engleski

Will we ever be able to reconstruct prehistoric pottery production processes – the role of experiments

Within the research program, Bronze Age pottery from several archaeological sites in NW Croatia is being systematically studied from a technological and archaeometrical point of view, and the results of these studies enable us to discuss about their significance in the context of a society or culture. However, these analytical methods are not always sufficient for a complete interpretation of the pottery production process. For that reason a research program that includes implementation of systematic experiments related to the different segments of the chain of operations in the process of pottery production is carried out since 2012. The experiments were designed to answer two basic questions: (1) which clay paste recipes (especially organic matter tempered clay paste ) correspond to a paste that was used for pottery making in the Bronze Age and (2) is the destruction pattern of the hypothetically reconstructed firing structure (horizontal pottery kiln) comparable with the archaeological feature excavated at the Bronze Age site Kurilovec in NW Croatia. Pottery technology is a complex social phenomenon and it reflects a complex social behaviours, so possibilities of its reconstruction can be very limited. However, preliminary results of this research show that experiments have a very important role in the reconstruction of temper material preparation process, in the reconstruction of firing strategy and in the interpretation of the archaeological record.

experiment, pottery technology, bronze age, clay paste recipes, grog, firing methods

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