My research focuses on the production, diffusion and consumption of Hellenistic relief pottery from Thessaly, Greece. I examine moldmade relief bowls and the importance of the Thessalian production within the large Mediterranean trading networks of the cosmopolitan Hellenistic world. As these vessels can be used as a precise dating tool, I investigate their manufacture, typological-chronological evolution and their iconography which sheds light to aspects of Hellenistic culture in Thessaly (e.g. theatricallity, education, banqueting, military life). I am particularly concerned about relief bowls in excavation context, examining their significance within secular, sacred and funerary assemblages, as well as the human activities related to them occuring at various sites.I hope to achieve the first comprehensive and systematic study of this major category of finewares, popular across the Hellenistic world, contextualizing it within the trends of Hellenistic societies and craft production.
