Museum copies

Inspirations by ancient Greek & Cypriot pottery

Two teams have been working in Crete in summer and autumn 2007,
one at Knossos (Don Evely,Vassilis Politakis ) and one at Pachyammos(Jerolyn Morrison), to experiment on possible ways of working with the Minoan potter's wheel. Our models, recreated by ourselves from wood, clay and bronze, have been based on what is known from the archaeological record. Our desires were to find out how easy, or not, they were to operate and what could be achieved on them.
In setting up the apparatus, one aspect became immediately apparent. Given the shallowness of all known pivots of stone in which the vertical axis of the wheel turns, no wheel could be free-standing (as had been earlier thought). Rather all needed a horizontal cross-piece within which the vertical axis fitted, and by which the whole wheel-head was kept upright and stable.

Once erected, the device proved surprisingly easy for a skilled potter to work. One could stand or sit; one could turn the wheel single-handed or with a second workman; one could make it revolve either from the wheel-head itself or by turning handles set lower in the vertical shaft (like the Thrapsano pithos-workers' style). Speeds sufficient to permit throwing (as defined in modern terms), centering, raising and shaping and finally turning were all readily possible for small and medium-sized pots. But this toil was always easier with the assistance of the second pair of hands. Larger vessels, or those made from heavier clays, were better produced by coils and always needed the second person, and at times a considerable output of energy.

Thus, the model works. To what extent the Minoans used it, and for what sorts of pots; and when and how rapidly its advantages were discovered and exploited .. none of these matters can be answered by what we have discovered about the wheel itself. Rather it is necessary to examine by X-ray methods actual Minoan vessels, to detect how they were manufactured. The hypotheses deduced then need to be tested, by conducting further experiments on our wheels. The first part of such work is already under way, courtesy of a major programme by Ina Berg (Manchester University).

Don Evely
Curator of the BSA (Knossos)