Often enough the craft worker's place of employment in ancient Greece was set in rural isolation.
Potter, for instance, found it convenient to locate their workshops near their source of clay, Ega.cdJgss of
its relation to the center of settlement, At Corinth and Athens, however, two of the best-known potters'
quarters were situated on the cities' outskirts, and potters and makers of terra-cotta figurines were also
(5) established well within the city of Athens itself. The techniques of pottery manufacture had evolved
well before the Greek period, but marked stylistic developments occurred in shape and in decoration,
for example, in the interplay of black and other glazes with the red surface of the fired pot. Athenian
black-figure and red-figure decoration, which emphasized human figures rather than animal images„
was adopted between 630 and 530 B.C. its distinctive color and luster were the result of the skillful
(10) adjustments of the kiln's temperature during an extended three-stage period if firing the clayware.
Whether it was the potters or the vase-painters who initiated changes in firing is unclear; the functions
of making and decorating were usually divided between them, but neither group can have been so
specialized the they did not share in the concerns of the other.
The broad utility of terra-cotta was such that workers in clay could generally afford to confine
(15) themselves to either decorated ware and housewares like cooking pots and storage Jars or building
materials like rooftiles and drainpipes. Some sixth-and fifth-century B.C. Athenian pottery establishment'
are known to have concentrated on a limited range of fine ware, but a rural pottery establishment on the;
island of Thasos produced many types of pottery and roof tiles too, presumably to meet local demand.bl
Molds were used to create particular effects for some products, such as relief-decorated vessels and.
(20) figurines; for other products such as roof tiles, which were needed in some quantity, they were used'
to facilitate mass production. There were also a number of poor-quality figurines and painted pots
produced in quantity by easy, inexpensive means- as numerous featureless statuettes and unattractive
gases testify.
1. The passage mainly discusses ancient Greek pottery and its ...