The Protogeometric style (or Proto-Geometric) is a style of

Ancient Greek pottery Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exerted a dispro ...

led by

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

and produced, in

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

and Central Greece, between roughly 1025 and 900 BCE,Van Damme, Trevor, and Lis Bartłomiej, (29 October 2024)
"The origin of the Protogeometric style in northern Greece and its relevance for the absolute chronology of the Early Iron Age"
in: Antiquity, 2024, Vol. 98, No. 401, pp. 1271-1289, Table 1: "Early Protogeometric in Central Greece and Attica, 1025 cal BC." during the

Greek Dark Ages The Greek Dark Ages ( 1180–800 BC) were earlier regarded as two continuous periods of Greek history: the Postpalatial Bronze Age (c. 1180–1050 BC) and the Prehistoric Iron Age or Early Iron Age (c. 1050–800 BC). The last included all the ...

. It was succeeded by the Early Geometric period. Earlier studies considered the beginning of this style around 1050 BCE.

History

After the collapse of the Mycenaean-

Minoan The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture which was centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and Minoan art, energetic art, it is often regarded as the first civilization in Europe. The ruins of the Minoan pa ...

Palace culture and the ensuing Greek Dark Ages, the Protogeometric style emerged around the late 11th century BCE, as the first expression of a reviving civilization. Following on from the development of a faster potter's wheel, vases of this period are markedly more technically accomplished than earlier Dark Age examples. From Athens the style spread to several other centres.

Production and decoration

The decoration of these pots is restricted to purely abstract elements and very often includes broad horizontal bands about the neck and belly and concentric circles applied with compass and multiple brush. Many other simple motifs can be found, but unlike many pieces in the following

Geometric style Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages and a little later, . Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the ...

, typically much of the surface is left plain. Like many pieces, the example illustrated includes a colour change in the main band, arising from a firing fault. Both the red and black colour use the same clay, differently levigated and fired. As the Greeks learnt to control this variation, the path to their distinctive

three-phase firing Three-phase firing (or three-step firing) or iron reduction technique is a firing technique used in ancient Greek pottery production, specifically for painted vases. Already vessels from the Bronze Age feature the colouring typical of the tech ...

technique opened. Some of the innovations included some new Mycenean influenced shapes, such as the belly-handled

amphora An amphora (; ; English ) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land ...

, the neck handled amphora, the

krater A krater or crater (, ; , ) was a large two-handled type of vase in Pottery of ancient Greece, Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water. Form and function At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in ...

, and the ''

lekythos A lekythos (; : lekythoi) is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no pouring lip; the oinochoe ...

''.

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

artists redesigned these vessels using the fast wheel to increase the height and therefore the area available for decoration.

Chronology

Based on radiocarbon datings and Bayesian models to

Lefkandi Lefkandi () is a coastal village on the island of Euboea, Greece. Archaeological finds attest to a settlement on the promontory locally known as Xeropolis, while several associated cemeteries have been identified nearby. The settlement site is loc ...

Kalapodi Kalapodi () is a village in the Lokroi (municipality), Lokroi municipality, Phthiotis, Central Greece (geographic region), Central Greece. Lokroi straddles the pass leading over the low mountains between the Bay of Atalantis in the Gulf of Euboea t ...

and

Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...

, Toffolo et al. (2013) placed the Sub-Mycenaean/Protogeometric transition "in the second half of the 11th century, approximately centered on 1025 BCE." Alex Knodell, in his (2021) book, classifies Protogeometric period in three sub-periods:Knodell, Alex, (2021)
Societies in Transition in Early Greece: An Archaeological History
University of California Press, Oakland, Table 1, p. 7.

References

Sources

* Cook, R.M., ''Greek Art'', Penguin, 1986 (reprint of 1972), * * *Murray, R. L. ''The Protogeometric Style: the first Greek style'', Gothenburg, Paul Åströms (1975). *Eiteljorg, H., "The fast wheel, the multiple brush compass and Athens as home of the Protogeometric style" ''

American Journal of Archaeology The ''American Journal of Archaeology'' (AJA), the peer-reviewed journal of the Archaeological Institute of America, has been published since 1897 (continuing the ''American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts'' founded by t ...

'' (AJA) 84 (1980) pp. 445–452.

External links

''Greek Art & Archaeology''
(Japanese and English)

University of Texas at Austin {{DEFAULTSORT:Protogeometric Art 11th century BC in Greece 10th century BC in Greece 11th-century BC works 10th-century BC works Ancient Greek vase-painting styles Mycenaean Greece Iron Age Greek art Greek Dark Ages