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During the sixth and fifth centuries very large amounts of Athenian black- and red-figure were transmitted round the Mediterranean. The nature of the exchange relations underlying this pottery distribution have long been a topic for discussion. This paper picks up on earlier arguments that Athenian potters responded to very specific orders from Italian markets and that Italian markets consumed voraciously whatever Athenian potters produced, and investigates what sort of information flowed along the network created by the exchange of pottery. By looking at the find contexts of Athenian pottery outside Athens, and at the images found on that pottery, I argue that in almost all circumstances Greek pottery presupposes rather than transmits cultural knowledge, and so is testimony to a pre-existing network, not an agent in creating new networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]