The Origin Of Black-Figure Greek Ceramics Found In Naucratis (Nile Delta)

At the site of the Greek trading port of Naucratis, located on the Canopic mouth of the Nile inland from Alexandria, Flinders Petrie and later archaeologists encountered sherds of Classical Greek black-figure pottery. We have characterized the pastes of 14 of these specimens, drawn from the collections of the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, by neutron activation analysis and numerical taxonomy. The ceramics agree in composition with a reference group centred on Athens. We also investigated a small number of additional black-figure sherds from other sites. One specimen, from Ruvo di Puglia (Italy), actually originated in or near Marseilles. There was no evidence for local manufacture of black-figure pottery at Naucratis.