s with the work of Perlman and Asaro (1969), who went on to analyze 878 shards of pottery. The results were never fully published according to Asaro and Perlman (1973, 213), the question of provenience of the vast quantities of Mycenaean wares has... 

Further evidence caused Aegean archaeologists generally to accept the idea that Cyprus was a very important source of copper for the Minoans and the Myceneans. That evidence is the appearance in Cyprus of Mycenean and Minoan pottery. Most of this pottery was dated by Strom and others to the 14th and much of the 13th century B.C. This pottery and its contents were taken to represent the Cypriot end of a trade route that was motivated by the Mycenean and Minoan need of copper. So far, however, there has been no direct proof that the copper or bronze objects in Minoan Crete were indeed made of Cypriot copper. Neither was there any direct proof that Cypriot copper ever left Bronze Age Cyprus in any quantity. 

Ferrence, S. C., Betancourt, P. P., and Swann, C. P. (2002). Analysis of Minoan white pigments used on pottery from Kommos, Palaikastro, Mochlos and Knossos. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 189 364-368. 

Apart from the Minoans and, later, the Mycenaeans, the Early Cycladic people played an important part in the development of Mediterranean metallurgy. In fact, the Cycladic islands of the central Aegean came into extraordinary prominence in the third millennium B.C. The islands were the home of a flourishing culture with prominent settlements, a rather abundant population, well-developed pottery, and striking achievements in marble sculpture. Production of silver, lead (5), and copper from their ores was developed early, along with a rather vigorous trade. 

Also included here are the secondary oxides (aluminates) calcium aluminate (CaAl204), cobalt aluminate (C0AI2O4), lead aluminate (PbAl204) and hercynite (iron aluminate, Fe Al204). Calcium aluminate (calciiun aluminium oxide) may be a component of the pigment known as Satin white. Cobalt aluminate (cobalt aluminium oxide) is the pigment Cobalt blue. Lead alu-minate is listed by the Colour Index (1971) under Cl 77585. Hercynite has been identified on Minoan painted pottery by Stos-Fertner et al. (1979). Chromium aluminium cobalt oxide is Turkish Green. 

Identified by Stos-Fertner et al. (1979) with various iron oxides, huntite and metakaolinite on Minoan painted pottery. 

In other contexts, Stos-Fertner et al. (1979) recorded the presence of huntite on Minoan painted pottery Barbieri et al. (1975) have identified it as present on a second century ad Roman shipwreck Clarke (1976) observed its use in Western Australian cave art, while Watchman et al. (1993) and Ford et al. (1994) have also identified huntite in Australian cave painting. A more... 

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