The Coroplast and the Potter: Considerations on Cross-Craft Specialists

Coroplastic studies is a vibrant area of research among material culture specialists dealing with the ancient world. With terracotta sculpture ranging in size from miniature to over lifesize, various techniques were employed in the crafting of distinctive products. Use of clay demanded facility with the hands as well as the employment of other technical devices. It is clear from the study of how terracotta sculpture was made that many of the techniques used for fashioning objects were similar to those employed by potters. The votive terracotta sculpture discovered at ancient Marion, one of the city kingdoms of Cyprus during the Iron Age, will form the basis of the discussion. With a corpus of over 30,000 fragments, the material represents the largest cache of sculpture in clay from a single site on the island. Local production is assumed from the volume of the material as well as the presence of nearby clay sources. Detailed assessment of manufacturing strategies reveals production affinities with various stages of clay procurement methods, techniques for material preparation and the utilisation of various formation practices including hand building, coil and slab construction, and use of the wheel—all schema shared by both coroplasts and potters.