Shaping koine. Situating the Hellenistic pottery at Sagalassos and environs within a wider world

The Hellenistic world is characterised by the seeming paradox of ever-increasing exchange of goods and information under a politically fragmented constellation. We ague that the concept of koine as a cohesive and consistent range of material culture can be used to trace interlocking spheres of social practices and conventions that make up the myriad of connections across the Hellenistic world. From this perspective, we consider koine as consisting of networks of networks.
In this paper, we specifically focus on pottery material from the area of Sagalassos in southwest Anatolia. We discuss the main pottery wares found at sites in this area and situate this within the wider context of pottery in Hellenistic Anatolia. We then show how a very basic similarity assessment can help untangle material assemblage formation processes driven by connectivity, interaction and participation in political and economic networks.