Pottery and Trade

This chapter focuses on the economic activity surrounding Phoenician ceramic production and distribution, in contrast with the traditional focus on ceramic typologies or other formal or chronological aspects. Given the limited data available, however, it is difficult to analyze the complex issues surrounding production to their full extent. Therefore, this chapter does not offer definitive answers. Instead, the chapter identifies diverse factors that play an important role in Phoenician pottery production, such as demand, planning, production, and distribution, as well as the respective dynamic behavior, incidence, and consequences accompanying each process, thus offering here an approach to Phoenician ceramics that breaks away from the rigidity of current models.