I am also taking this with me - Marketing strategies, market processes in late archaic Athens

The final decades of the 6th century BCE brought significant changes to Athenian pottery production. With the With the emergence of the red-figure technique, black-figure workshops faced a crossroads: they could either try to compete in artistic quality with vessels decorated using the newer technique, or switch to a production model that resulted in vessels of lower artistic quality, which they could produce in greater numbers. By the end of the 510s BCE, the groups and workshops that had chosen the former solution had ceased production, but the workshops that followed the latter path continued to produce small black-figure vases at least until the middle of the 5th century BCE. Among these vases, black-figure lekythoi represent a significant group; beginning in the middle of the 6th century BCE, they gained increasing popularity as grave goods in Athenian tombs, and by the end of the century had clearly attained the status of par excellence among Athenian funerary vases. In the case of mass-produced items such as black-figure lekythoi, the question arises as to whether the artisans sought to establish a distinct artistic identity. Research based on material from two pottery workshops unearthed in Athens shows that, in the case of creative workshops operating within these pottery workshops, there was a discernible effort to develop a kind of marketing strategy. This presentation aims to present the results of research building on the findings of this project. This presentation aims to present the results of research building on the findings of this project. The latter uses network analysis, based on the published graves of the Kerameikos necropolis in Athens, to examine signs of a presumed marketing strategy among local consumer groups. The models constructed using the artefacts found in the excavated tombs appear to support the hypothesis that ancient pottery workshops sought to distinguish themselves from one another, and that this had a clear impact on local trade.