The Stone Industry at Akrotiri: A Theoretical Approach

In this paper an attempt will be made to adopt a different approach to the subject, on the basis of modern economic applications.

INTRODUCTION

It is well known that in the section of settlement at Akrotiri excavated to date no workshop associated with the stone industry, nor any other kind of workshop installation has been found, even though both the general and partial picture presented by the site bears witness to extensive activities by specialist artisans (Doumas 1983, 124 - 125). Nevertheless, the considerable number of stone vessels and tools uncovered, in conjunction with the raw material used, are indicative of local production. Since the concept of 'production' is a subject of the discipline of economics, we shall attempt to examine the available data in the light of modern economic applications.

Even though the manufacture of stone vessels is but one aspect of the stone industry, which as a general term characterizes stone-working of any kind, it nevertheless constitutes the sole related activity satisfactorily represented at Akrotiri. This permits a more sound approach, since examples of the minor arts (sealstones, jewelery, figurines etc.) are too few to support the theory of their local manufacture, while building, in which stone together with timber and mortar is a basic structural material (Palyvou 1988, 35ff.), is a craft which does not require a special workshop for its practice.

On the basis of the criterion of use, stone vessels and tools fall into two major categories (Devetzi 1987): One includes objects of unknown use, yet distinguished by careful manufacture and external appearance; these are mainly vases classified in the Minoan typology (Warren 1979, 88 - 100). The other includes objects, the majority of which are associated with the preparation of food and the provision of light. The association of mill-stones and mortars of all types with the preparation of food is based on the following:

1. The tradition of using stone hand-mills with reciprocal motion for milling flour goes back to Neolithic times.
2. Grinding slabs have been found incorporated in benches inside the houses, and portable handstones in their immediate vicinity.
3. A similarity of shape is observed with hollowed vessels such as the mortars still in use in Greek houses.
4. Evidence indicative of a different usage, such as traces of pigment, is absent.

Those vessels associated with the provision of light are the oil lamps.

The numerical differences between the two categories is great (Warren 1979, 100, 101, Pl. 1, 2). This is not particularly surprising when one considers that the first category, of which there are few examples overall and for each separate building, probably included luxury items rather than essential household equipment, in contrast to the second category which served everyday domestic needs. For example, during the final phase of occupation of the West House, as far of course as can be determined from their state of preservation and find-spot, only two vases of 'non-domestic use' (Blossom bowl 5140 and bowl with diagonal fluting 3624) were found, whereas there was a built bench incorporating grinding slabs, hand-mills, seven mortars and two more grinding slabs (Devetzi 1987).

However, apart from the necessity of domestic vessels and tools for the functioning of a household, their obligatory and frequent replacement should also be stressed, since their constant daily use inevitably caused considerable wear and deterioration, rendering them useless in a relatively short period of time (Runnels 1981, 155). They were then discarded or used as building material. Indeed a large number of worn-out vessels and tools have been found among the piles of debris in the streets or squares of the settlement, as well as built into the walls of the buildings.

All that has been remarked so far with regard to the number, use and eventual fate of the domestic stone vessels and tools hints on the one hand at high demand and on the other at wider availability and low value, so that supply is easy and consonant with their kind. The achievement of both wide availability and low price is based on the application of basic economic principles concerning the production cost factors which, in this particular case, are the raw material, place and method of production.

RAW MATERIAL

The source and degree of workability and extractability of the stone are major considerations with regard to a material destined for the manufacture of vessels and tools for primary needs, since these contribute to the final cost, which should be low. Distance increases cost due to expenses of transportation, and the particular specifications of the stone are related to and affect the labour involved.

In the case of Akrotiri, the virtually exclusive use of local stones is obvious, even from superficial contact with the objects under consideration. Examination of a broad representative sample (including about 50% of the total stone vessels and tools found at Akrotiri to date) has yielded specific data on the categories of objects and their raw material (Fig. 1).

The sample included objects from all over the settlement, both inside and outside the buildings, which could be classified in recognizable categories on the criterion of use, regardless of the degree of preservation. The stones were identified on the basis of petrological analysis of samples by Dr. Ch. Papatrechas and Dr. V. Perdikatsis of the Greek Institute of Geological and Mineral Exploration.

As is evident from the table, mill-stones, either portable or not, comprise the most numerous category (72% of the total sample), followed by various types of mortars (23.5% of the sample). Stone oil lamps are not so numerous, since clay ones were also in use.

Concerning the raw material, volcanic rocks are in the overwhelming majority (approximately 88% of the total), the remainder, particularly carbonates and sandstones, being the few exceptions. Serpentine is used solely for the oil lamps. Since, in order to be effective, the oil lamp must have been placed in a conspicuous position within the area it was intended to illuminate, this seems to have imposed a decorative character in addition to its strictly functional role. This probably influenced not only the choice of material but also the carefully executed form and decoration usual for the type (Warren 1969, 49ff., type 24). Of the volcanic rocks, pyroxene andesite has been used for the most objects (69% of the total), being the predominant material used for the manufacture of mill-stones. Hornblende andesite is preferred for mortars. In all probability the preference for one or another form of andesite is determined by its texture, which is slight porphyritic in the hornblende andesite used and especially bubbly in the pyroxene. Pumice, scoria and even tuff were also used for making domestic vessels and tools, but in minor proportions.

All these rocks, with the exception of serpentine, of which the probable provenance was Crete (Warren 1979, 102 and Warren 1969, 138 - 140), are local and most of those used, which according to the geological map of Thera belong to the andesitic lavas (a2skr), extrusive dacitic lavas (da1) and tuffs (tf1), are the predominant rocks in the immediate vicinity of Akrotiri. There are, moreover, easily extractable and workable rocks (Runnels 1981, 60). Thus the availability of the raw material, though not of the desired durability and efficiency (Runnels 1981, 60), ensured that the surcharge of the final cost of the raw material was minimalized because of the lack of expenses of transportation and labour.

Consequently such was the ease of acquiring vessels and tools, as well as replacing worn-out ones, that there was no need to seek more resistant rocks, since transportation costs would prohibitively increase the price of even a more durable tool.

PLACE OF PRODUCTION  

The use of local rocks is proof of local manufacture. It would be quite illogical to argue that the inhabitants of Akrotiri, experienced as they evidently were, judging form the architectural example, in working stone, would have met their needs for domestic vessels from a market elsewhere.

However, the choice of Akrotiri as the place of production of vessels from non-Theran stones should be examined differently, since the outcome of this choice also determines the price of the finished product. In this particular case, in addition to the cost of production, the cost of transportation should be taken into account. At first glance the importing of the unworked material, as opposed to the finished product, would seem to be more advantageous, since the cost of the raw material is only increasing by the cost of transport and not by that of manufacture (Fig. 2).

However, the feasibility of importation requires on the one hand, low transportation costs and on the other, the possibility of local working. The cost of transportation is determined firstly by the value of the good carried and secondly by its volume and weight. Thus in the case of bulky and cheap merchandise, such as the unworked block, the expenses of transportation must be kept as low as possible. That is to say importation depends on the availability of means of transportation and the favorable negotiation of freight charges (Fig. 3).

In the excavations at Akrotiri, fragments of unworked imported stones, half-finished vessels and wasters from working, mainly cores, have been discovered. It is therefore certain that unworked raw material was imported, from which at least some of the vessels were manufactured by local craftsmen (Warren 1979, 103).

The influences observed in both the arts and crafts, as well as the imported products, indicate that Akrotiri had strong overseas contacts especially with Crete (Doumas 1983; Televantou 1989; Marthari 1980, 1987; Buchholz 1980). Furthermore, the pictoral programme (fleet, fishermen, Nilotic landscape) as well as Thera's position in the Aegean and the coastal location of the city, all bespeak the maritime character of the settlement, which probably possessed its own fleet. All this is evidence that the inhabitants of Akrotiri were engaged in extensive trade. Consequently, agreement on low transportation rates, which is entirely a matter of commercial development and organization, would have been feasible. Present-day commercial transactions indicate that low freight charges are negotiated with ships which would otherwise travel with ballast until they loaded a new cargo.

If indeed trade was highly developed at Akrotiri, then it is possible that Akrotiri participated, together with other Cycladic cities, in transit trade on behalf of Crete, as has been suggested (Doumas 1983, 129).

With regards to the possibility of local manufacture, this is surely an issue on which there is no doubt, since local raw material was worked in any case. Consequently both installations and personnel were available.

METHOD OF MANUFACTURE

On the one hand, the large population, as indicated by the extent of the settlement and its densely built houses, and on the other, the number of stone vessels and tools recovered, bespeak the great demand for these items. To meet this demand, quite large-scale production is invoked, contributory factors to which are mass-production, in conjunction with technology and specialization. In today's terms we should speak of industrialization. A result of large-scale production is the achieving of the desired quantity of manufactured products, the consequences of which is a fall in cost, in accordance with the law of elasticity of supply and demand (Fig. 4).

With this infrastructure, export activities involving the finished products could, of course, have developed. In the case of tripod mortars, this has been verified (Warren 1979, 108).

The above assessment of the factors of production of stone vessels and tools gives a theoretical support to the contention that Akrotiri operated as a production unit in stone-working as a toal integration industry. The work-force involved would have comprised a distinct group of artisans with specialist expertise and experience in both working the stone and handling the special tools.

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