A Greek island in the Delta? Analysing the ceramic assemblage from Naukratis

Resource type
Creator (person)
Villing, Alexandra
Date published
2025
Abstract
In the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, excavations at the trading port of Naukratis uncovered a vast range of pottery from across the Greek world, highlighting the site as a Greek ‘island’ in the Nile Delta. The finds have been vitally significant to scholarship on Greek-Egyptian and wider Mediterranean interrelations ever since. Recent investigations, however, have revealed the extant ceramic assemblage as biased and unrepresentative, shaped by historical scholarly preferences and practices. A critical review of Naukratis’ archaeological archive and the changing heuristic frameworks involved in its formation and interpretation, combined with data from scientific research and new fieldwork, now open up new perspectives on this multicultural Egyptian-Greek port and its history. Typical for many sites investigated in the infancy of archaeology, Naukratis as a case study illustrates the challenges posed by legacy data but also suggests ways of extracting robust historical conclusions from compromised ceramic assemblages.
Funder
Funder nameAwards
Leverhulme Trust
F/00 052/E
The Leon Levy – Shelby White Program for Archaeological Publications
Christian Levett and the Mougins Museum of Classical Art
Honor Frost Foundation
British Academy
Michela Schiff Giorgini Foundation
Book title
Ceramic Perspectives on Connectivity in the Ancient Mediterranean
Editor
Hilditch, Jill
Revello Lami, Martina
Pagination
177-194
Publisher
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Official URL
Related URL
Rights statement
In Copyright
DOI
Keywords