Venetian Commerce at Corinth: New Perspectives on Pottery Chronology as a Framework for the Archaeology of Renaissance in Greece

Résumé En

We present new evidence from Corinth, Peloponnese, that a series of Italian glazed wares which were initially thought to be circa A.D. 1300 should be interpreted as being late 14th century and extending down into the 15th century. This provides us with a foundation to develop an archaeology of the Black Death and the Renaissance in Greece, and to explore the “catalyst” role of Italian trading powers, and particularly Venice which operated over long periods of times in urban centers of Greece, in the general transformation of tastes and lifestyles, economy, and craftsmanship in the Aegean. We combine archaeological methods, historical research, and ceramic petrology.The complexes to the east of the Frankish area in Corinth, excavated by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, have produced three late 14th century jetons in three different contexts. Those jetons were in association with Glossy Ware, Late Sgraffito, Veneto Ware, and the southern Italian RMR and Grid Iron Ware. A device depicted on one jeton of the Florentine Acciaiuoli family is reproduced as a decoration on five examples of RMR. This evidence stands in contrast with the coin date of the deposits to the early 14th century. It asks questions about the way archaeologists should date material, as the material culture now matches the historical record of the city: Florentine Nerio Acciauoli was Lord of Corinth and Duke of Athens in the last quarter of the 14th century, which explains the wealthy trade connections with Italian cities, including Venice, visible through glazed pottery imports. This discovery also shows that we should divorce the mid-13th century Zeuxippus Ware from the ca. 1400 Venetian Wares a spirale cercio and other late Sgraffito groups. It provides grounds to explore technological aspects of three stylistically-related wares produced at different times in distinct cultural environments, respectively the Late Byzantine world, the Republic of Venice, and Frankish Greece. It opens the way to the exciting question of internationalisms or regionalisms, continuities and changes in glazing, colouring, and slipping techniques, which all necessitated regular social and economic interactions between peoples for the learning of a certain know-how and for the supply of specific raw materials. This research, which we illustrate with archaeometric results obtained at Corinth, is expected to provideinsights into the process of development of a cultural koine in the 14th-century Mediterranean, and into the intricate patterns of Byzantine and Venetian heritages in Greek Renaissance art.