Three-thousand-year-old remains suggest Cretan woman was a master potter
Potterymaking in ancient Greece was a male-dominated profession, but about 3000 years ago, one woman from the island of Crete broke the mold to become the only known female master ceramicist in antiquity. The finding, based on a lengthy biomechanical analysis of her skeletal remains, sheds light on the elevated roles played by women in at least some parts of the classical world.
The master potter, who lived to be about 45 or 50, was buried in the city of Eleutherna on the slopes of Mount Ida, the legendary birthplace of Zeus. Ornate pottery in nearby graves suggests she lived between 900 B.C.E. and 650 B.C.E., after the fall of the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations (depicted above) and toward the end of the so-called Greek Dark Ages.
Continue reading
