AtticPOT: A Borderless Approach for Studying Attic Painted Pottery in Ancient Thrace

Abstract

"Attic painted pottery belongs to a group of ancient findings that has been thoroughly studied within the archaeological discipline for a long time. Discovered all over the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, the in-depth study of these artefacts has contributed greatly, not only to pottery studies, but also to the archaeological interpretation of art, technology economics and other domains. In addition to more traditional research tools, such as pottery catalogues and other relevant printed scientific publications, information and communication technologies (ICT) are also increasingly being employed. These new methods offer pottery specialists powerful digital tools that help them tackle this vast and varied material. This paper presents AtticPOT [Attic PO(ttery in) T(hrace)], a digital archaeology project focusing on the diffusion of Attic painted pottery in ancient Thrace from the 6th to the 4th century BCE. The first part of the paper sets the scene of relevant to AtticPOT projects. It also highlights AtticPOT’s borderless approach and innovative contribution to international research, outlining new avenues and existing restrictions. Next, the various project tools are presented, including the digital repository, tools for spatiotemporal and quantitative analysis, the collections tool and the composite search engine to name a few. Finally, the paper reviews the ongoing project’s overall contribution to both the present and the future of Attic pottery studies in ancient Thrace, presenting preliminary results from the project."