The turning wheel
Workshops where clay is shaped in front of you and you can ask about the kiln.
Ziegler175 โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Dietmar Rabich โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Dietmar Rabich โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Dietmar Rabich โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**Crete's pottery village** โ a single climbing street lined with ceramic workshops that actually work, not just showrooms for visitors. The craft here is **very old**: pottery in this area goes back to the **Minoan period**, and the best-known thing made here is the **pithos** โ the huge storage jar that held oil and grain, which you can see at the same size and four thousand years old in the palace at Knossos. In several workshops you can **watch the wheel turn** and the clay take shape in front of you, ask about the kiln, and buy straight from the maker for less than in a city shop. The village itself is **small and handsome**: stone houses and narrow lanes, with a view from its edge over a green valley and olive groves. โ But be realistic: it is **an hour's stop**, and some shops sell imported rather than local stock โ so ask.
Workshops where clay is shaped in front of you and you can ask about the kiln.
Man-sized storage jars in the same Minoan shape.
From the edge of the village over olives and green to the horizon.
Margarites, 74052 Rethymno, Crete
**Four quick checks.** **First, ask directly** โ "was this made here?" โ and a real maker answers with pride and shows you where. **Second, look for production, not display** โ if you can see **the wheel, the clay and the kiln** on the premises, you are in a workshop; if the shop is only tidy shelves, it may be a reseller. **Third, look at the variation** โ handmade pieces differ slightly in thickness, shape and colour from one to the next; twenty identical pieces means machine production. **Fourth, the base** โ many makers sign or stamp their work. โ And do not assume bad faith: some shops sell local and imported side by side and will say so frankly if asked โ **asking is the key**.
**A pithos is a huge storage jar** โ sometimes as tall as a person โ and it was the backbone of the Minoan economy. Four thousand years ago there were no tanks and no tins; **olive oil, grain and wine** were kept in these jars, and the Minoan palaces had **entire magazines** lined with them โ most famously the storage corridors at **Knossos**, where the jars still stand in place. A palace's ability to store a surplus is what let it run a whole region, so the jar was effectively **an instrument of power**, not just a container. What is striking is that the form has **changed remarkably little**: what is made in Margarites today is close in shape and in method to what was made in the Bronze Age โ a good reason to see a workshop after visiting Knossos or Eleutherna.
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