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An Assessment of Minoan Slips from Pseira, Crete, Using Scanning Electron Microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Cheryl R. Floyd
Cheryl R. Floyd*
Affiliation:
Dept. of Art History, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122
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Abstract

Tenacity of slip adherence on MM II and LM IB pottery is investigated using the SEM. Results indicate that the degree of adherence is due to an advanced vitrification which causes a glassy interface to form between the slip and the fabric of vessels. Superior adherence, moreover, is related to the darkness of the final slip color, which generally is closer to black on MM II vessels.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 352: Symposium – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology IV , 1995 , 663
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

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References

REFERENCES

1. Pseira is currently being excavated by a joint American-Greek team under the direction of Philip P. Betancourt and Costis Davaras. For information see Betancourt, P.P. and Davaras, C., Hesperia 57, 207–225 (1988). Thanks are expressed to the directors for permission to undertake this study and to P.P. Betancourt for helpful suggestions. Work for this study was conducted at the Biology Laboratory, Temple University, and at the Archaeological Laboratory, Department of Art History, Temple University. Funding was provided by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory and by the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency, as a part of support for the analysis program of the Pseira Excavation Project.Google Scholar
2. For the results of the PIXE analysis on these samples, see the article by Swann, C.P., Betancourt, P.P. and Floyd, C.R. in this volume. The PIXE results for sample 688 are, as yet, unpublished.Google Scholar
3. Previous research on Minoan dark slips has been conducted by M.S. Tite and Y. Maniatis, and by W. Noll and colleagues. The articles by Tite and Maniatis are cited in endnotes 4, 8 and 9. In addition see Noll, W., Thera and the Aegean World I, edited by Doumas, C. (Thera and the Aegean World, London, 1978), pp. 493–505; Antike Welt 8, 21-36 (1977); Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie. Abhandlungen 143, 150-199 (1982); W. Noll, R. Holm and L. Born, Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Warttemburg 10, 103-108 (1973); Die Naturwissenshaften 58, 615-618 (1971); Angew. Chem. internat. Edit. 14, 602-613 (1975). None of these researches, however, considered the adherence of the slip to the surface of the vessel.Google Scholar
4. Tite, M.S. and Maniatis, Y., Nature 257, 122 (1975).Google Scholar
5. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Munsell Soil Color Charts (Kollmorgan Instruments Co., Baltimore, 1990).Google Scholar
6. Rice, P., Pottery Analysis. A Sourcebook (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987), pp. 324–325.Google Scholar
7. This work conducted by Nicholas Fry, former electron microscope technician for the Biology Department, Temple University.Google Scholar
8. Maniatis, Y., and Tite, M.S., Thera and the Aegean World, edited by Doumas, C. (Thera and the Aegean World, London, 1978), p. 486.Google Scholar
9. Tite, M.S. and Maniatis, Y., Nature 257, 122 (1975); Y. Maniatis and M.S. Tite, Thera and the Aegean World I, edited by C. Doumas (Thera and the Aegean World, London, 1978), pp. 484-486; Journal of Archaeological Science 8, 65-68 (1981).Google Scholar
10. See the PIXE results in the article by Swann, C.P., Betancourt, P.P. and C. Floyd, R., this volume.Google Scholar