Dr Christopher Mark Hale
Adjunct, PASIFIC Fellow

Ośrodek Archeologii Starożytnej Grecji i Rzymu

https://iaepan.academia.edu/ChrisHale

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=w-euYnQAAAAJ&hl=en

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0066-892X

Research interests:

Ceramic analysis fieldwork methodologies as applied to fragmented settlement assemblages; analytical approaches to pottery production, consumption, and distribution; site chronology building and inter-regional synchronisms; emerging complexity, networks, and interaction during the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Selected publications:

• S. Vitale, C. Hale, A. Van de Moortel, and N. Herrmann. (Submitted) “It’s Absolutely Relative: The LH I Ceramic Sequence from Mitrou and its 14C Anchor Points,” Proceedings from CHRONOS: Stratigraphic Analysis, Pottery Seriation and Radiocarbon Dating in Mediterranean Chronology. A TALOS workshop. Aegis: Presses universitaires de Louvaine.
• Hale, C. (Submitted), “Pottery Imports from the Southern Aegean Islands at Middle Bronze Age Mitrou,” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
• Hale, C. (Accepted), “Love Thy (Middle Bronze Age) Neighbor: a network model for central and northern Greece,” Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology.
• Hale, C. (2023), “Grey Minyan in the Middle: Reconsidering Central Greek and Cycladic Middle Bronze Age Synchronisms,” Hesperia 92.1, 1–42.
• Hale, C. (2016), “The Middle Helladic Fine Grey Burnished (Grey Minyan) Ceramic Sequence at Mitrou, East Lokris,” Hesperia, 85.2, 243-295.
• Hale, C. (2014), “Middle Helladic ‘Dull Painted’ and ‘Matt Painted’ Pottery at Mitrou. An Important Distinction,” Melbourne Historical Journal: Amphora Issue 42.2, 32-58.

About my current project:

Regional Networks and Local Recipes for Complexity (RENLORC) aims to study emerging social complexity in central Greece from 2100–1550 BCE using a multi-scale interdisciplinary analytical examination of pottery production, consumption, and distribution. A combination of ceramic thin section petrography, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis, direct digital radiography, and Scanning Electron Microscopy is being used to identify different potting communities of practice operating within central Greece through an investigation of fabric composition and provenance, pigment recipes, forming techniques, and firing techniques. Over 600 samples from 11 different sites spread from Boeotia, Phokis, East Lokris, Malis, and Magnesia have been sourced from all sub-phases of the Early Helladic III, Middle Helladic, and Late Helladic I periods. RENLORC aims to identify the diachronic and spatial distribution of pottery products, as well as the distribution of imports from outside of the region, resulting in an understanding of shifting networks of interaction operating at various scales. Ultimately, any changes to pottery production, consumption, and distribution patterns will provide insight into changes in the regional economy and consumption habits just prior to the emergence of complex palatial sites at Thebes, Orchomenos, and Dimini/Volos.