Pottery technology and function

This open access peer-reviewed book presents a wide overview of certain aspects of the pottery analysis and summarizes most of the methodological and theoretical information currently applied in archaeology in order to develop wide and deep analysis of ceramic pastes. The book provides an adequate framework for understanding the way pottery production is organised and clarifies the meaning and role of the pottery in archaeological and traditional societies.

The goal of this book is to encourage reflection, especially by those researchers who face the analysis of ceramics for the first time, by providing a background for the generation of their own research and to formulate their own questions depending on their concerns and interests. The three-part structure of the book allows readers to move easily from the analysis of the reality and ceramic material culture to the world of the ideas and theories and to develop a dialogue between data and their interpretation.

This article from the ‘Classics Review’ section of the journal ‘ethnoarchaeology’ provides the back story and update for “Ceramic Theory and Cultural Process” published in 1985 and reprinted many times since then. That book built on the seminal article that I wrote for ‘Current Anthropology’ ten years earlier, and my responses to my critics there that stimulated me to write the book (those articles are on this site). Besides several anecdotes about the book, one section of the article provides a brief ethnography of its publication at the Cambridge University Press.
    One of my greatest frustrations that stimulated writing of  the book was that my former focus on the cognitive anthropology (e. g. Arnold 1971) of ceramic production and my focus on what has come to be known as ‘technological choice’ among potters failed to provide much insight into understanding ceramic production outside of the ceramics in the communities that I studied. Those theoretical and conceptual perspectives, although helpful and useful, did not help me provide insight into another pottery making community except that ‘potters make choices’ about resources, vessel shapes, and design. I already knew that from my field work; it was very obvious to me. I had written several articles that incorporated potters’ choices that I called ‘decision trees’. (These articles will be added to this site in due time), and the frustration of the incomparability of my perspective from one pottery making community to another that led me to rethink my experiences with potters in Mexico, Peru and Guatemala, in order to discover new insights that were truly cross-cultural in scope. The results were generalizations, but not necessarily universals, in ’Ceramic Theory and Cultural Process’. Some of these generalizations challenged assumptions and generalizations that archaeologists used to interpret the past.  Finally, the article makes several updates to the ceramic resource model, and other feedback mechanisms in the book.

Late Bronze and Early Iron Age handmade pottery, predominantly of utilitarian character, represents a section of material culture least prone to be affected by elite exchange and changing fashions, thus allowing a glimpse at the every-day life of households in Mycenaean and post-Mycenaean Greece. The sudden occurrence of handmade wares in the late Mycenaean period, their chronological coincidence with major destructions of Mycenaean citadels, and their presence within the following, formative period leading to the emergence of a new political system in the polis, have led to examinations of the social status and ethnic affiliation of the makers of these types of pottery. The present study considers these issues by, first, discussion of the material evidence, and second, interpretation of the findings in the context of the social and economic changes marking the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age.

Chapter I introduces the history of scholarship and past foci of research, in addition to outlining the aims and methods of the present study. Chapter II discusses the Bronze Age ‘Handmade Burnished Ware’, a type of pottery found predominantly in Mycenaean citadels and associated with levels pertinent to the end of the palaces, but unrelated technologically and stylistically to Mycenaean wares. Subsequent to identifying the ware’s typological, technological and functional characteristics, and discussing earlier interpretations of the ware, an attempt is made to advance understanding by placing the ware and its makers
within the picture of late Mycenaean society as characterised by social mobility, population movement, and substantial changes in the character of its external relations. Chapter III examines the Early Iron Age material, within broad geographic sections encompassing the Aegean islands and Euboea, the northeast Peloponnese, Attica, and Central Greece. The chapter’s main foci are establishing a cogent typology, based on shapes as much as on fabric and function, outlining the chronological and regional distribution of wares and shapes, and elucidating the inter-regional and intra-regional dynamics of the area under study. Case studies of individual sites and assemblages in Chapter IV illustrate the functions filled by handmade wares in domestic, funerary, and ritual contexts, while highlighting the regional differences and diachronic development in the use and distribution of the material. Chapter V explores the social and economic changes observable at the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age transition, and discusses the scope of handmade pottery for elucidating issues such as the ethnic or cultural composition of communities, organisation of labour, changes in household economics, and the degree of cultural continuity between the Mycenaean period and the following ‘Dark Ages’. Chapter VI summarises the results of the previous chapters by bringing together the material evidence with contextual and socio-economic considerations. By elucidating basic domestic functions, such as cooking and storage habits, handmade pottery contributes substantially to recognising changes in the cultural makeup of communities, as well as their internal organisation. The consideration of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age household economics furthers the understanding of the dynamics of Greece’s society in this crucial period, and offers a new perspective focusing on the base of the social pyramid, rather than on elite dynamics and politics.

This paper engages with many of the complexities involved in drawing socio-economic inferences on the basis of the dissemination of ceramic style. Discussion is centered on the importation and imitation of Cypriot pottery in Crete of the Early Iron Age. Nicolas Coldstream’s meticulous discussion of this pottery is revisited and qualified in the light of recent work on the archaeology of Crete and new approaches to stylistic dissemination. Emphasis is placed on the terms used to designate the imitations of Cypriot pottery produced in Crete and the criteria for distinguishing between Cypriot imports and Cretan imitations. I further review the distribution of the two classes within Crete, establish major centres of production and assess the modes of interaction through which the Cretan copies came to be produced.

The peoples of the American Southwest during the 13th through the 17th centuries witnessed dramatic changes in settlement size, exchange relationships, ideology, social organization, and migrations that included those of the first European settlers. Concomitant with these world-shaking events, communities of potters began producing new kinds of wares—particularly polychrome and glaze-paint decorated pottery—that entailed new technologies and new materials. The contributors to this volume present results of their collaborative research into the production and distribution of these new wares, including cutting-edge chemical and petrographic analyses. They use the insights gained to reflect on the changing nature of communities of potters as they participated in the dynamic social conditions of their world.

Ninina Cuomo di Caprio

    Series: Studia Archaeologica, 144
    Format: 17 x 24 cm
    Binding: Hardcover with dustjacket
    Pages and Illustrations: 720, 200 b/w ill
    Publication Year: 2007
PDF ISBN 9788891317490
ISBN: 978-88-8265-397-2
A circa vent'anni dalla pubblicazione, il manuale ormai classico di Ninina Cuomo di Caprio viene riproposto per rispondere a precise esigenze di studio nel campo della ricerca archeologica e di formazione nell'ambito universitario. Il testo è stato completamente ripensato e riscritto, valorizzando le qualità che lo hanno imposto nel settore: la chiarezza, la completezza, l'attenzione culturale e storica alla tecnologia della ceramica. Nel ripercorrere il cammino seguito da un manufatto fittile dalla modellazione in argilla alla cottura nella fornace a combustibile solido naturale, l'attenzione è rivolta non soltanto agli aspetti tecnici ma anche alla piena consapevolezza circa le molte facce della produzione ceramica. La trattazione è incentrata sul mondo antico ma non solo classico: si aprono sviluppi riguardanti sia la preistoria sia il mondo medievale. Tutto questo rende il volume uno strumento di lavoro ancora più prezioso. La seconda parte del manuale è dedicata alle analisi di laboratorio che possono essere utili per una migliore comprensione della ricerca archeologica ed è completata da un'appendice sulle fonti letterarie antiche.

Artisanal production in Byzantine Thessaloniki (4th-15th century)
The present text mentions millers, lime kilners, potters, glassworkers, stone carvers, sculptors, mosaicists, metalsmiths, jewelers, painters, wood carvers, bone carvers, tanners, weavers, dyers, gold embroiderers, candle-makers and scribes. Throughout the Byzantine period, these people were active
more or less continuously in Thessaloniki. They had their workshops in empty areas of the center or scattered in commercial parts of the city. However, they mainly worked on the outskirts of the city, near the city walls, or outside them, in the area of the extended city cemeteries or even farther afield.
The most generic and trivial conclusion that can be drawn from this is the self-evident fact that, during the course of eleven centuries, a populous city mainly met its needs with the local artisanal production of all types of products and that some of its products were exported to remote areas where they were much appreciated. Unfortunately, due to the low esteem in which activities of this kind were held, they were not mentioned in written sources and centuries of constant  habitation obstruct us from gaining a more vivid and precise picture of this multifaceted aspect of the economic and social life of the Byzantine Symvasileusa, leaving us with only the fragmentary and obscure salvage excavations and indirect notes revealed in written sources.

This volume is designed as a wide-ranging analysis of ceramic standardization and variation, and as a contribution to pottery studies in the Mediterranean and beyond. It originates in a conference session in the 16th annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists which was held in the Hague, the Netherlands, and was organized by the research team of the project New Perspectives on Ancient Pottery (NPAP) of the Amsterdam Archaeological Centre, University of Amsterdam.

Some of the most enduring questions archaeologists raise are explicitly or implicitly formulated around the concepts of standardization and variation. Yet, the significance of these concepts has rarely been acknowledged in archaeological literature and their full potential for the study of ancient culture remains under-explored. To demonstrate the significance of these concepts for the study of material culture, we adopt here a cross-cultural and diachronic perspective. The individual chapters cover a variety of case studies, ranging from Spanish handmade pottery to John Beazley’s Greek vase painters. The range of approaches pursued is equally broad and involves traditional stylistic analyses, applications of archaeological science, statistical methodologies, and post-processual considerations. The result will hopefully stimulate pottery experts and specialists in other categories of artifact to revisit their material from different and fresh angles.

The Corded Ware Culture (c. 2900–2300 BC) is found in a large area, from Russia to the Netherlands and from Scandinavia to Switzerland. Supra-regional elements include beakers decorated with cord and/or spatula imprints, battle-axes, and a funerary customs involving crouched inhumations under barrows with gender-specific placement of the body gender-specific funerary gifts.

Analysis of ceramics from well-preserved settlements from the Dutch coastal zone have provided very valuable new information on the Corded Ware chronology, social organisation, ideology, subsistence, and use of material culture. A critical review of the commonly applied chronological models shows that many of the underlying premises cannot be supported due to problems with (broad calibration and sample reliability of) 14C dates. This study shows that in the Neolithic Dutch coastal zone, the thin-walled ceramics reflect supra-regional (Corded Ware ) affiliations, whereas the medium-thick-walled and thick-walled ceramics reflect persistent regional (Vlaardingen) traditions. The beakers decorated with cord and spatula impressions were used primarily for cooking; indications for the often proposed use of alcohol (and associated rise of individualisation and elites) were not found.

It is argued in this study that the Corded Ware Culture represents an economic alliance, a dynamic totality as well as a network linking regional groups – each with a distinct economic base, material culture and ideology. These communities all participated in a vast supra-regional network that was a platform for inter-community exchanges of goods, skills, ideas and possibly people. Affiliation to this supra-regional network was a vital aspect for all regional groups involved, and membership to it was expressed by using a set of common traits. Decorated thin-walled beakers act as symbols of these supra-regional networks and thus embody both functional and ideological roles.

Scrivere alcune decine di cartelle a carattere didattico e didascalico su Materiali e tecniche di fabbricazione della ceramica è un'operazione tanto importante per orientare il futuro lavoro di quegli studenti che si apprestano a divenire archeologi e storici della cultura materiale quanto è, al tempo stesso, un'incitazione al "copia e incolla" informatico da precedenti lavori o al plagio più o meno raffinato. Sulla ceramica e sulla sua tecnologia è difatti già stato scritto moltissimo e ovviamente con inevitabili ripetizioni tanto più frequenti quanto più l'argomento è affrontato in chiave generale e introduttiva. Essendo il "copia e incolla" operazione piuttosto avvilente e il plagio rimanendo un reato, si è deciso di procedere in questa operazione nel modo più didascalico possibile che, se non esclude totalmente quanto sopra, perlomeno dovrebbe consentire un risultato diverso sia dal punto di vista espositivo sia per il tipo di fruizione a cui si presta. Questo nella speranza che il mezzo informatico renda possibile l'intervento del lettore se non sul testo, che in questa fase è redatto in forma tradizionale, perlomeno su una tabella (tab. 1) che si ipotizza poter funzionare da guida (e che per questo d'ora innanzi sarà detta Tabella-Guida) che nulla esclude divenga, con il tempo e l'aiuto di esperti informatici, una sorta di ipertesto in cui ogni studente possa costruire un percorso consono ai propri obiettivi. Percorso eventualmente allargabile all'intero mondo della produzione ceramica (dalle statuine paleolitiche alle ceramiche industriali) ma, più ragionevolmente, limitabile a determinati periodi storici, a specifici problemi di ricerca, agli usi e consumi dei singoli studenti. Prima di entrare nel vivo del tema Materiali e tecniche di fabbricazione della ceramica e di discutere della Tabella-Guida di cui si è detto, si ritiene in questa sede utile fornire alcune indicazioni più generali che spieghino i motivi per cui si ritiene importante lo studio archeologico delle ceramiche, la storia dei diversi modi di guardare a tali reperti, il nostro privilegiare una certa impostazione di questo lavoro. Anche questo viene fatto in forma estremamente breve, mirando ad evidenziare i nessi logici di quanto si propone e a favorire una rapida leggibilità del tutto, così che anche affermazioni note ai più possano essere scorse senza eccessiva noia e ragionate per quel che valgono (forse non tutte sono note e non tutte sono ovvie). Ricordiamoci che secondo un noto studioso americano, frequentemente citato al riguardo, gli archeologi dedicano il 90% del proprio tempo allo studio della ceramica (CHANG 1967) e, se anche così non è, è chiaro che l'impegno profuso sul tema resta tale da giustificare un'approfondita conoscenza del perché ciò va fatto. Solo in tal modo si eviterà di autogiustificare il proprio impegno con spiegazioni del tipo "così fan tutti" e scadere poi, inevitabilmente, nel perseguire senza fantasia e originalità in percorsi di ricerca segnati da una tradizione di studi ormai secolare (che non va dimenticata, ma che non deve necessariamente divenire una camicia di forza).

ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ 5-9 Δεκεμβρίου 2012 9th SCIENTIFIC MEETING ON HELLENISTIC POTTERY THESSALONIKI December 5-9th 2012 ΠΡΑΚΤΙΚΑ / PROCEEDINGS II ΑΘΗΝΑ 2018 ΕΚΔΟΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΤΑΜΕΙΟΥ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΚΩΝ ΠΟΡΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΠΑΛΛΟΤΡΙΩΣΕΩΝ Προλογικό Σημείωμα Η παρούσα έκδοση των Πρακτικών της Διεθνούς Επιστημονικής Συνάντησης για την Ελληνιστική Κεραμική που πραγματοποιήθηκε το 2012 στη Θεσσαλονίκη σηματοδοτεί στην πραγματικότητα τη συνέχιση της ερευνητικής προσπάθειας που ξεκίνησε το 1986 στα Ιωάννινα και παρά τις αντίξοες συνθήκες κατόρθωσε να αποδώσει σημαντικούς καρπούς για την αρχαιολογική έρευνα και ιδιαίτερα την ελληνιστική κεραμική, όπως μαρτυρούν οι 21 τόμοι Πρακτικών και Λευκωμάτων με το θέμα αυτό. Αξίζει με την ευκαιρία αυτή να εξαρθεί η σημασία της προσπάθειας που ανέλαβαν έλληνες αρχαιολόγοι από τριακονταετίας και πλέον, αλλά υποστηρίχθηκε ενεργά με μια αξιοπρόσεκτη διεθνή συμμετοχή, έτσι ώστε έλληνες και ξένοι αρχαιολόγοι συμμετέχουν αποφασιστικά στη συζήτηση και την έρευνα για το επιστημονικό θέμα της ελληνιστικής κεραμικής. Το αποτέλεσμα ήταν να δημιουργηθεί ένα ευρύ και διεθνές ερευνητικό πεδίο που αξιοποίησε το πολύ πλούσιο αρχαιολογικό υλικό στον ευρύτερο ελληνικό κόσμο, αλλά και το έργο παλαιοτέρων σεβαστών ερευνητών παγκοσμίως. Σε όλα αυτά τα χρόνια της προσπάθειας το Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού και ιδιαιτέρως οι κατά τόπους διενέργειας των Συναντήσεων Εφορείες του, το Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, η κατά τόπους Αυτοδιοίκηση στη Θεσσαλονίκη, τη Ρόδο, τα Χανιά, τη Μυτιλήνη, τον Βόλο, το Αίγιο, τα Ιωάννινα συνέβαλαν στην πραγματοποίηση του έργου και την επιτυχία του. Η προσωπική συμβολή και η εργασία μιας πλειάδας συναδέλφων, ερευνητών, μεταπτυχιακών φοιτητών και φίλων αποτέλεσε την πραγματική κινητήρια δύναμη της προσπάθειάς μας. Οι ευχαριστίες μας προς όλους αποκτούν αξία (σάρκα και οστά) μόνο με το ανά χείρας εκδοτικό έργο, τα Πρακτικά της Θ΄ Επιστημονικής Συνάντησης για την Ελληνιστική Κεραμική-Θεσσαλονίκη 2012. Η Θ΄ Διεθνής Επιστημονική Συνάντηση για την Ελληνιστική Κεραμική στη Θεσσαλονίκη, χωρίς να απομακρυνθεί από το βασικό στόχο της, τη χρονολόγηση της ελληνιστικής κεραμικής, έθεσε ως ειδικό θέμα της την Καινοτομία και την Παράδοση που μπορούσε να εμπεριέχει η κεραμική παραγωγή των ελληνιστικών χρόνων. Σήμερα είμαστε στην ευχάριστη θέση να παραδώσουμε στην αρχαιολογική κοινότητα τα Πρακτικά των εργασιών της Θ΄ Συνάντησης, ένα έργο που οφείλεται στον κόπο παλιών και νέων συνεργατών και συναδέλφων: Παρουσιάζονται εργασίες, οι οποίες παρουσιάστηκαν κατά τη διάρκεια της Συνάντησης, με θέματα που καλύπτουν το μεγαλύτερο μέρος του ελληνιστικού κόσμου. Το δύσκολο έργο της έκδοσης ανέλαβε η Διεύθυνση Δημοσιευμάτων του Ταμείου Αρχαιολογικών Πόρων, όπως έκανε για τα Πρακτικά σχεδόν όλων των προηγούμενων Συναντήσεων. Οι κ. κ. Ε. Κώτσου και Μ. Καζάκου πραγματοποίησαν με τέχνη και γνώση το τεράστιο έργο της προετοιμασίας της δημοσίευσης. Tο έργο είχε την έγκριση και τη συμπαράσταση της τέως προέδρου κ. Α. Λούβη και του Διοικητικού Συμβουλίου του Ταμείου Αρχαιολογικών Πόρων που ενέκριναν την έκδοση των Πρακτικών της Συνάντησης της Θεσσαλονίκης. Σε όλους εκφράζουμε τις θερμές ευχαριστίες και την ευγνωμοσύνη μας. Θεσσαλονίκη 2017 Για την Επιστημονική Επιτροπή ΣΤΕΛΛΑ ΔΡΟΥΓΟΥ Ομότιμη Καθηγήτρια Κλασικής Αρχαιολογίας Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλονίκης 491 Α ΤΟΜΟΣ ΣΥΝΤΟΜΟΓΡΑΦΙΕΣ -ΒΙΒΛΙΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ 11-12

One of the most fascinating subjects in ancient Near Eastern archaeological research is the question of when the potter's wheel made its first appearance in the chaîne opératoire of pottery manufacture. Most scholars consider the appearance of a turning wheel as linked to facilitating the potter's work in secondary processes (i.e., thinning of coils and applying painted decoration) starting from the end of the fifth millennium BC, but how the appearance of such a tool evolved in the political and socio-economic landscape of the Near East, and, furthermore, is it possible to trace the life-history of the potter's wheel as part of an evolutionary continuum of the societies that have embraced the use of this tool or, as correctly posed by Valentine Roux , is the life-history of the potter's wheel a bumpy path marked by phenomena of continuity and discontinuity? Based on a series of visual and X-ray analyses on a large sample of pottery from archaeological contexts chronologically ranging from the fifth to the second millennia BC, the following paper will attempt to answer these questions by focusing on understanding the importance that the appearance of the potter's wheel, and the further development occurring through its use, had on the socioeconomic organization of the pottery production of ancient Near Eastern societies during this fundamental chronological period.

Recent discoveries at Tel Yarmuth (Early Bronze Age, c. 3500-2350 BC) enable us to revisit the question of the introduction of the potter's wheel in the Southern Levant. Two tournettes have been found which represent the typical potter's wheel of the 3rd millennium BC in the Southern Levant. Their technological analysis, as well as an analysis of the EB III ceramics, confirms that at Yarmuth, and other contemporary sites, potters did not throw ceramics on the wheel, but coiled roughouts which were then thinned and/or shaped on the tournette. Only a small range of vessels were fashioned on the tournette, suggesting that it was used by a limited number of potters. It is suggested that the potters using the tournette may have been specialists attached to the elite of a major city and occasionally shared out between several settlements within a region.

présentation du site 7.2 La présentation de l'assemblage céramique 7.3 La collecte des données 7.4 Les résultats technologiques 7.4.1 Les méthodes de façonnage identifiées 7.4.2 Les liens entre les méthodes de façonnage et la catégorie des récipients 7.4.3 Les associations de finition 7.4.4 Les liens entre les méthodes de façonnage et les dégraissants 7.5 La distribution spatiale des méthodes de façonnage par étape d'occupation 7.6 La structure de la production céramique à Ennery « Le Breuil-Projet Alloin » 8 Metz « Ban-de-Devant-les-Ponts » Conclusion et perspectives Bibliographie 13 remerciements Remerciements Cette publication est issue d'une thèse de Doctorat soutenue à l'Université Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne en juin 2012, sous la direction de Jean-Paul Demoule et le tutorat de Michael Ilett. Je tiens à exprimer mes remerciements à toutes les personnes qui m'ont aidée au cours de ces quatre années de travail, qui ont été extrêmement enrichissantes tant sur le plan scientifique que humain. J'adresse mes remerciements aux chercheurs qui ont accepté de juger ce travail, Didier Binder, Laurence Burnez-Lanotte, Olivier Gosselain et François Giligny. Je tiens à remercier Jean-Paul Demoule d'avoir accepté de diriger ce travail et pour la confiance qu'il m'a accordée durant ces quatre années. Sa disponibilité, malgré un emploi du temps plus que chargé, et son humour (qui désamorce en un temps record toutes les paniques !) ont été essentiels à la bonne conduite de ce travail. Je souhaite exprimer mes chaleureux remerciements à Michael Ilett, qui m'a encadrée tout au long de ce travail et qui m'a fait découvrir la désormais mythique vallée de l'Aisne. De Cuiry-lès-Chaudardes à Cracovie, sa présence, sa disponibilité, sa curiosité et sa connaissance du Rubané ont été de la plus haute importance pour la conduite de mes recherches. J'exprime ma gratitude à François Giligny, qui m'a initiée et formée à la technologie céramique. Son aide, tant pour la lecture des macrotraces que pour les analyses statistiques, a été des plus précieuses. Je garde un très bon souvenir des stages d'expérimentation céramique au Paléoscope et d'un certain voyage d'étude céramique en Russie par-30° ! Ma rencontre avec Laurence Burnez-Lanotte en Belgique fut très importante pour la réalisation de ce mémoire. Son accueil chaleureux a rendu mes séjours à Namur particulièrement agréables et nos séances de travail communes sur la céramique rubanée de Rosmeer ont été des plus enrichissantes. Je la remercie pour son soutien et pour son amitié. Je voudrais exprimer toute ma gratitude aux membres de l'équipe « Trajectoires » (UMR8215 du CNRS), dirigée par Laurence Manolakakis, François Giligny et Ivan Praud, pour son soutien scientifique, humain et logistique. L'intégration des doctorants dans cette équipe offre un cadre de travail idéal, dont peu de doctorants bénéficient. Un grand merci à Claude Constantin, Caroline Hamon, Lamys Hachem, Jérôme Dubouloz, Laurence Manolakakis et Yolaine Maigrot pour leurs conseils, leur enthousiasme et pour nos nombreuses discussions sur le Rubané. Merci d'avoir suivi avec autant de bonne humeur l'avancée de ce travail ! Ce travail n'aurait pas pu être mené sans la confiance de nombreux archéologues, qui m'ont accueillie dans les meilleures conditions dans leur laboratoire, université, musée ou dépôt. 14 traditions techniques et production céramique au néolithique ancien Dans la vallée de l'Aisne, merci à Michael Ilett et Claude Constantin de m'avoir confié l'assemblage de Cuiry-lès-Chaudardes, que j'ai eu l'opportunité d'étudier intégralement dans le laboratoire de l'équipe « Trajectoires ». Je les remercie de m'avoir autorisée à utiliser leur base de données sur la céramique du site. À Namur, un grand merci à Laurence Burnez-Lanotte pour son accueil dans les locaux de l'Université de Namur et pour m'avoir permis d'étudier les corpus de Verlaine et de Rosmeer. Merci à Claude Constantin et Alain Henton de m'avoir confié le corpus d'Aubechies. À Bruxelles, j'exprime toute ma gratitude à Dominique Bosquet pour m'avoir permis d'étudier le corpus de Fexhe-le-Haut-Clocher dans les meilleures conditions. L'intérêt qu'il a porté à mon travail, son enthousiasme et sa sympathie ont été d'une grande aide pour la conduite de ce travail. Merci à Ivan Jadin et son équipe pour leur accueil chaleureux à l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. Un grand merci à A. Livingstone-Smith pour les radiographies qu'il m'a permis de réaliser à l'institut J. Bordet et pour nos discussions toujours enrichissantes sur la technologie céramique. À Strasbourg, j'ai été accueillie au Musée archéologique par Bernadette Schnitzler et son équipe : un grand merci ! Je remercie Christian Jeunesse de m'avoir permis d'étudier le matériel de Rosheim, pour son accueil à l'Université de Strasbourg et pour l'intérêt qu'il a porté à ce travail. À Metz, Vincent Blouet m'a permis d'étudier les corpus d'Ennery et de Metznord. Pendant mon séjour, j'ai été accueillie chez Marie-Pierre Petitdidier. Un tout grand merci pour cet accueil chaleureux et pour nos discussions sur le Rubané occidental, entre décors et façonnage ! J'ai eu l'opportunité d'étudier ces deux corpus au dépôt archéologique de Scy-sur-Chazelles, dirigé par Florence Mousset : je la remercie grandement pour son accueil. Ce travail sur la céramique rubanée a été considérablement enrichi par les séjours que j'ai passés en Bulgarie dans le cadre de l'étude du corpus céramique de Kovačevo. Cette étude a nourri le présent travail et je souhaite remercier tous les chercheurs que j'ai côtoyés à Katunci. Je tiens à exprimer mes chaleureux remerciements à Marion Lichardus-Itten pour son accueil à Katunci et pour la confiance qu'elle m'a accordée dès mon arrivée dans l'aventure de Kovačevo. Merci à Malgorzata Kulova et Ilya Kulov pour leur accueil chaleureux et leur sympathie. Je remercie Julien Vieugué pour sa patience et sa bonne humeur lors de l'enregistrement des milliers de tessons de Kovačevo, malgré les 45° de l'été bulgare… Un grand merci à Pierre Allard pour nos discussions sur la technologie, tant à Katunci qu'à Nanterre : ses nombreux conseils m'ont beaucoup apporté. Je souhaite dire un tout grand merci aux étudiants rencontrés à la MAE, devenus, au fil des années, des amis. Je pense en particulier à Julie, Sophie, Colas et Salomé (rencontrée un petit peu avant d'arriver à la MAE…). Merci à la bande des « romainvillois », Lorraine, Claira, Solène, Clément et Antonietta. Merci aussi aux doctorants du premier étage, Caroline, Sarah, Ariane, Aurélia, Pierre, Pablo, Henri et tous les autres pour leur bonne humeur et le soutien quotidien. Merci à Caroline pour nos discussions toujours enrichissantes. Mes amis « non archéologues » ont aussi été plus que présents tout au long de ce travail. Mille mercis à Anna-Livia, Aude, Raphaël, Maxime, Simon, Marine, Leslie, Jeanne, et aussi à Yassine, pour leur présence pendant ces années « rubanées ». 15 remerciements Milles mercis à Julie pour la réalisation du fond de carte, pour les (nombreuses !) discussions méthodologiques et pour les relectures et corrections lors de la dernière ligne droite. Un grand merci à Manuel et Sarah pour leur aide dans les affres de l'informatique… Et, last but not least, je remercie ma famille pour son soutien coûte que coûte.

A 12th-13th-century A.D. ceramic assemblage from Alexander’s Hill at Sagalassos in southwestern Turkey provides new evidence for the typo-chronological study of Byzantine pottery. A functional analysis of the assemblage, along with textual and iconographic evidence, archaeozoological and palynological analyses, and chemical analysis of cooking-pot residues, contributes to the reconstruction of diet and cooking practices in Anatolia. While baked fish, vegetables, pulses, and bread are usually regarded as the staples of Byzantine peasant cuisine, diners at Sagalassos were enjoying beef stews before the Fourth Crusade, when the technique of stewing meat was allegedly introduced to the eastern Mediterranean from the West.

Several ways of ceramic vessel’s secondary use, reuse and recycling were
recorded in Late Neolithic Vinča. The first is represented by partly damaged vessels
used as molds in pottery forming sequence. Re-use refers to the vessels with shape modifications made after they lost their primary function. Recycling is considered as usage of pottery sherds: as tools, building material for oven foundations, and as temper for pottery making. Since the pottery was used in a variety of activities, their life-cycles were discussed and it is assumed that special disposal areas existed in the Neolithic settlement.

"For the reconstruction of the military Mycenaean world scarcely
we possess the information extracted from diverse slats written in Linear B, as well as the remains of some pictorial representations and scanty archaeological remains extracted from warriors' diverse tombs. It is for it that the reconstruction of this important aspect inside the Mycenaean culture is not simple, and in this respect it turns out very interesting to manage to raise approximations as the one that occupies us. Across the analysis of few remains which we possess,It occupies. Across the analysis of few remains which we possess, authors of John Chadwick's taya have proposed interesting theories on the Mycenaean systems of defense and, in this case, we will try to approach each other the system that could be used in Pilo's accession."

In this paper we present some remarks on the economic and social significance of pottery production and use at Arslantepe during periods VII and VI A (3800-3100 BC). We focus on some of the many different social practices that bound ceramic containers to the men and women that produced and used them, such as the technology and social context of pottery making; food storage; formal and mundane commensality; and cooking habits.

Except for vessels themselves and a small number of kilns, little evidence from mainland Greece has survived that provides clues about how vessels were formed. This lack of evidence is coupled with a scholarly focus on fabrics, shapes and illustrations in catalogues, resulting in a mere cursory treatment of forming techniques. Unfortunately, this lack of engagement with the specifics of pottery manufacture has allowed misconceptions to persist in scholarship. More importantly, the demonstrated association
of manufacture with specific facets of identity should encourage us to place forming techniques at the centre of our investigations.

In the last decade the investigation of handmade pottery (“impasto”) in the Phoenician
sites of Western and Central Mediterranean received a noteworthy impulse. Despite the
frequently incomplete state of preservation of vessels, the analysis of this class of
materials is retained to be suitable for ascertaining the influence of local populations on
the dietary habits of Phoenician settlements.
Motya, a Phoenician colony in Western Sicily, offers an exceptional set of data, made up
by the finds from the necropolis and in the Tophet, to which further materials found in
recent investigations of “Rome Sapienza University” Expedition must be added. The aim
of this contribution is focusing on the analysis of the archaeological record of this site, in
order to insert Motya in the Sicilian panorama and in the wider context of Phoenician
colonies.

Way too often various handmade traditions present in Mainland Greece are classified under a common heading – usually that of Handmade Burnished Ware – which does not contribute to the proper understanding of their origin and significance. Also, if handmade pottery shows up in contexts of 13th century BC and either entirely follows Mycenaean typology or differs only slightly from standard forms, it is frequently omitted from the discussion or even not recognized at all as not being foreign or ‘alien’ enough. In this paper, I will try to demonstrate that it is worth paying close attention to the details of manufacture of handmade pottery. In particular, such an approach to deposits on the Greek Mainland of late 13th and 12th century BC highlights existence of various groups of handmade pottery, only one of which is the famous and much discussed Handmade Burnished Ware. While its appearance can be quite confidently ascribed to the arrival of relatively small groups of people originating from Southern Italian peninsula, the other pottery groups most likely result from economic stress and problems with supply of standard Mycenaean products of similar functions, and/or response of former customers to economic hardship.

This paper summarizes the thesis, exposed by the writer over the past two decades, about the Romanization of Bruttii. The Romanization of Bruttii is carried out and completed between the third and first centuries BC The analysis of this process is very complex and must necessarily be inserted in the framework of the annexation of Rome to the southern part of the Italy and in the gradual Romanization of the people who had settled there. The authentic and definitive Romanization of Bruttii seems to be accomplished, then, only after the end of the war with Hannibal.
In Bruttii, as we have tried to show in the last two decades, there are all reasonable evidence to suggest that, during the second half of the second century BC and the first half of the second century AD, in some areas of the region has taken hold the “slave mode of production”. To be affected by this mode of production are the areas of Copia, Vibo Valentia, the middle valley of the Crati, coastal areas and some other enclaves in the rest of the region. The villas and the slave mode of production are in crisis, as in the central Tyrrhenian, during the second century AD, but -a difference of what happens in Etruria, Latium and Campania-in the extreme region of the Italy, especially the its southern part, from the fourth century AD seems to have a last period of prosperity. In Bruttii seems to exist in the fourth century AD a type of property that seems to still have the building of the villa as a driving force of an enormous expanse of land that, in the form of "social territory,"  combines the different and seculars economic and social histories of the production areas of the plains, the hills and mountains. This type of estate obtains these economic and social conditions just because the property is so large as to contain inside the capacity and capital to carry out simple and inexpensive crop rotations and a convenient vertical transhumance. Between the late sixth and early seventh A.D. will cease to exist - even in Bruttii who in recent decades will change the name in Calabria - the urban civilization and the ancient economy and begins a new phase for the social and economic relationships among people. Almost all the ancient cities are surely buried, the agricultural landscape for centuries deeply humanized again returns to be wild and is reclaimed from nature that recovers what had been removed from the work of men. Between the late sixth and early seventh century AD ends, forever, a world and another begins to form: the Middle Ages. The great complexity that, in recent decades, has been attributed by many scholars to late antiquity, we believe it is due, on the one hand, to the reduced availability of tools available to archaeologists and historians to reconstruct and read the sources and, on the other hand, the coexistence -within the same region, of the same territory- of a variety of modes of production and organization of social, political and cultural. In our opinion, it is assigned a complexity to an era in which, however, the agricultural landscapes,  the cities, the political, religious, social and economic think they have become simpler, less complex and, of course, less humanized.

The site of Caltagirone is one of the major production center of pottery in Sicily and southern Italy, and its activity is attested since Neolithic period and is still a vivid tradition. From the specifics requirements of master craftsman to individuate the relation between the cooking process and the color of their artifacts, a project based on the study of this two parameters correlations is developed. In order to create ceramic specimens with a composition typical of the area of interest, clay were sampled in the quarry of Monte San Giorgio and in the area of Lazzaretto (Conadomini furnace). The sand used as inert was sampled from the Monte Stagno quarry; all the sites were chooses following the indications of the major ceramists of Caltagirone. In this work we present the results from the color specification of two types of mixture that characterize the Calatina production used by ceramicists to obtain, respectively, ceramics commonly used and most valuable artifacts. The specimens were subjected to cooking varying the maximum temperature from 400 °C to 1200°C and then to color measurements with spectrophotometric method recording the trend of the spectral reflectance factor and the values of CIELAB colorimetric space.
The color differences were calculated in reference to the sample before cooking, settled "raw". The results obtained represent a set of objective data on color changes of ceramic specimens due to the different cooking conditions and they gave precise information for the continuation of research. The study also provides to cross the colorimetric results with those obtained by X-ray diffraction techniques. This is useful to identify, for each thermal processes, the mineralogical phases that may be responsible of the color differences measured.

En la Antigüedad, las representaciones de amazonas fueron numerosas y relativamente variadas, gracias a los diversos mitos que de ellas existían A lo largo de este trabajo intentaré elaborar una relación de los motivos y los paralelismos, tanto temáticos como artísticos, que aparecen en el mundo griego a lo largo de los periodos Arcaico y Clásico. En este sentido, destaca el análisis de las escenas recogidas en numerosos vasos, ya que se trata del soporte mayoritario en que este mito fue utilizado como elemento decorativo; no obstante, su aparición en otro tipo de obras, como esculturas, pinturas o relieves, será igualmente tratada con el fin de intentar establecer pautas y “modas” tanto en los elementos como en las temáticas, buscando desentrañar la finalidad que este tipo de obras suscitó en el ámbito griego y en aquellos pueblos con los que éste tuvo contacto a través del comercio.

Pots as tools is a concept that has been widely accepted and developed since Braun’s classic 1983 publication. However, in northeastern North America archaeologists continue to use pottery primarily as an aid to culture history and research problems based thereon. In central New York State it has been postulated that a change in pottery forming technique heralds the onset of Iroquoian pottery traditions at around AD 1000. Empirical data on pottery forming and two other pottery traits do not support this postulation. Rather the trends in these traits are consistent with social learning theory and changes in mobility and population aggregation. Following Engelbrecht (1999, 2003) we suggest that a more fruitful approach to understanding the evolution of northern Iroquoian groups is to be found in ethnogenesis theory as described by Moore (1994, 2001).

El modelado de la cerámica y su potencial interpretativo.

La tecnología es, sin lugar a dudas, una compleja práctica social, y marca significativamente, una forma muy humana de expresarse en el mundo. Por ello, el estudio de la tecnología tiene y ha tenido un lugar privilegiado en la disciplina arqueológica, en tanto que el análisis de las técnicas y las innovaciones a través del tiempo y del espacio han marcado, durante muchos años, el devenir central de una amplia diversidad de discursos arqueológicos.

El presente libro tiene como objetivo el análisis de los procesos tecnológicos del modelado de la cerámica partiendo, como estrategia de análisis de la materialidad, el estudio de las macrotrazas que quedan en las vasijas fruto del proceso de modelado.

Sin embargo, cualquier análisis tecnológico no debe reducirse a la mera descripción de datos y actividades sino que debe intentar profundizar en los procesos sociales en las que éstas se engloban y adquieren sentido (Dobres y Hoffman 1994), pues la mera descripción de la tecnología es incompleta si no se acompaña de una verdadera exploración de la relevancia y la implicación social de las técnicas insertas dentro de su marco cultural, histórico y territorial.

Fruto de este punto de partida, el libro que presentamos se ha estructurado en cuatro grandes bloques. Se inicia a partir de un planteamiento teórico-conceptual para concentrarse posteriormente en el estudio del proceso de modelado de la cerámica:

a.- En el primer bloque se analiza el concepto de tecnología del que partimos tomando como ejes fundamentales del discurso algunos de los esquemas derivados de los planteamientos teórico-conceptuales de escuelas como la Social Agency Theory o la Antropología de las Técnicas.

b.- En el segundo se analiza la herramienta teórico-metodológica que hemos utilizado para estructurar toda la estrategia de análisis y que se basa en una visión social del concepto de cadena operativa y en un diseño específico adaptado a la interpretación tecnológica de las macrotrazas de modelado identificadas en la cerámica y que son analizadas en el tercer bloque.

c.-Este tercer bloque ocupa la parte más extensa del libro. En él se desarrolla todo el encaje metodológico para la identificación tecnológica de las macrotrazas de modelado observadas en las vasijas. Para ello, se ha realizado un análisis crítico de las anteriores propuestas y se presenta la estrategia metodológica utilizada por nosotros donde, se clasifican las diferentes tipos de trazas de modelado cerámico y a partir de allí se analizan sus características, atributos, variaciones, así como su potencialidad interpretativa.

d.- En el cuarto y último bloque se recupera todo el andamiaje teórico-metodológico del primer y segundo bloque para profundizar en las estrategias interpretativas que nos ofrece el análisis del modelado de la cerámica. El libro finaliza con una reflexión sobre los límites y posibilidades de la metodología propuesta.

I risultati ottenuti nel corso di questo lavoro sono riassunti nel seguente contributo https://www.academia.edu/30526323/Amphorae_ex_Hispania_nella_Liguria_di_Ponente_nel_corso_della_prima_e_media_et%C3%A0_imperiale.

Results about this work are available in this paper: https://www.academia.edu/30526323/Amphorae_ex_Hispania_nella_Liguria_di_Ponente_nel_corso_della_prima_e_media_et%C3%A0_imperiale