Pottery as an Indicator of Mountain Landscape Exploitation: An Example from the Northern Pindos Range of Western Macedonia (Greece)

Surveys and excavations carried out between 2004 and 2019 around the Vlach town of Samarina, in the Pindos Mountains of Western Macedonia (Greece), have yielded potsherds that can be attributed to different historical periods. The data collected so far suggest a long human presence in this region of the northern Pindos spanning from the Middle Pleistocene to the late Middle Ages. The ceramic fragments from the Historical Camp (HC), Kirkouri (KRK), the Holy Cross Church (SMC), Mt. Anitsa (Anitsa), Avgo (VGO), the Mirminda Pass (VLC), Mt. Vasilitsa (VSL), and the saddle between Mts. Bogdhani and Gurguliu have been studied in detail. Despite their fragmentary state, a database has been created with the morphological and typological characteristics of the potsherds and the sites from which they were retrieved. Coarse and fine ware potsherds have been identified. According to their manufacturing characteristics, they can be attributed to different Roman and medieval periods. A diassarion of the Larissa mint shows that connections between the mountain highlands and the lowlands were already active during the period of Emperor Augustus. The Samarina potsherds are probably related to the movements of Vlach shepherds, who spent long periods in these mountains with their flocks. This impression is confirmed by the presence of one vessel wall fragment which was directly in contact with fire and a few small vessel bases. The presence of ceramic vases is closely linked to the transportation of primary or secondary food supplies in a pre-cooked form or as liquids. We know that Vlach shepherds, as many other groups of Eurasian shepherds, never manufactured ceramic vessels even in their villages. Instead, they used different types of wooden and metal containers for cooking, drinking, and other tasks associated with pastoral activities, such as keeping milk and making cheese and butter, for example. Following these observations, our aim has been to define the vessel types used by the Vlach shepherds, which exhibit some kind of uniformity from the Roman to the Middle Ages.