Shared traditions and shard conservatism: pottery making at the Chalcolithic site of Radovanu (Romania)

This work investigates the technology of pottery production at the Chalcolithic site of Radovanu-La Muscalu (first half of the fifth millennium BCE), in southern Romania. The excavation of this settlement yielded a rich and well-contextualised archaeological assemblage that represents the last phases of development of Boian material culture, a Chalcolithic phenomenon that spread throughout the lower Danube area at the end of the sixth millennium BCE and the first half of fifth millennium BCE. To carry out this investigation, a total of forty-nine ceramic samples, representative of the different pottery types and chronological horizons attested at this site, together with geological samples collected around Radovanu, were selected. These were analysed using a multi-pronged scientific approach including ceramic petrography, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. This interdisciplinary study elucidates different aspects of the local pottery production and indicates that ceramics at Radovanu were manufactured according to a conservative tradition that consistently made use of grog tempering throughout all phases in which this settlement was inhabited. The results also show that at Radovanu, regional technological traits coexisted with elements that were widely applied in the Balkan region at that time, such as graphite-painted decoration. This investigation together with the identification of potential non-local productions well illustrates the complex interrelationships between the Boian phenomenon and the neighbouring material cultures in the Balkans.

Colour Transformation and Textural Change in Biotite: Some Remarks for the Interpretation of Firing Technology in Greyware Pottery Thin-Sections

Firing is a crucial step in the production of pottery, as it irreversibly transforms the clay into ceramic. Clay sintering and subsequent vitrification occur during firing, together with other transformations undergone by specific minerals and rock inclusions according to their optical and physical properties, including their colour. Some of these are visible in thin-sections and might be interpreted as technological markers or contribute to the estimation of firing temperatures, although most of them are poorly documented. In this paper, we approach the transformations in colour, texture and optical properties that occurred in biotite inclusions from medieval greyware pottery. Our study considers a batch of 40 pottery samples from medieval Catalonia analysed by XRD. According to the estimated firing temperature ranges and atmospheres, we examined the behaviour of biotite at different temperature ranges from 700 °C to 1000 °C by means of optical microscopy, considering its size, shape and abundance, and compared these features to a wider assemblage of thin-sections from medieval earthenware. The results obtained are interesting, as they offer a valuable reference for petrographic studies on pottery. We discuss the potential of ceramic petrography as a way to perform more precise and refined sample selection for further analysis on archaeothermometry.

Characteristics of Early Iron Age pottery from northeastern Slovenia through the prism of ceramic technology and petrography

Pottery technology in the Early Iron Age remains understudied in Slovenian archaeology, especially in the combined use of description on a macroscopic level with the addition of petrographic thin sections analysis. In this study we focused on pottery technology of vessels from two Early Iron Age sites in north-eastern Slovenia, Poštela near Maribor and Novine above Šentilj (NE Slovenia). We analysed the clay pastes, inclusions in the clay, as well as surface treatment, firing properties, vessels shape, and decoration techniques using macroscopic description and ceramic petrography. Within the sites we looked at the different contexts, comparing pottery from settlements, i.e. hillforts, to pottery found within the adjacent cemeteries. The results show that potters from the two contemporaneous sites produced similarly shaped vessels using different pottery recipes from locally available raw materials. The use of grog as a possible chronological marker in the Early Iron Age is also discussed.

Characteristics of Early Iron Age pottery from northeastern Slovenia through the prism of ceramic technology and petrography

Pottery technology in the Early Iron Age remains understudied in Slovenian archaeology, especially in the combined use of description on a macroscopic level with the addition of petrographic thin sections analysis. In this study we focused on pottery technology of vessels from two Early Iron Age sites in north-eastern Slovenia, Poštela near Maribor and Novine above Šentilj (NE Slovenia). We analysed the clay pastes, inclusions in the clay, as well as surface treatment, firing properties, vessels shape, and decoration techniques using macroscopic description and ceramic petrography. Within the sites we looked at the different contexts, comparing pottery from settlements, i.e. hillforts, to pottery found within the adjacent cemeteries. The results show that potters from the two contemporaneous sites produced similarly shaped vessels using different pottery recipes from locally available raw materials. The use of grog as a possible chronological marker in the Early Iron Age is also discussed.