The Ancient Greeks: Pots, Power and the Birth of a Civilisation

Emerging from the turmoil of the Bronze Age collapse, ancient Greece would become one of the most influential cultures in history – and ceramics were at the heart of its story.

Stephanie Rozene and Paul Greenhalgh trace the extraordinary rise of Greek pottery, from the bold patterns of the Geometric period to the great workshops of Athens and Corinth and the exquisite black-figure vessels of the Golden Age. Against a backdrop of warring city-states, expanding trade and the looming threat of the Persian Empire, they discover how these pots became vessels for myth, storytelling and everyday life – and an extraordinary record of a civilisation taking shape.

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Featured Artworks:

Images featured in this episode:Terracotta volute-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Etruscan, c. 340–300 BCE

Terracotta hydria (water jar), Greek, Euboean, mid-6th century BCE

Terracotta lekythos (oil flask), Attributed to the Painter of Athens 1943, c. 450–440 BCE

Map of Peloponnesian War 431 BC

Map of Athens

Proto-geometric pottery, c. 950-800, made at Kerameikos

© The Trustees of the British Museum.

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