Anastasia G. Yangaki. Ceramics in plain sight: The bacini of the churches of Crete. “Reflections” of the late medieval and the early modern material culture of the island. Volume I: The Regional Unit of Chania. Institute of Historical Research, Section of Byzantine Research Research Series, 9. IHR, 2021.

From IHR

The volume presents the immured glazed vessels (the bacini) located on the façades of numerous churches in the regional unit of Chania. It comprises the first part of a larger project which will gather similar data from the other regions of Crete. The research was undertaken in the framework of the research programme “Immured vessels in Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches in Greece: an electronic corpus”. This study highlights an unexplored aspect of the material culture of Crete during the Venetian and Ottoman periods, offering further information about the history of the area and its contacts with other regions from the 13th to the 20th centuries. It also explores facets of this practice surviving into modern times. The ceramics involved here are primarily connected with the monument they adorn, but also touch on the people of western Crete themselves: apart from the detailed archaeological documentation, aspects of ceramic diffusion and immuration practice are unfolded. The text is made up of a detailed catalogue, a map, sketches, drawings and numerous photographs. Although the practice of immuration is also encountered in other regions of the Mediterranean, through the systematic study and the full presentation of the material from the region of Chania, its special diffusion in Crete is highlighted.