Theory, Sampling, and Analytical Techniques in the Archaeological Study of Prehistoric Ceramics (original) (raw)
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Ceramic style analysis in archaeology and ethnoarchaeology: Bridging the analytical gap
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1989
A refitting study with a sample of sherds from Broken K Pueblo indicates that at least some of the "patterning" in the assemblage identified by Hill (1970, Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona 18) results from unrecognized whole vessels and large conjoinable sherds. It is argued that contemporary stylistic analyses are based on many of the same analytical methods employed in the Broken K study and that research findings of ethnoarchaeology are rarely applied in the analysis of prehistoric ceramics. Despite archaeologists' increasing awareness of formation processes, spurred by ethnoarchaeological research, analytic methods that identify and take into account the effects of these processes on archaeological ceramic assemblages are underdeveloped. Suggestions are offered to resolve this problem, for both archaeological and ethnoarchaeological ceramic analysis, that may permit archaeologists to discover in prehistoric assemblages the same types of relationships identified in systemic assemblages.
АРХЕОЛОГІЯ, МУЗЕЄЗНАВСТВО, ПАМ'ЯТКОЗНАВСТВО: освітній та дослідницький аспектиVITA ANTIQUA, 2019
The study of ceramic is one of the broadest research areas in archaeological sciences. Over the last two centuries, archaeologists have developed a number of approaches and methods that have had different goals of the studies: from the study of ceramics as an object of art to the reproduction of the manufacture technologies, and the study of pottery as a «mediator» for the study of everyday life of the ancient population. The purpose of the article is a brief review of the scientific methods developed at different times in Western and Eastern Europe, North America, and to discover new combinations of research approaches that would allow archaeological ceramic complexes to be explored at a new level. This is especially true of the difficulties encountered in the study of Neolithic utensils, given the incomplete forms of utensils, the relatively small number of finds, and natural damage. The new paradigm in ceramics investigations is the studies of the raw material of Neolithic ceramics using natural methods of analysis, such as binocular, p-XRF, spectrographic analyses. The results may open up new knowledge regarding the mobility of the ancient population and the cultural exchange between different groups of the Neolithic population. Keywords: Neolithic, ceramic studies, pottery, migration, cultural exchange.
A Diversity Index Approach to Analysis of Standardization in Prehistoric Pottery
2010
It is frequently assumed that occupational specialization In prehistoric pottery production will be accompanied by various changes in pottery assemblages. One possible change is toward greater standardization in particular forms, sizes, or decorations. If so, diversity indices offer one approach to recording and comparing degrees of standardization. Here we summarize some of the advantages and disadvantages of an index of widespread utility and present a computer program to calculate It. A brief illustration draws on pottery data from a Mesoamerican archaeological site. For our purposes we will ignore the rather complex set of issues surrounding the assumption that specialist pottery may display greater standardization in order to concentrate on assessment of the index and presentation of the program for it.
B.A.R International Series 2193, Oxford, Archaeopress, p. 80-88. , 2011
Technological ceramic analysis aims to studying the synchronic and diachronic variability of archaeological assemblages from an anthropological angle. It has its bases in actualist studies (anthropology and ethno-archaeology). After a reminded of the principal results obtained in the last decades, methodological results are extracted that are applicable to archaeological assemblages; from these a classification procedure is proposed. The latter, based on the chaîne opératoire concept, allows a controlled image of the various traditions that make up a ceramic assemblage; given that a tradition corresponds to a social entity which can vary in sociological nature and include several production units. On a diachronic level it enable stables features to be distinguished from those that evolve through time, thereby witnessing to endogenous and/or exogenous evolutionary phenomena. In this way technological ceramic analysis can lay the foundations of many-faceted interpretations, the study of technical traditions being the first stage for subsequently analysing the organisation and distribution of ceramic production, the function of the sites, and, lastly, the ways in which technical and stylistic characteristics evolve.
2014
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.