Ceramics
Persistent Identifier
https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10410
Ceramics are an important archaeological source of information, teaching us indirectly more about the people in the past who made, used and discarded it. Experimentation may include making ceramics with similar clay sources, techniques (heel thrown or not) or testing pottery kilns which can be compared to their archaeological examples. Thin sections of reproduced pottery are compared with original sherds to see if ‘we got it right’. In the years 2018-2019, EXARC was part of CRAFTER, a project about Bronze Age pottery being reproduced by modern potters.
In the EuroREA (fully available on this website) we published several articles on Ceramics. Here as PDFs:
EuroREA 1/2004
Experimental Pottery Firing in Closed Firing Devices from the Neolithic – Hallstatt Period in Central Europe (PDF)
STUDIES - Richard Thér, Society for Experimental Archaeology (CZ)
EuroREA 1/2004
Experiments on pottery manufacture (PDF)
ITEMS - Felix Adrian, Tencariu (RO)
EuroREA 3/2006
Implications of crushed pottery in prehistoric pottery (PDF)
ITEMS - Martin Hložek, Radomír Tichý, Hana Dohnálková, Iva Dohnálková (CZ)
EuroREA 3/2006
Pots and drums: an acoustic study of Neolithic pottery drums (PDF)
STUDIES - Lynda Aiano (UK)
Featured
Shaping Minoan Clay Tablets and Hanging Nodules: Contributions from Experimental Research and X-radiography
Publication Date
This paper investigates the potential for experimental archaeology and X-radiography to improve our understanding of the manufacture and use of two categories of prehistoric Cretan administrative clay objects: clay tablets and hanging nodules. The results are encouraging: the simple and three-fold tablet shaping techniques can be distinguished confidently, incised writing that was erased can, potentially, be made visible again and...
Approaching Pottery Burnishing through Experimental Firings
Publication Date
This study assesses the impact of firing on burnished ceramic surfaces. For this task, two main factors related to burnishing were examined and evaluated, the reflection of the ceramics and pottery surface sheen. Macroscopic observations on the burnished surface were made with the naked eye...
Experimenting with the Ancient Greek Pottery Production Process from Clay Selection to Firing in a (Re)constructed Updraft Kiln
Publication Date
This article presents an experimental archaeology project that aimed to reproduce the Hellenistic Greek pottery production process. The project's main research questions were focused on understanding how locally available raw materials and climatic conditions influenced the production process and how the process created social networks with the local community...
Pottery at the Scottish Crannog Centre
Publication Date
The Scottish Crannog Centre, an open-air museum on Loch Tay in Highland Perthshire, has been able to do some really meaningful, powerful work over the past 12 months focusing on the power of prehistoric pottery! Supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Collections Fund and the Headley Trustand Art Fund, the project has led to new relationships, a new strategic partner for the organisation and ...
Different Vessel Surface Polishing Methods and Mutual Effects of their Applications
Publication Date
The discovery of an excavated cup with a glossy surface prompted reflection on the polishing of vessel surfaces and their mutual significance. We present the results of the application of three different polishing methods along with a reflection on their function and on the skills and ability of the potter...
Scored Basins from Late Minoan Crete: an Experimental Interpretation from Construction to Functionality
Publication Date
During the Bronze Age in Crete, agriculture, pottery production, metallurgy, textiles, architectural feats, trade, and other specializations flourished. Throughout habitation on Crete, pottery production was an area of craftsmanship and practicality from the end of the Neolithic to Mycenean and Iron Age. This experiment, however, relates to the Late Minoan I period in the geographical region of Mochlos...
An Experimental Approach to Assessing the Tempering and Firing of Local Pottery Production in Nubia during the New Kingdom Period
Publication Date
Recently, the development of an independent strand of study, known as the ‘archaeology of dung,’ has resulted in numerous cross-geographical publications confirming the use of animal dung in archaeological deposits as the main fuel source and several other purposes. Most of these studies focus on the analysis of the microscopic evidence attributable to dung...
Assessing Forming Techniques of Athenian Ceramic Alabastra
Publication Date
Athenian black-figure and red-figure vases have not been the subject of many studies specifically devoted to vase-forming techniques, since researchers have primarily focused on their decoration. The study of the Attic alabastron, a perfume vase shape produced in Athens between the middle of the sixth century and...
Some Reflections on the Origin and Use of the Potter's Wheel during the Iron Age in the Iberian Peninsula. Interpretive Possibilities and Limitations
Publication Date
An abundance of past research has addressed Iron Age pottery in the Iberian Peninsula since the beginning of archaeological analysis in Spain. However, it has mainly focused on examining historical-cultural aspects linked to specific chronologies and typologies. It is only rarely that studies have been concerned with production processes. Ethnography has traditionally been used to make direct ...
Identifying Ceramic Shaping Techniques: Experimental Results Using the Inclusion and Void Orientation Method
Publication Date
This contribution presents the results of experiments using a simple but effective inclusion and void orientation method for identifying shaping techniques on cut and scanned vessels and sherds. Not only does it provide an additional line of complementary evidence for differentiating ceramic chaînes opératoires, but we argue that it offers observations not accessible by other imaging methods and scales of analysis...
Throwing Punic Amphorae: An Archaeological and Experimental Approach to the use of the Potter's Wheel in southern Iberia during the Iron Age
Publication Date
The transport of food products in amphorae was a basic pillar for the maritime-oriented economies and sustenance supplies of the Phoenician and Punic communities of first millennium BC southern Iberia. Over the last few decades, numerous investigations have been carried out aimed at identifying the manufacturing sites of these amphorae, at defining both their typological and chronological aspects...
Crafting Beyond Habitual Practices: Assessing the Production of a House Urn from Iron Age Central Italy
Publication Date
A house-shaped urn dating to the Early Iron Age from Central Italy was technologically assessed in order to establish the forming techniques necessary to produce it. This hypothesized forming sequence was then tested through the production of two experimental urns. It was found that there is a meaningful relationship between the clay texture choices, the forming techniques, and the overall morphology of the finished object...
The Development of the 1st Cultural Exchange of Traditional Knowledge and Experimental Practices of the Peruaçu River Basin
Publication Date
Located in the North of Minas Gerais the Peruaçu National Park’s contains much of the fauna and flora of the second most devastated biome in Brazil, the Cerrado. The Park also incorporates geological formations and one of the most important archaeological sites from the state: rock paintings made by ancient indigenous groups dated 12,000 BP. Twenty-one years after the creation of this natural conservation unit, nature is no longer in danger...
Ceramicists, Apprentices or Part-Timers? On the Modelling and Assembling of Peak Sanctuary Figurines
Publication Date
The question of who made peak sanctuary figurines has frequently been raised but seldom deeply examined. The assumption that the aesthetically refined pieces were carefully made by skilled ‘artists’ while the less visually pleasing ones were rapidly made by low-skilled ‘artisans’ has consequently endured. Revisiting these conclusions from..
Fine Pottery Chaîne Opératoire from the Bronze Age site of Via Ordiere, Solarolo (RA, IT): Experiments on the Relationship between Surface Treatments and Function
Publication Date
11th EAC Trento 2019
***The aim of this experimental work was to catch a glimpse of the pottery chaîne opératoire, particularly linked to the surfaces treatments applied, in order to better understand what type of traces they could leave on pots and how they could differently affect the use of final products...
***The aim of this experimental work was to catch a glimpse of the pottery chaîne opératoire, particularly linked to the surfaces treatments applied, in order to better understand what type of traces they could leave on pots and how they could differently affect the use of final products...
Experimental Study of Byzantine Chafing Dishes
Publication Date
This article sets out to examine the production, function, and use of Byzantine chafing dishes, which have been largely neglected by academic literature. As no practical engagement with chafing dishes has been previously attempted, experimental archaeology was chosen as a methodological tool capable of testing hypotheses associated with these wares and generating new research questions...
Experimental Bonfirings of Pottery with Camel Dung Fuel, Jordan, July 2018
Publication Date
The objective of this series of experimental pottery firings with camel dung fuel was to isolate the function of this fuel type within the context of a simple mode of pottery firing for data applicable to studies of ancient pottery manufacture...
A Preliminary Attempt to Reconstruct some Tools and Techniques of Ornamentation of the Comb-Pit Ware from the Site of Hepojarvi (Karelian Isthmus, Leningrad Oblast, Russia)
Publication Date
The site of Hepojarvi is located on the northern coast of Hepojarvi lake, near Saint Petersburg, Russia. The site is a multi-layer settlement with different types of Neolithic pottery (from Sperrings to late Comb-Pit Ware); the settlement functioned in 5314 cal BC – 2342 cal BC. It was excavated in 1978 by I. V. Vereschagina.
CRAFTER: An Experimental Approach to Fire-Induced Alteration of Pottery Fabrics
Publication Date
In doing an inventory of ceramic materials from archaeological excavations, it is a common practice to indicate their observable atmosphere of firing. This parameter refers to the presence of gases, especially oxygen, during the firing and cooling of pottery: if oxygen circulates freely, the procedure is said to be oxidising; if, on the contrary, the atmosphere of firing lacks free air, it is called reducing...
CRAFTER: Re-creating Vatin Pottery 2: an Examination of Clay Quality and its Behaviour
Publication Date
The Bronze Age Vatin culture has been known in archaeology as a cultural phenomenon distinguished by a specific material culture which existed between c. 2200 to 1600 B.C. in the region of the southern part of the Pannonian Plain, and the area along the lower Sava river and south of the Danube river. The Vatin culture followed on from the Early Bronze Age cultures in the region, indicating stabilization in this area after the disintegration of the Aeneolithic Vučedol culture by tribes from the Russian steppe (Garašanin 1979, p. 504; cf.
CRAFTER: Potting Techniques of the Bronze Age
Publication Date
Throughout its history, experimental archaeology has fulfilled a valuable role in archaeological research, allowing craftspeople and scholars alike to deepen an understanding of people and their societies in the past. EXARC’s recent involvement in the CRAFTER project, and the author’s participation in its International Meeting in Mula (Spain), has demonstrated that significant knowledge gaps remain in...
Event Review: The Second Annual Vounous Terracotta Symposium
Publication Date
Rauf Ersenal has hiked through the mountains of North Cyprus for years, searching for the rare clays that have been used to make pottery there for millennia. The most prized colours of these clays produce a soft green that is the colour of fresh olives, the bright red of terra sigiliata, and another clay that creates a true black...
CRAFTER: Re-creating Vatin Pottery
Publication Date
An attempt to re-create pottery of the Vatin culture has been made within the Crafter project (Crafting Europe in the Bronze Age and Today), whose aim is to help revive modern-day artisanship by drawing inspiration from Bronze Age pottery of four European Bronze Age societies: El Argar (Spain), Únětice (Central Europe), Füzesabony (eastern Hungary) and Vatin (Serbia)...
CRAFTER: Reviving Bronze Age Pottery in EU-funded Project
Publication Date
The CRAFTER project aims at reviving modern-day artisanship by drawing inspiration from pottery traditions of four of the most remarkable Bronze Age societies of Europe: El Argar (south-eastern Spain), Únětice (Central Europe), Füzesabony (eastern Hungary) and Vatin (south Serbia)...
Some Remarks on Technological Process of Tartessian Pottery
Publication Date
This paper makes an attempt to examine the Tartessian ceramics not from a traditional typological posture seeking the chronological sequences, but from an uncommon approach, where experiment plays an important role. The goal is to shed light on these still relatively weakly recognised aspects of the study of the pottery from the South-western part of Iberian Peninsula...
Sherd Shatter Patterns Experiment
Publication Date
In field archaeology, the importance of non-diagnostic sherds is often overlooked. This archaeological experiment suggests that archaeologists should take into greater consideration, contexts where sherds are found grouped together in close proximity. The authors tested a series of experimental drops of modern pots...
Experimental Production of High and Late Medieval Pottery at the Scientific Research Centre in Panská Lhota
Publication Date
Experimental pottery production at the scientific research centre of the Institute of Archaeology and Museology at the Masaryk University Faculty of Arts (from here on ÚAM) in Panská Lhota began in the summer of 2012. The primary target of the experimental pottery production was an attempt to understand the manufacturing process...
Reconstruction of the Geometric Décor Technology of the Bronze Age Ceramics in Siberia
Publication Date
The grassland and forest steppes ranging from the Ural to the Altai-Sayan mountains were dominated by Andronovo Family cultures during the second millennium BC (the Bronze Age) (Koryakova & Epimakhov 2007; Мартынов 2005). The Andronovo dated ceramic series were characterized by a distinctly expressed geometric ornamentation style...
The Iron Age Iberian Experimental Pottery Kiln of Verdú, Catalonia, Spain
Publication Date
The goal of this project is to reconstruct the operational sequence of manufacture of Iberian Iron Age pottery, from clay procurement to firing in a reconstructed kiln. Although pottery is the most characteristic artefact recovered on Iberian Iron Age excavations, most of its complex processes and production techniques remain poorly known...
An Experimental Comparison of Impressions Made from Replicated Neolithic Linen and Bronze Age Woolen Textiles on Pottery
Publication Date
Textile impressions on pottery provide evidence for fabrics and weaves in areas where the fabrics themselves do not survive. This article argues that the impressions can provide information on the uses of different fibres, the weaving technologies and possible trading or agricultural advances connected with these fibres...
An Experimental Approach to Studying the Technology of Pottery Decoration
Publication Date
8th UK EA Conference Oxford 2014
***The early Middle Chalcolithic pottery tradition of Seh Gabi Tepe in Iran is called Dalma tradition. Among the different types of Dalma pottery, I have focused on monochrome painted ceramics, to investigate, by means of experimental analysis, how their decoration technology was undertaken...
***The early Middle Chalcolithic pottery tradition of Seh Gabi Tepe in Iran is called Dalma tradition. Among the different types of Dalma pottery, I have focused on monochrome painted ceramics, to investigate, by means of experimental analysis, how their decoration technology was undertaken...
The Registry of Memory Process Applied to Experimental Archaeology in a Castromao “Oven”
Publication Date
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***Memory is the cognitive process that codifies, stores and retrieves past actions that are perceived in the present, generating our remembrances and perceptions of the past and informing our knowledge of the world around us (...) Applied to archaeology, memory can be understood as the marks or...
***Memory is the cognitive process that codifies, stores and retrieves past actions that are perceived in the present, generating our remembrances and perceptions of the past and informing our knowledge of the world around us (...) Applied to archaeology, memory can be understood as the marks or...
Technical Elements for Etruscan-Padan Kilns Firing and Female Labour Connected to These Tools
Publication Date
This article presents work connected to the GestiRitrovati project, the association that performs archaeological experiments at the Forcello Archaeological Park (Mn). The aim is to recover archaic customs of Etruscan-Padan pottery production...
Probable Measure Estimating Tool Employed by the Aeneolithic Potters
Publication Date
The article proposes that an item, ornamented with a geometric pattern with inscribed diagonal cross and attributed to the Afanasievo culture (Aeneolithic, South Siberia), represents a primitive tool reflecting practical knowledge of basic geometry by the ancient potters. The article suggests an experimental reconstruction method for crafting the proposed instrument, and...