"Do pots equal people? Connecting pottery and identity making" Ruben Wehrheim, M.A. (BerGSAS, Freie Univeristät Berlin)
Abstract:
The appearance of Greek import vessels in the region north of the Alps has received a great deal of attention in prehistoric and early historical research since it was first published by Paul Jacobsthal (1934), but at the latest since the spectacular find of the "princess tomb" by Vix (1953). Since then, the vessels have repeatedly been interpreted in the context of a ›princely‹ elite, particularly in connection with the ›Fürstensitze‹ (princely fortresses) of the late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods. This escalated to a notion that the early Celtic elites used the mostly Attic vessels in accordance with their traditional use, to practice the Greek Symposion (συμπόσιον). However, the actual import material was hardly examined in detail, nor its informative value was ever checked precisely. For this reason, the Greek material on the Celtic ›Fürstensitze‹ (Ipf, Mont Lassois, Marienberg, Heuneburg, Münsterberg) was analyzed in the underlying study (Wehrheim 2020) based on the terms, the timespan of forms, the find distribution, the socialization in the features, the motifs, the quality, and the techniques. The results of this evaluation were then compared with other cultures like the Etruscans that were also in contact with Greek civilization, but in which a clear adoption of customs (acculturation) is detectable and proven. Furthermore, the Greek material, the possible trade routes, the ›Fürstensitze‹ themselves, and the implied customs, like the Symposion or the Kottabos-Game (κότταβος) have been investigated in a theory analysis. Ultimately, the study found that there was little evidence of adoption of Greek customs or other forms of acculturation. Rather, it seems that the Greek material was held in high esteem by the Celts only in very specific cases, but by no means out of admiration for Greek society. This lecture synthetise the results achieved and wants to be the starting point for a broader discussion about acculturation processes and the role material finds can play.
