Time Management and Production Capacity of Pottery Workshops in Ancient Greece

16.04.2026 18:30 – 19:30

Conférence en anglais.
In this lecture, Professor Hasaki approaches the ceramic industry in ancient Greece (600-400 BCE) in a more holistic framework, analyzing carefully the expertise embedded in every step of the production. In her fieldwork with professional potters and painters of Greek vase replicas, she uses energetics to study the time management of potters and painters for basic shapes and to highlight incremental difficulty of different surface treatments and decoration. In this new entrepreneurial-focused context, all products of Greek pottery workshops, from the mundane ones to the masterpieces, are best understood as a convergence of skilled expertise and savvy business management. Scaling up the individual timetables for each shape, one can approach the broader topic of production capacity in more tangible terms and place the niche sector of figured ceramics within the wider ceramic sector on Ancient Greece.