Studies in Greek thymiateria

A specific type of pottery utensils whose name – a thymiaterion (pl. thymiateria) - reflects its main function of ritual burning of incense, is discussed in the following text. In the territory of Continental Greece, the Aegean, and the west coast of Asia Minor, the tradition of incense burning dates back to the Early Bronze age; however, the focus here is directed at the Hellenistic and the Roman Imperial periods. The material is typologized according to morphological criteria. Attention is paid to the territorial and chronological distribution as well as to the archaeological context of the vessels. The practices in which thymiateria were used according to the literary and iconographic sources are reviewed briefly in order to illustrate summarily how they relate to the conclusions based on the actual material. In the end, fragments of thymiateria discovered during the archaeological exploration of Aigeira, Greece are included, as it is attempted to compare them with the types in our classification.