GREEK CERAMICS
When we talk of imported ceramics and Greek origins in Kosovo and Metohija, we need to state
that it was blooming during the 6th and especially in the turn from the 6th to the 5th century BC.
Those imports were mostly grave furniture at the tumulus sites in Romaja near Prizren and from
the tombs of Pecka Banja. At Romaja I, in 8 out of several graves, the imported items include
among others: two bladed swords named ksiphorae, two double axes of labiris type, wheel-made
ceramics named kylix and a painted vase (olpa jug from the grave). Inside the tomb from Pecka
Banja the discovered artifacts include: 3 attic vases, black figured opa, black figured cups named
skyphoi. In Siroko near Suva Reka excavation sites revealed grey-baked skyphoi of Corinthian
type. In the hillfort settlements of Belacevac, Gornje Gadimlje, cernica and Hisar, two group of
wheel-made ceramics were found: Ionic cultural circle characteristsics (older type) and Attic
shaped vessels, dating from the 5th and 4th century BC.
St.Valentin type
Descriptions and characteristics of the large Greek vessels from the 6th and 5th century BC show
several types of ceramic ware. These are bell shaped kraters, lekones, pythae, often made of grey
or brown baked clay and amphorae, hydriae, and oinchoes, made of red or ochre baked clay. On
the pythoi group stamped Greek alphabet is found, undoubtedly a proof of Greek crafting. This
also says that in the Late Iron Age many people from those settlements either spoke Greek or
there were Greek craftsmen living in these settlements. The letters impressed in the pythos were
E (epsilon), while one specimen from Hisar had B (beta) and one near belacevac shaped the later
psi.
During this transition from the 5th to the 4th century BC these ceramics are more likely to have
originated from the Chalcidicean workshops rather than Paeonian.
What is the most important conclusion concerning Greek imported ceramics is that there are
hardly any Hellenistic ceramics from the 3rd and 2nd century, apart from just few small fragments
of vases in West Slope style, and one set of Megara vases. The most relevant find at tumulus
from Romaja contains a complete set of broze dishes, a bowl and a well-preserved goblet with
vertical handle, which speaks of high and sophisticated life of settlers.
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