{"id":314,"date":"2021-06-08T11:50:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T11:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/?page_id=314"},"modified":"2021-06-25T08:23:35","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T08:23:35","slug":"diffusion-of-innovation-the-social-networks-of-ancient-athenian-potters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/?page_id=314","title":{"rendered":"Diffusion of Innovation: The Social Networks of Ancient Athenian Potters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Diane Harris-Cline<\/em> and Eleni Hasaki<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Time and Place:<\/strong> Thursday, 01.07., 13:50\u201314:10, Room 2
Session:<\/strong> Networks and Cultural Objects<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/strong>: Historians and archaeologists have used the rich imagery on the Athenian\u00a0 pottery of the Archaic and Classical times to study themes such as gender, identity, social\u00a0 status, ritual behavior, cultural memory, and literacy. Potters and painters of Greek pottery\u00a0 shared techniques, styles, and themes or subjects, which art historians have documented\u00a0 extensively. When we notice similarities in technique, style, or iconography, we see these as\u00a0 evidence of social interactions. We have been using social network analysis to map the\u00a0 relationships, which scholars of ancient art have been diligently working on for decades.\u00a0 Drawing on methods established for identifying \u201cschools\u201d of Renaissance painters, one\u00a0 expert in particular named John Beazley wrote catalogues of Athenian potters and painters in his five books totaling over 3,000 pages, which he published between 1956 and 1971.\u00a0 Beazley tackled separately the potters working in the traditional Black-figure technique from those working in the innovative Red-figure technique (Fig. 1). These stylistic ties between\u00a0 artists have been foundational in understanding how the Athenian ceramic industry developed\u00a0 and functioned. Our mapping of these relationships brings to life the archaeological data we\u00a0 have for studying these communities, namely the physical remains of the potters\u2019 work\u00a0 spaces and their surviving technological apparatus, such as potters\u2019 wheels and kilns (Hasaki,\u00a0 web).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From around 520 to 500 BCE, the potters made a remarkable transition from a traditional  technique, Black-figure, to a new one, Red-figure. In this case we have an opportunity to  witness the diffusion of innovation through the Athenian potters\u2019 quarter. Surprisingly, using  social network analysis to analyze this diffusion had not yet been done. We compare how the  network of Black-figure relates to the Red-figure. Through social network analysis, we investigate the connectedness in these potters\u2019 networks and we focus on how their craft and  business partnerships informed their technical and artistic decisions to either maintain  traditional practices or to embrace innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methodology<\/strong>: This project uses social network analysis software (NodeXL) to visualize connections between the artists, and identify clusters which might be identified as\u00a0 communities of practice. For the field of classical archaeology, this approach is experimental\u00a0 and contributes to the postmodern reframing of ties traditionally based on ancient written\u00a0 sources or modern art historical methods. Our current work, supported by a Digital Humanities NEH grant (USA), is called the Social Networks of Athenian Potters Project (SNAP; snap.sbs.arizona.edu<\/a>; @AthenianPotters<\/a>). We are mapping for the first time the potters in Archaic and Classical Athens\u00a0 (600\u2212450 BCE). Ties among potters are based on stylistic relationships that connect potters\u00a0 to each other through a variety of social ties: a potter can have a pupil, a follower, an imitator,\u00a0 or a group of companions. In the sociograms we generate, we study how a potter\u2019s position in\u00a0 the network enhances our understanding both of the significant role of individuals within\u00a0 their social networks, and how social networks of potters cluster into groups on a continuum\u00a0 from conservative and working in a traditional practice versus the pioneering experimental\u00a0 artists. Our SNAP project publications (Cline and Hasaki 2019; Hasaki and Cline 2020) were the first to visualize, calculate, and\u00a0 evaluate the network and show these associations and interconnections. Our proof of concept was to take the entire text of Beazley\u2019s 850-page book on Black-figure potters to produce a\u00a0 sociogram of 710 nodes and 863 ties. This method of analysis provided an entirely new\u00a0 perspective from the traditional vase painting scholarship based on writing catalogues of\u00a0 individual painters and potters in linear form, or making databases which keep\u00a0 interrelationships hidden or do not enable relational searches (Fig. 1). In this paper we present\u00a0 our results from our new study of the Red-Figure communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Findings<\/strong>: Once we began to analyze our networks of Red-figure artists, we worked to  contextualize them in their wider networks. Having identified some innovators and early  adopters through tracing paths across the network, and studying those with the highest  betweenness centrality, we can assert that social network analysis of our craft communities  can: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) offer a model to scholars working on a wide spectrum of communities of artists in past and  recent cultures, to highlight the social level and connectivity of these influential groups to their peers and their contemporaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

b) generate interest in developing SNA projects focusing on different craft communities, such  as communities of sculptors or temple builders, to promote cross-craft comparison. Scholars  of economic history are becoming keenly interested in small business and craft communities  for which little written evidence exists, and the potters\u2019 quarter in Athens is a prime example.  Building a critical mass of social networks of communities of practice across crafts will move  forward our understanding of ancient Greek economic history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

c) Social networks can be used to evaluate and fill in the gaps for the methodological problems  linked to the nature of the sparse archaeological and literary evidence for craft communities  of pottery workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The range of themes for continued research in the study of the social networks of Athenian potters include the diffusion of innovation, apprenticeship, knowledge transfer, visual\u00a0 propaganda, political patronage of artists, and trade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fig. 1. Sociogram showing the top three potters (Epiktetos, Oltos, Euphronios) in betweenness centrality for the early Red-figure technique in Archaic Athens. These potters were members of the so-called \u201cPioneer Group\u201d who introduced the innovative Red-figure technique for the decoration of Athenian pots.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cline, D.H.\u00a0and E. Hasaki. 2019. \u201cThe Connected World of Potters in Ancient Athens: Collaborations, Connoisseurship and Social Network Analysis.\u201d Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies CHS Research Bulletin 7. 2019.\u00a0http:\/\/nrs.harvard.edu\/urn-3:hlnc.essay:ClineD_and_HasakiE.The_Connected_World_of_Potters.2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hasaki, E. and Cline, D. H. 2020. \u201cSocial Network Analysis and Connoisseurship in the Study of Athenian Potters\u2019 Communities.\u201d In Reconstructing Scales of Production in the Ancient Greek World: Producers, Processes, Products, People, edited by Eleni Hasaki and Martin Bentz, 59\u201380. Propylaeum.\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.11588\/PROPYLAEUM.639<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hasaki, E., ed. web. WebAtlas of Ceramic Kilns in Ancient Greece. Accessed 9 January 2021.\u00a0https:\/\/atlasgreekkilns.arizona.edu\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diane Harris-Cline and Eleni Hasaki Time and Place: Thursday, 01.07., 13:50\u201314:10, Room 2 Session: Networks and Cultural Objects Background: Historians and archaeologists have used the rich imagery on the Athenian\u00a0 pottery of the Archaic and Classical times to study themes such as gender, identity, social\u00a0 status, ritual behavior, cultural memory, and literacy. Potters and painters of Greek pottery\u00a0 shared techniques,<\/p>\n

Weiterlesen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":98,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/314"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":733,"href":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/314\/revisions\/733"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnr2021.historicalnetworkresearch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}