Wine Jars and Jar Makers of Cyprus

In her study Wine Jars and Jar Makers of Cyprus, Gloria London sets out to evaluate the diaries of a Danish UN police officer by the name of Knud Jensen. London conducts an in-depth examination of Jensen’s six diaries and one postscript and tries to present the information obtained in a framework that uses as systematic and scientific an outline as possible. After reading Jensen’s diaries, London examined ceramics and ceramic production in Cyprian villages for a period of six months. The author, who has specialized in Cyprian ceramic production and female potters for more than 30 years, focused her studies on villages in the mountains of Agios Demetrios and the Troodos. The book’s principal object of investigation are large-scale jars called pitharia about which Knud Jensen conducted his lay research, tracing their origin to Southern Cyprus. London’s book is important because it has the potential to provide a starting point for those interested in the traditional handmade pottery of Cyprus.The book comprises two parts with 13 chapters. The first part is composed of information mainly collected from Jensen’s diaries. The second part concentrates on traditional ceramic production data that can be used in archaeology.The author starts her book with Jensen’s story (Ch. 1, Introduction), and she deepens the subject reporting on her own research studies conducted in Kornos, Agios Demetrios, Kaminaria, and Phini, all of which are villages actively engaged in pottery production. In Chapter 2, London relates the story of how a police officer came to be a pot researcher and describes some of Jensen’s research interests regarding the pitharia. In the same chapter, London investigates Jensen’s indebtedness to his own country’s culture with regard to technology, tools, practices, society, lifestyle, food customs, and beliefs, and, finding similarities, Jensen was comfortable communicating with the local people of Cyprus. In his diaries he describes how he started recording pitharia and copying ornamentations and stamp seals on them.Chapter 3 details the situation in Nicosia and Southern Cyprus from the 1960s through 2016, offering demographic data, information on village life, geography, and, relatedly, the ceramic ecology with a summary of the sedimentological situation of red, white, and gray clays. Chapter 4 is dedicated to information about the production and use of wine, discussing jars, fermentation operations, and Cypriot wines and their characteristics in general. In her next chapter, London informs readers about her interviews with potters, jar producers, and elders in the villages, as well as about the equipment that Jensen used. In addition, she estimates the size of the jars based on the jars that Jensen recorded in his diaries, whose volumes he either measured or recorded from their inscriptions.In Chapter 6, London focuses on the people who produce the pitharia and discusses the contributions of itinerant jar makers and their families to jar production. Furthermore, insights gained about the use and purpose of the pitharia (storage of olives, water, or dry food) and about fermentation, lead to conclusions about ritual uses of the pitharia. While addressing domestic pottery produced by local craftsmen for local consumers (Ch. 7), London examines aspects like the number of potters in the villages; working seasons and working principles of the potters according to region; determination of sales prices; but also forms and sizes of vessels, their characteristics and decorations.Chapter 8 discusses the size of jars and signs and writings on the jars and other ceramics. In addition, comprehensive data on rural potters with particular attention to itinerant women potters are here available. Jensen’s documentation is particularly good for Kornos pottery, covering production techniques and stages as well as associated types of wheels, kilns, and decoration.Next (Ch. 9), London turns to the chain of production, discussing the use of local clays and offering detailed explanations of how bottoms, bodies, and rims of vessels are formed. Then focus shifts to the jars themselves and questions concerning the determination of shapes are investigated closely. Also, the inscriptions on jars, seal impressions, dates, and other, decorative, elements receive attention. Finally, the reader learns about the drying of clay jars, their placement in the kiln, and the firing and post-firing phases. Thus, all steps in the traditional production of the vessels are considered.Chapter 10 documents traditional life and production styles in the villages where Jensen conducted his research. Agricultural operations, tools, and subsistence economies are discussed, as well as objects related to burial or to religious and spiritual beliefs. Other themes from Jensen’s diaries are brought together in Chapter 11, namely, a brief excursus concerning the illegal archaeological excavations and ancient ceramics in the region.Chapter 12, the first chapter of the ceramics ethnoarchaeology part of the book (Part II), was likely prepared for professional researchers and academics. The focus is on subjects such as regions, date of settlement, stylistic changes, and diversification between regions. Chapter 13 is a continuation of Chapter 12, written to give answers to some of the main problems and to prepare the data that are useful to archaeological research. Throughout the book, London is interested in how her data may be applied to archaeology, but in this chapter she is more systematic about it. Research questions of interest for archaeologists addressed here are those regarding general characteristics of the jars; ornamental characteristics; letters, signs, and other marks; production time; form repertory and regional differences; reuse and recycling.To conclude, Gloria London’s book is different from a traditional book on ethnoarchaeology, and I think it is an outstanding volume. It is important not only because it presents ethnoarchaeology, but also because it presents information regarding the rural life of Cyprus. Besides, plenty of illustrations, including old photos and charcoal drawings, make the book unique. As pointed out above, London’s work is based on information taken from notebooks by a person who did not have any scientific training. The difficulty here is one of scientific evaluation based on nonscientific collection of data. London is an author well respected for her knowledge of ethnoarchaeology and of pottery, researching the subject with a particular focus on Southern Cyprus since the 1980s. Thanks to her special expertise, she is able to turn the private records of a police officer into scientific information. It is evident that the task was not an easy one, repetition of information and some disconnect between the parts of her study are unavoidable. Nevertheless, she has succeeded in presenting the data in a comprehensive and academically useful way in her Part II. Publishing her ethnoarchaeology book from these diaries is a great success despite the problems involved—we would all be intellectually poorer had London not taken on the challenge.As a final remark, and in a more personal vein, I would like to note that around the time I began to read London’s book, my wife and I organized a trip to Northern Cyprus for another project’s fieldwork. We stayed in a hotel in Girne. Interestingly, when we went out to explore the environment, we came across a huge pitharia in the courtyard of the Girne castle. Perhaps it was brought from the South or maybe it was produced locally in the tradition of Cyprus in general. I think this exemplar deserves attention as well

Archaeology · Ethnoarchaeology · JAR · Library science · Officer · Pottery · Subject (documents · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Computer Science · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology