Fish that swam on a plate: Fish plates of the Classical Mediterranean and the Black Sea

by Dimitra Mylona.

Fish hold a fascination for people!  They are part of all kinds of stories. We find them in fables, in mythology, in dream lore, in narratives of all kinds and in art. They seem to be relevant to all sorts of different social circumstances.  These imaginary fish were born again and again over time, in many locations all over the world. People ate fish of course, but sometimes it seems that this was not enough. There was a need to accentuate the experience!

This post is all about the fish plates of the Classical era (4^th century BCE) in the regions of Attica, Black Sea and Southern Italy.  Fish and seafood were depicted swimming around the plates, wherein actual fish were served. What was the meaning of this accentuated experience at that particular time and place?  How did crockery fashion that privileged fish and other seafood develop and change? What needs did these idiosyncratic plates fulfilled?

Future posts will take us to other geographical regions and different points in time where the same idea, the transference of the marine world through art in the daily experience of people on land, has developed in different ways.

The shape of the plate was familiar. It had been invented in Athens back in the 6^th century BCE and had already spread across the Greek world. It was black glazed, had a low foot, a rim, a sloping floor and a small depression in its middle; nothing unusual about it.  But this plate was to be transformed, in some Athenian workshops, into a truly memorable object at the very end of the 5^th century. That is when the plain black plate changed. It turned into what archaeologists call red-figure (decorated by red figures against black background), and was adorned with a panorama of different fish and other seafood!  A new fashion that spread widely was born!

Attic Fish plates for distant markets

From the start, fish plates were peculiar.  These low-footed dishes were decorated with two types of composition only.  A small group of them was produced in Athens and shipped to the area of Kerch, part of the Crimean Peninsula, on the northern coast of the Black Sea. These plates depict a single mythological scene, that of the abduction of Europe (for the myth see here), and they do so in detail.  Europe crosses the sea seated on a Bull (Zeus) accompanied by fish, dolphins, Nereids, Tritons, Poseidon and Amphitrite, marine beings which have already been discussed in a previous post. For some unknown reason there was a special demand for these plates in this part of the Black Sea area, but we will not go into that discussion here.

The second group of fish plates, however, was the most successful type, the fish plate by excellence!  This low-footed dish was decorated with fish in the interior.

The type was invented in Athenian ceramic workshops some time at the turn of the 4^th century BCE. From the start they were produced to be exported and it seems that the northern Black Sea and the Greek colonies there were a major consumer of these plates. Eventually, they were shipped elsewhere too. Aegean sites such as Torone and Pella, and emporia (Greek trading posts) settlements on the coasts of the north Adriatic, such as Issa in present day Croatia and Spina south of Venice as well as Empúries in Catalonia, Spain, are a few of the places where Attic fish plates were exported.  Some of the fish plates were tiny, micrographic dishes and others were platters over 50 cm in diameter; most, however, were of medium size, similar to the ordinary plates we use today. They have been found in settlements, part of the household’s crockery, and in graves, being offerings to the deceased.

The most common fish depicted on Attic fish plates were, at first, various sea breams and the grey mullets. Sometimes the rendering of the fish is too generic for exact identification. Some of their anatomical features, however, make us think that the fish represented are probably members of the Dentex, Diplodus or Pagrus genus (Dentex gibbosus, Diplodus sargus, Diplodus vulgaris, Pagrus pagrus, Pagrus caeruleosticus), in other words, fish such as the common and the pink dentex, the white and the two-banded seabream, the red porgy etc.  Also, cuttlefish, squid, octopus, scorpion fish and john-dories occur less often.  In the later examples sea perch (Serranus scriba), red mullet, and angler fish are also introduced. 

All these are marine creatures commonly found in the coastal waters of Eastern Mediterranean.  At the time, they were quite popular in Athenian comedies and in sympotic literature (literature focusing on the symposium). Fish bones and sea shells recovered in archaeological excavations throughout Greece, leftovers of ancient meals, verify the Greeks’ preference for these types of fish.  Surprisingly, the migratory Scombridae, both small and large varieties of tunas, bonitoes, pelamids and mackerels, much celebrated in literature and quite important in economy, are absent.

Recognizing and describing the fish plates is an easy task. Understanding them is trickier. What prompted their production in Attica only in the first half of the 4^th century BCE? Was it demand by some of the Greeks abroad or did Athenian potters experiment with this style and impose it to the distant markets? What inspired the decoration theme, the fish, real life or literature? What was served in them?  How were they used? Why do fish on Attic fish plates always swim with their bellies towards the rim of the dish?  Is it a coincidence that most of the ancient settlements, where Attic fish plates were found, are situated near lagoons, particularly rich aquatic ecosystems, where however, many of the depicted fish did not live?

When the epicures of South Italy embraced the fish plate fashion trend!

After almost 50 years of production and export of fish plates from Attica, something important happened!  This fashion trend lost its momentum in the usual places.  We do not know why.  The extravagant style of the fish plates was, however, not forgotten.  It was, instead, adopted by potters in Southern Italy and it reached new heights of sophistication, richness and exorbitance for another half century. It seems that the driving forces behind this adoption in areas such as Sicily, Apulia, Paestum and Campania, was the love for fish.  Fish were decorating all kinds of pots in these parts, but fish plates stood out, and although imports of high quality decorated vessels from Attica were common, fish plates were produced locally. Fish plates were, here too, like fireworks: they flashed for a short time and then they disappeared! After this trend was also over in southern Italy the need for a footed plate was once again covered by the simple, black glazed variety of the past.

On a first glance, the Southern Italian fish plates look similar to their Attic equivalent.  But they do differ in three important ways. Strangely enough, fish on the southern Italian fish plates always swim with their backs, and not their belies, towards the rim.  The fish figures are embellished with other colours, for example with white dots and lines. Also, on the Italian fish plates more types of fish are depicted than in the Attic ones, and other sea creatures appear in much greater variety.  Here we find gurnards, flat fish, rays, cephalopods, shrimps and lobsters and even dolphins. Interestingly, the scorpion fish, which is one of the favourite fish on Attic fish plates, is very scarce in Southern Italian examples but the tuna is present.

The southern Italian fish plates, like their Athenian counterparts, have been found in both domestic and mortuary contexts.  In southern Italy, fish plates have been found in far larger numbers than anywhere else, indicating an intense local demand for them.  The issue of their use remains enigmatic.  Most scholars agree that they were expensive objects, used in formal dining, as a token of luxury.  It is usually assumed that they were especially used for serving fish with the central depression serving as a receptacle for the fish juices or the accompanying fish sauce, or as a base for a small handless bowl that served the same function.

 Whether Attic or Southern Italian, fish plates must have had a potent visual effect at symposia.  If fish were served in them, as several lines of evidence suggest, then these plates would never become empty… even if all their content was eaten, fish and seafood would keep swimming in them!  It appears that fish eating is the key to understand fish plates and the explosion of their popularity in certain places and for a relatively short period of time.  Fish gastronomy, the social circumstances of fish eating, the symbolisms and ideas connected with this act are apparently relevant.

What was the meaning of fish plates?

The sea around Crimea and the Taman peninsula in particular is very rich, and even nowadays it sustains large fish populations. These are shallow, low salinity waters and extensive lagoons. Greek colonies, which belonged to the Bosphoran Kingdom, had already been founded there in the 6^th century BCE and by the 4^th century they were flourishing.  They exported grain and salted fish to Greek cities and beyond. Fish were certainly important in the economy and life in this area, but those were mostly uninteresting species tolerant of low salinity waters. Anchovies, herring, red mullets but also sturgeon, carp and catfish are the most common types. Apart from the grey mullet, and perhaps certain euryaline sea-breams, the other fish or seafood depicted on Attic fish plates that are found on the Taman peninsula are either rare or totally absent from its waters. And yet, local consumers obviously preferred creatures of the rocky salty waters of the Greek shores on their imported fish plates.  As most sites where Attic fish plates have been found are also situated near lagoons or river estuaries, all rich, eutrophic, low salinity environments, a similar argument might be relevant to them too.

When the Attic fish plates were first invented, fish eating was all the rage in sophisticated Athens.  The topic was discussed a lot in private and in public. Fish eating was thought to offer an arena of social competition around the table, and aspiring social climbers showed their self-worth by educating themselves on issues of fish freshness, fish prices and everything pescatatian.  The madness about fish was so sweeping that Athenians even connected the intense desire for fish to lack of democratic ethos!  Furthermore, fish and sex were interlinked in both simple and more labyrinthine ways.  So, when consumers in the northern Black Sea asked for Attic fish plates with Mediterranean fish depicted on them, they may have actually been asking for a small slice of this culture. The fish, this highly symbolic food item, might have expressed Greekness, sophistication, and a desire to participate in all that happened at the cultural centre of the time, Athens.

The Southern Italian market did not introduce any fish plates from Attica.  Why did the Southern Italians develop a desire for fish plates in the first place? Here the theory described above cannot be applied.  The marine environments of Southern Italy are very similar to those of the Greek seas, with inshore rocky fish being very common and, as far as our sources go, very much appreciated in the 4^th century BCE.  It seems that the Italiots of the south made some sort of a statement: they wanted to deal with the fish plates in an independent, locally determined manner.  Perhaps, the consistency in the different orientation of the fish depicted on the plates is an expression of this desire.  Fish in southern Italian plates swam differently from those in Attic ones!

Southern Italy in the 4^th century BCE was the theatre of some unique developments.  At that place and time a distinctive local gastronomy developed, similar to the haute cuisine of our days. Archaestratos, who was the topic of an earlier post, was an ambassador of that world (check this out here). Scholars have analysed the economic, social and ideological background of this phenomenon. 

Affluence, abundance and variety of products, both local and imported, the existence of diverse recipes and a developed agriculture and commerce are pre-requisites for the development of gastronomy. Critical eaters that demand eclectic, high quality food, and a society that associates eating with pleasure were important elements too.  Southern Italy is the place where famous cooks lived and developed their art and where cookery books were first written.  Mithaikos, Glaukos of Locri, the two Heraklides from Syracuse and Hegesippos of Tarentum are the most famous of such cooks/cookbook writers.

So, in the second half of the 4th century, the fish plates were embraced in Southern Italy by a society (or at least the most well off part of it)   that paid much attention to fish, to its provenance, its preparation and presentation in a dish.  Not only did people pay attention, but they developed a detailed discourse, which set the agenda for the proper conduct of culinary fish lore. The southern Italians were tapping rich fishing resources, they were eating fish and seafood, and were discussing it in an elaborate manner at the table and elsewhere.  Cookery books with an emphasis on fish had been compiled from at least as early as 400 BCE, which, following the model of other scientific treatises (medical, botanical etc.), gave clear instructions for the cooking of fish. It appears that in the fish plates the southern Italians found a way to accentuate this fish eating experience.

In southern Italy the fish plates full of sea treasures would probably be best understood as objects which offered a double sensual stimulus.  Both the mouth and the eyes were taking fish in and, probably at the same time, the ear was occupied with verbal images of fish and fish dishes through poetry such as the verses of Archaestratus.   Fish was embodied in the fullest possible way.

More to come

But what of the fish motif on ceramic plates and other vessels in other parts of the world and in other time periods?  Symbolizing plenty, depicting Pisces of the zodiac, alluding to myth, participating in translations of nature into artefact, fish swim in all sorts of ways across the artistic production of different cultures.  We will no doubt return to the topic of fish images… stay tuned!

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