The Potters' Wheel in Minoan Crete

Abstract

The large numbers and variety of forms of this object type that have gradually accumulated in the last half century permit now of an overall review, drawing in part on earlier and more individual accounts. Following the Catalogue, five broad typological classes are discussed, analysed in detail, and manufacture and method of employment deduced, as far as possible. Geographical and chronological distribution is looked at. The Pre-Palatial period sees only the use of ‘mats’ – turned manually merely as the potter desired in building up his pot by hand; centrifugal force is harnessed at the perioid of the creation of the First Palaces – the freely-revolving wheel appears. Rapidly, before the construction of the Neo-Palatial buildings, a wheelhead incorporating a fly-wheel effect was devised, probably set low on the ground, pivoting in a fixed basal socket.