CERAMIC PRODUCTION, PROVENANCE AND USE—A REVIEW*

2008/03/19 by M. S. TITE · 357 citations
Arts and Humanities · Chemistry · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Archaeological science #Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Ceramic #Chemistry #Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis #Geochemistry #Geography #Geology #Maritime and Coastal Archaeology #Materials science #Metallurgy #Mineralogy #Petrography #Pottery #Production (economics) #Provenance #Raw material

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.2008.00391.x

published in Archaeometry 50(2), 216-231 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2008/03/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

The contribution of the physical sciences to the reconstruction of the production technology (i.e., processing of raw materials, forming, surface treatments and firing methods) for earthenwares, stonewares, porcelains and stonepaste bodies are summarized. The organization of production and the reasons for technological choice are considered. Provenance studies based on both chemical analysis and thin‐section petrography are discussed, with the investigation of Minoan and Mycenaean pottery being taken as the case study. The approaches to determining how pottery vessels were used in antiquity are outlined. Finally, future developments in ceramic studies are briefly considered.

Citations

• THE CHALLENGE OF ‘TECHNOLOGICAL CHOICES’FOR MATERIALS SCIENCE APPROACHES IN ARCHAEOLOGY*
• DETERMINATION OF THE FIRING TEMPERATURE OF ANCIENT CERAMICS BY MEASUREMENT OF THERMAL EXPANSION

Cited by

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• Beyond the coastline: exploring ceramic technologies at the inland Late Bronze Age site of Agios Sozomenos, Cyprus
• A Burning Issue: Firing Temperatures and the Production of Late Bronze Age Pottery from Tarsus-Gözlükule, Turkey
• Non-destructive characterisation and classification of ceramic artefacts using pEDXRF and statistical pattern recognition. [europepmc]
• The trade of glass beads in early medieval Illyricum: towards an Islamic monopoly. [europepmc]
• Characterization of Archaeological Artefacts Using Methods Specific to Materials Science: The Case Study of Dacian Ceramics from 2nd c. BC to 1st c. AD. [europepmc]
• A multi-analytical characterization of fourteenth to eighteenth century pottery from the Kongo kingdom, Central Africa. [europepmc]
• Combination of Total-Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence Method and Chemometric Techniques for Provenance Study of Archaeological Ceramics. [europepmc]

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