The Introduction of the Moldmade Bowl Revisited: Tracking a Hellenistic Innovation

by Susan I. Rotroff

Hesperia, Volume 75, Issue 3
Page(s): 357-378
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25067992
Year: 2006
VIEW ONLINE

ABSTRACT:

The date of 224/3 for the introduction of Hellenistic moldmade relief bowls at Athens is reexamined--and subsequently reaffirmed--in light of a recent downward shift in the chronology of Rhodian amphoras. The process of introduction is traced in detail, using a model of the innovation process based on recent inventions. The implications of the stratigraphic record at the Athenian Agora for our understanding of the introduction of innovations in general, and of this innovation in particular, are discussed. The sparse representation of the moldmade bowl in later 3rd-century deposits may indicate slow acceptance of the new type, but more likely reflects the time that it takes for objects to enter the archaeological record.