Localisation of Workshops Producing Mass-Produced Black-Figure Vases in Late Archaic Athens

With the appearance of the red-figure technique around 525 BC the black-figure technique became less and less relevant. During the last decade of the 6th and the first third of the 5th centuries BC the Athenian pottery workshops produced “low quality” black-figure pots in mass quantities. These vases were exported throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, together with the “high-quality” red-figure vases. In our paper we present the findings of an ongoing research focusing on the mass-produced black figure vases, their production, trade, and use of the 5th century BC. Examining the information available on the pottery workshops of late-archaic and early classical Athens we take a closer look at the workshop found under Profitou Daniil street 18 and another one excavated at the intersection of Lenormant and Konstantinoupoleos streets. Taking into consideration the evidence provided by the workshops and the material found in the so called “Stoa Gutter Well1”, we hope to shed some light on the tendencies of the late black-figure pottery production in Athens.