Overview

Ceramic technology is a topic widely explored in archaeology, especially for its social inferences. This volume addresses the social aspects of production and the role of potters within prehistoric communities. The book focusses on the Copper Age when social complexity was incipient rather than developed, and ceramic production was not considered a formalised activity. Household and funerary pottery dated from the second half of the 4th to the end of the 3rd millennium BC unearthed from eight archaeological contexts located in the current area of Rome were analysed through a multidisciplinary study. An integrated approach of archaeometric investigation, trace analysis and experimental archaeology provided a framework of empirical data reflecting the transmission of technological choices among diverse ceramic traditions and the coexistence of different levels of expertise within productions related to household or funerary activities. Petrographic analyses, XRF and XRD, led to an understanding of the ceramic recipes, their use and the firing technology used by Copper Age potters. The reference collection of technological traces relating to forming techniques, surface treatments and comb decorations allowed characterization of the craftspeople’s expertise. A potter’s skill is inferred in terms of the technical investment required at each stage of production or in shaping specific ceramic vessels. In light of these data, the pottery from the Copper Age contexts of central Italy suggests a recurring association between skilled productions and socially valued goods, as the vessels used in funerary contexts demonstrate.

Full Product Details

9781789696691

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Vanessa Forte, following the completion of her PhD (2014) at Sapienza University of Rome, she spent two years as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University. She currently collaborates to national and international research projects as a member of the Laboratory of Technological and Functional Analyses of Prehistoric Artefacts (LTFAPA), and is an Honorary Fellow at the Sapienza University of Rome.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available