Ergasteria: Premises and Processes of Creation in Antiquity

This volume presents 23 papers that offer insights into aspects of creation, manufacture and processing in antiquity, viewing craftsmen and artists in their socio-cultural and geopolitical setting. New finds from Greece, North Africa, the Black Sea, Italy and Central Europe provide a trigger for discussion.

Ergasteria offers insights into aspects of creation, manufacture and processing in antiquity, viewing craftsmen and artists in their socio-cultural and geopolitical setting. New finds from Greece, North Africa, the Black Sea, Italy and Central Europe provide a trigger for discussion. Bronze foundries for life-size statues were the birthplace of proportions and harmony which imbued the perception of beauty, but could also be a source of nuisance. The mastery of modelling in any material evolved from coping with constraints in the course of manufacture, and craftsmen invented ways of overcoming obstacles. Polyvalent ateliers suggest the artisans’ adaptability, in addition to their specialisation. An investigation of the first step in the process, namely the extraction of material, reveals that quarries were manned with a specialised workforce (stonecutters, sculptors) who carved the marble volumes to an advanced stage, prior to their refinement. Meticulous preparation was also crucial in the field of logistics, particularly in large-scale public works, such as temples or fortifications. Interaction of artists with architects and the workforce in general can be primarily observed in sanctuaries, which became open-air workshops of stonemasons, carpenters etc. Accordingly, part of the book is devoted to construction-sites, the mobility of craftspeople who propelled the diffusion of knowledge, and the range of practices employed in individual settings thereby allowing us to grasp both the diversity of artistic expression and the composite population that it may reflect. The mountainous, littoral, urban or suburban space in which manufacturing took place is also taken into account, along with the socio-historical context, which had an impact upon artisans, as politics and military coalitions could instigate or disrupt a creative process. Cases of adaptive reuse are evaluated from the viewpoint of aesthetics, ergonomics, managerial issues concerning spolia, and the technical skills required. The book benefits from the intersection of the contributors’ perspectives, mirroring the multifaceted nature of the topic.

"List of Figures

Chapter 1: ??G?S?????: Premises and Processes of Creation in Antiquity. An introduction - Elena C. Partida and Constanze Graml

? spatial approach to workplaces: Urban, religious, littoral context

Chapter 2: Tales from the workshop and normative beauty - Gerhard Zimmer

Chapter 3: Craft production and nuisance in the ancient Greek city: Spatial and functional approaches to urban industrial activities - Giorgos M. Sanidas

Chapter 4: Dyeworks network around the Gulf of Corinth: A specialised seaside textile workshop in Late Classical-Hellenistic Helike - Dora Katsonopoulou

Chapter 5: Workplaces in the southern sacred area at Olbia Pontica - Alla V. Bujskikh

Chapter 6: Handicraft activities in the small town of Fanum Martis (Famars, northern France): analysing and interpreting spatial organisation and production size - Raphael Clotuche, Sonja Willems, Jean-Herve Yvinec, Marie Derreumeaux, Jennifer Clerget, Nicolas Tisserand, Berangere Fort and Gaetan Jouanin

Chapter 7: Evocations of Apollo in northern Gaul and craftsmen engaged in his representation: The example of Fanum Martis - Raphael Clotuche and Damien Censier (with the collaboration of Sabine Groetembril)

Workshops related to quarries and sculpture

Chapter 8: Ancient Greek quarries: installations and workshops - extraction and sculpture techniques - Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras

Chapter 9: New evidence about the exploitation of Nisyrian millstone lava and its use in nisyrian workshops in antiquity - Eirene A. Poupaki

Chapter 10: Heracles rock reliefs at quarries and construction sites in Roman Greece: An interpretative approach - Georgios Doulfis

Chapter 11: Roman calcite alabasters in Tunisia - Ameur Younes

Chapter 12: All about marble carving? In search of craftspeople of polychromy in the ancient Roman sculpture workshop - Amalie Skovmoller

In the ateliers of potters and coroplasts

Chapter 13: The 'Cracking the Code' project: Stamna's pithoi workshops - unveiling pottery heritage - Gioulika Christakopoulou and Helene Simoni

Chapter 14: The coroplast's workshop and its production: Reflecting on the craft practices of the archaic p??st?? in Magna Graecia - Eukene Bilbao Zubiri

Chapter 15: Localisation, distribution and nature of pottery production of the fourth-century BC ceramic workshops in Ano Petralona, Athens: A synthesis of the available archaeological evidence - Marilena Kontopanagou

Chapter 16: Local knowledgescapes in pottery production: A new heuristic approach to the Iron Age pottery workshops between the Arno Valley and the Po Plain - Raffaella Da Vela

Construction sites, open-air workshops and building workforce

Chapter 17: Athenian architecture abroad in the fifth century: Fashion or imperialism? - Jacques des Courtils

Chapter 18: More on Athenian architecture abroad: Xanthos as a case study - Laurence Cavalier

Chapter 19: Contextualizing the scaffold: Workspace within cult space and the dynamics of construction sites at Delphi - Elena C. Partida

Chapter 20: Building procedures of the fortification at Kastraki on Milesian Agathonisi: Quarrying and construction sites as open-air provisional ergasteria - Konstantinos Sarantidis

Repair, re-use and spolia: Concepts of chaine operatoire

Chapter 21: Less piety, more pragmatics: Some diachronic observations on the re-use of Greek funerary monuments - Constanze Graml

Chapter 22: The practicalities of spoliation: Tool marks, craftspeople, and building logic - Anna M. Sitz

Chapter 23: Learning by ...? And learning what? Possibilities and limitations of chaine(s) operatoire(s)-approaches using the example of the Elgin Lyre - Susanne Bosche

Academic apparatus

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Indices

",

List of Figures  

Chapter 1: ΕΡΓΑΣΤΗΡΙΑ: Premises and Processes of Creation in Antiquity. An introduction – Elena C. Partida and Constanze Graml

Α spatial approach to workplaces: Urban, religious, littoral context

Chapter 2: Tales from the workshop and normative beauty – Gerhard Zimmer

Chapter 3: Craft production and nuisance in the ancient Greek city: Spatial and functional approaches to urban industrial activities – Giorgos M. Sanidas

Chapter 4: Dyeworks network around the Gulf of Corinth: A specialised seaside textile workshop in Late Classical-Hellenistic Helike – Dora Katsonopoulou

Chapter 5: Workplaces in the southern sacred area at Olbia Pontica – Alla V. Bujskikh

Chapter 6: Handicraft activities in the small town of Fanum Martis (Famars, northern France): analysing and interpreting spatial organisation and production size – Raphaël Clotuche, Sonja Willems, Jean-Hervé Yvinec, Marie Derreumeaux, Jennifer Clerget, Nicolas Tisserand, Bérangère Fort and Gaëtan Jouanin

Chapter 7: Evocations of Apollo in northern Gaul and craftsmen engaged in his representation: The example of Fanum Martis – Raphaël Clotuche and Damien Censier (with the collaboration of Sabine Groetembril)

Workshops related to quarries and sculpture

Chapter 8: Ancient Greek quarries: installations and workshops – extraction and sculpture techniques – Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras

Chapter 9: New evidence about the exploitation of Nisyrian millstone lava and its use in nisyrian workshops in antiquity – Eirene A. Poupaki

Chapter 10: Heracles rock reliefs at quarries and construction sites in Roman Greece: An interpretative approach – Georgios Doulfis

Chapter 11: Roman calcite alabasters in Tunisia – Ameur Younès

Chapter 12: All about marble carving? In search of craftspeople of polychromy in the ancient Roman sculpture workshop – Amalie Skovmøller

In the ateliers of potters and coroplasts

Chapter 13: The ‘Cracking the Code’ project: Stamna’s pithoi workshops – unveiling pottery heritage – Gioulika Christakopoulou and Helene Simoni

Chapter 14: The coroplast’s workshop and its production: Reflecting on the craft practices of the archaic πλάστης in Magna Graecia – Eukene Bilbao Zubiri

Chapter 15: Localisation, distribution and nature of pottery production of the fourth-century BC ceramic workshops in Ano Petralona, Athens: A synthesis of the available archaeological evidence – Marilena Kontopanagou

Chapter 16: Local knowledgescapes in pottery production: A new heuristic approach to the Iron Age pottery workshops between the Arno Valley and the Po Plain – Raffaella Da Vela

Construction sites, open-air workshops and building workforce

Chapter 17: Athenian architecture abroad in the fifth century: Fashion or imperialism? – Jacques des Courtils

Chapter 18: More on Athenian architecture abroad: Xanthos as a case study – Laurence Cavalier

Chapter 19: Contextualizing the scaffold: Workspace within cult space and the dynamics of construction sites at Delphi – Elena C. Partida

Chapter 20: Building procedures of the fortification at Kastraki on Milesian Agathonisi: Quarrying and construction sites as open-air provisional ergasteria – Konstantinos Sarantidis

Repair, re-use and spolia: Concepts of chaîne operatoire

Chapter 21: Less piety, more pragmatics: Some diachronic observations on the re-use of Greek funerary monuments – Constanze Graml

Chapter 22: The practicalities of spoliation: Tool marks, craftspeople, and building logic – Anna M. Sitz

Chapter 23: Learning by ...? And learning what? Possibilities and limitations of chaîne(s) opératoire(s)-approaches using the example of the Elgin Lyre – Susanne Bosche

Academic apparatus

Abbreviations 

Bibliography 

Indices 

• Edited by Elena C. Partida
• Edited by Constanze Graml

‘Ergasteria is a well-produced book. The many illustrations are mostly in color and are reproduced at a generous scale. The articles are all in English, not the first language of most of the authors, but the editing is excellent, and the text is generally clear and free of major awkwardness. The lengthy common bibliography constitutes a rich source of documentation, and indices help to draw connections between the papers. A list of the contributors with their contact details and affiliations would have been welcome; given the collection’s wide range, few readers will be familiar with all of them and their work. That range ensures, however, that almost anyone with an interest in ancient production will find something of interest here.’ – Susan Rotroff (2026): Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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‘The volume delivers a plethora of interesting and important studies on archaeological sites with workspaces, which illuminate the skills and lives of the craftspeople and their traded goods and arts. All contributions have been executed with great detail and thought, which will inspire future research.’ - Marion Uckelmann (2026): Antiquity Volume 100

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