ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses material cultural change in Iron Age south-eastern Italy through a producer-focused lens. As I discuss the matt-painted geometric pottery repertoire of ancient Apulia – specifically of Salento – I examine previous hypotheses for regional developments, including the evidence for supposed migration of potters from the Devoll Valley in modern Albania. I argue that archaeologists must view material cultural/stylistic change as material correlates of different social behaviours within and between societies, including among and between potters and other craft communities. I discuss the need to consider ancient pottery as products of fluid and interactive communities of practice, through which the technical knowledge of pottery-making is transmitted. I then turn to published data from various sites in south-eastern Italy and southern Albania to explore the potential for morphometric and fabric standardisation. I offer initial conclusions but also argue that a fuller understanding of the development of Salentine matt-painted pottery, and its relationship to Devollian matt-painted pottery, requires further attention not only to other indicators of standardisation or variance but also to the evidence for the operational sequences (chaînes opératoires) and gestures of ceramic production and potential change within them.
