Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 99. (Budapest, 2003)

DÁGI, MARIANNA: 'Tinkers' and 'Patchers': Some Notes on the Ancient Repairs of Greek Vases

sumed in Olynthus, where only lead was used for mending vases, probably because of the easy access to the metal exploited near Kassandreia or in Pangaion for the craftsmen.

41 In Etruria, from which the majority of the repaired vases are known, local lead mining eased the metal supply. In the Tolfa mountains and the ore mines of Colline Métallifère, copper and tin were also available: thus the menders were provided with the required bronze for the vase repairs.

42 Finally, the physical properties of lead and bronze are important. It had to have importance to avoid further damage of the object during the repairing. Because of the high melting point of bronze, these staples had to be inserted in a cold state into the drill holes and channels; otherwise the chance of further damage would have increased.

43 The bronze used cold did not cover the holes and channels perfectly, and some kind of filling material was needed to proof the gaps in case of further use. Lead fitted well the requirements of both fixing and proofing. Lead is much more appropriate. It works cold, and, its melting point being low enough (327° C), it can be applied melted as well.

44 In this case the melted metal could fill the holes; thus it could solve the problem of proofing - only the broken parts leaving any void had to be filled.

45 Besides its usability for fixing and proofing, lead was cheap and relatively accessible.

46 All these characteristics of lead may explain its popularity among ancient vase repairs. For the present we have no exact information on the vase types repaired. S. Pfisterer-Haas reached the conclusion that the kylix, amphora and krater were repaired most often among the black- and red-figure vases, and emphasised that hydriai are not included at all.

47 We can add that the greatest number of repaired pottery were wine or oil containers or tableware used for symposia (krater, amphora, kylix, kyathos, oinochoe, pelike, kalyx, psykter-oinochoe and Panathenaic 41 Robinson 1950, 59; Forbes, op.cit. (n. 40) 225. 42 For this, see L'Etruria mineraria. Atti del XII convegno di studi Etruschi e Italici. Firenze - Populonia - Piombino, 16-20 giugno 1979, Florence 1981. 43 The melting point of bronze (1083° C for copper) is almost equal to or higher than the temperature required for retiring the pottery (ca. 700-800° C). 44 The two types of regular lead staples observable on repaired pottery (see n. 7) allow us to conclude that the menders used a mould for casting lead. For the only example of damage observed on the surface of a vase, probably due to lead casting, see Broneer, O., Hesperia 6 (1937) 470. 45 See n. 5. 46 Concerning the price of lead, we have some pieces of information from the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Lead was much cheaper in both periods than the alloy elements of bronze, copper and tin. On this question, see Treister, M.Yu., The Role of Metals in Ancient Greek History, Leiden - New York - Köln 1996, 251-252, 341-342. 47 See Pfisterer-Haas 2002, 56.