Experimenting with the Ancient Greek Pottery Production Process from Clay Selection to Firing in a (Re)constructed Updraft Kiln

This article presents an experimental archaeology project that aimed to reproduce the Hellenistic Greek pottery production process. The project's main research questions were focused on understanding how locally available raw materials and climatic conditions influenced the production process and how the process created social networks with the local community. Based on archaeological data from the Hellenistic site of Sant'Angelo Vecchio in the territory of Metaponto and ethnographic evidence from rural potters in Spain, the project replicated all stages of the pottery-making process, including clay collection, wheel-throwing, kiln building, and firing. The project's successful outcome demonstrated that the combination of archaeology, ethnography, and personal skills can yield valuable insights into ancient pottery production processes. Furthermore, the experiment confirmed that pottery production was part of a larger social network that facilitated the exchange of raw materials and ceramic products between potters and their communities.