We are in Thiseio, a central neighborhood of Athens near the Acropolis. We are visiting the Museum of Modern ceramics study and seeing how a pithos [large clay jar] was made. In the photographic document, we were watching how a pithos was crafted in Crete.

In Crete, the pithari was never made in a workshop, it was made where it was needed.

That’s why there were the ininerant potters-the famous pitharades, mostlly from Thrapsano and the village of Margarites. From spring to autumn, they traveled in small groups, their tools loaded on mules, going from village to village. They would settle on a threshing floor or in a courtyard, close to water and good clay, and built their temporary kiln right there.

Each pithari was unique. Inside it they kept oil,wine, water, grain . It was the fridje and the pantry of the house. And when the pitharades left for the next village, they left behing not just a vessel, but a piece of the land itself, kneaded by their hands .