Cultural dynamics and ceramic resource use at Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Troy,northwestern Turkey

Changes in resource use over time can provide insight into technological choice and the extent of long-term stability in cultural practices. In this paper we re-evaluate the evidence for a marked demographic shift at the inception of the Early Iron Age at Troy by applying a robust macroscale analysis of changing ceramic resource use over the Late Bronze and Iron Age. We use a combination of new and legacy analytical datasets (NAA and XRF), from excavated ceramics, to evaluate the potential compositional range of local resources (based on comparisons with sediments from within a 10 km site radius). Results show a clear distinction between sediment-defined local and non-local ceramic compositional groups. Two discrete local ceramic resources have been previously identified and we confirm a third local resource for a major class of EIA handmade wares and cooking pots. This third source appears to derive from a residual resource on the Troy peninsula (rather than adjacent alluvial valleys). The presence of a group of large and heavy pithoi among the non-local groups raises questions about their regional or maritime origin.     

Using neutron activation analysis to identify scales of interaction at Kinet Höyük,Turkey

We use NAA to characterize a relatively large archaeological ceramic sample from the Late Bronze Age to Hellenistic phases of Kinet Höyük, a coastal Turkish site in the Gulf of Iskenderun at the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. The geographic extent of local Kinet wares (how local is local?) is established through comparison with sediment samples across the Kinet hinterland. Four major compositional groups are identified: local and locally imported wares, imports from Cypriot, and presumed Western Anatolian and Aegean centers, and imports that appear relatively homogenous elementally but comprise typologically diverse ceramics with attributions that range from Cyprus to the coastal mainland. Comparison with other published NAA studies for this site reinforces the elemental evidence for local production, and underlines the need for caution when assuming local production always equates with local clays particularly for coastal sites. We propose that the chronological distribution of the local and non-local groups provides a useful political economic proxy. The study indicates systemic and widespread political disruption and marginalization at the transition to the Late Iron Age in this region.     

Chemical characterization of majolica from 14th–18th century production centers on the Iberian Peninsula: a preliminary neutron activation study

Majolica pottery is one of the most characteristic tableware produced during the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Majolica technology was introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by Islamic artisans during Medieval times, and its production and popularity rapidly spread throughout Spain and eventually to other locations in Europe and the Americas. The prestige and importance of Spanish majolica was very high. Consequently, this ware was imported profusely to the Americas during the Spanish Colonial period. Nowadays, Majolica pottery serves as an important horizon marker at Spanish colonial sites. A preliminary study of Spanish-produced majolica was conducted on a set of 246 samples from the 12 primary majolica production centers on the Iberian Peninsula. The samples were analyzed by neutron activation analysis (NAA), and the resulting data were interpreted using an array of multivariate statistical procedures. Our results show a clear discrimination between different production centers. In some cases, our data allow one to distinguish amongst shards coming from the same production location suggesting different workshops or group of workshops were responsible for production of this pre-industrial pottery.     

Marginalized Potters and Ceramic Compositional Groups: Neutron Activation Analysis of Contemporary Pottery from Tigray,Northern Highland Ethiopia

The study presents the results of neutron activation analysis (NAA) of contemporary pottery from Tigray Regional State, northern highland Ethiopia. This is the first regional-scale study of ceramic composition of Tigray’s pottery and is part of an ethnoarchaeological study of the material and social contexts of pottery production and consumption in Tigray’s Eastern (Misraqawi), Central (Mehakelegnaw), and North-western (Semien Mi’irabawi) zones. The analysis identifies clear compositional groups with strong regional patterns, an encouraging result for the use of NAA to study Tigray’s ancient pottery trade. Significantly, the study further contributes to discussions of how mutually constituted social identities of potters and consumers affect compositional patterning in the distribution of pottery in market networks.     

Understanding ceramic variability: an archaeometrical interpretation of the Classical and Hellenistic ceramics at Düzen Tepe and Sagalassos (Southwest Turkey)

Within the aim of contributing to the artisanal craft history at Sagalassos (SW-Turkey), an archaeometric programme including thin section analysis, ICP-MS and multivariate statistics was developed to define the variability on a provenance and/or technological scale of the Classical/Hellenistic ceramic assemblage of Sagalassos and Düzen Tepe. The obtained data were used to evaluate the extent and variation of local pottery production. Petrographic and geochemical analysis as a grouping technique proves to be conditional for documenting the variation in ceramic wares present on both archaeological sites. Elemental evidence supports local production activities between Classical and Hellenistic times, documenting a deliberate change in treatment of raw materials during the Late Hellenistic period in function of ware groups.     

Chemical and Petrographic Analysis of Pre‐Hispanic Pottery from the Southern Abaucán Valley,Catamarca, Argentina

Neutron activation (NAA) and petrographic analyses were carried out on Late and Inca Period pottery from 15 archaeological sites and several clay samples in the southern Abaucán Valley, Catamarca, Argentina. The results from the NAA and petrographic analyses provide new data concerning local versus non‐local pottery production and vessel exchange for these two pre‐Hispanic cultural periods. The chemical data demonstrate the use of different clay sources over time until the Inca appearance in the region, when a more structured and controlled production is observed. Petrographic analyses show a similar change in the ceramic paste recipes used by ancient potters.     

Reconstructing Iron Age Community Dynamics in Eski?ehir Province, Central Turkey

Current understanding of the Iron Age polity of Phrygia in Central Anatolia is primarily based on excavations and survey in the region of the Phrygian capital of Gordion. In order to expand our knowledge of the Phrygian polity, we assess the scale and nature of Iron Age communities in the western (Eski?ehir) region of Phrygia. We address the challenge of interpreting ceramics derived from large-scale archaeological survey by utilizing Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of ceramics from 12 sites across the region collected by the Eski?ehir archaeological survey project as well as an excavated assemblage from ?ar H?yük. While the uniformity in ceramic technology and styles suggest the region is part of the larger Phrygian community, NAA results reveal that (a) ceramic production was regionally highly localized with limited evidence of standardization during the Iron Age and (b) based on evidence of community interaction it is possible to establish a partial chronological sequence of development. These results have implications not only for understanding the internal dynamics within the Phrygian core but also for developing a methodology for comparing ancient polities using commensurate units of interacting communities. The present study is part of the larger Anatolian Iron Age Ceramics project (http://www.une.edu.au/a-ia).     

Importing Clay for Local Pottery Production in the 4th Century b.c. at Tell el-Timai,Egypt

Archaeological evidence of ceramic production most commonly consists of locally procured raw materials. Excavations at Tell el-Timai in Lower Egypt recovered raw fine marl clay from two transport jars in the vicinity of pottery kilns dating to the 4th century b.c. Production wasters of small perfume bottles produced in the same fine marl clay were found inside the kilns. The marl clay inside the jars pointed to an origin outside of Lower Egypt. Samples of the clay and wasters, along with a confirmed locally sourced sample, were subjected to X-Ray Fluourescence (XRF) analysis, revealing significant differences in their chemical compositions. The results of the analysis are compared to published Egyptian data and an Upper Egyptian provenience is suggested because the raw clay is consistent with available comparative XRF data.     

Dietary adaptation during the Longshan period in China: stable isotope analyses at Liangchengzhen (southeastern Shandong)

Rice and millet were staple crops at Liangchengzhen, a late Neolithic Longshan site in Shandong, China, but the degree of dietary variation is not known. This study uses stable isotope analysis of human and faunal skeletal remains to quantitatively address the importance of these crops as well as terrestrial domesticates and aquatic resources in the diet at Liangchengzhen. Although no collagen could be extracted from the poorly preserved human bones, the δ¹³C stable isotope results for 2 apatite sample and 16 tooth enamel samples averaged −9.8‰ suggesting that diet was based on foods averaging from −24‰ to −18‰, with millet and millet-fed animals comprising at most approximately 25–30% of the diet. Pig faunal δ¹³C isotope values suggested that during the earlier Longshan period pigs were fed mainly millet with more C₃ foods such as rice included by the later Longshan period. Solid ceramic residues from two guan jar sherds produced δ¹³C values averaging −18‰ and δ¹⁵N values averaging +16‰, suggesting both vessels contained fish. The results of the study indicate that by the Longshan period, people in southeastern Shandong no longer relied as heavily on millet and that the agricultural crop of rice had increased in importance at Liangchengzhen. Unfortunately, without human collagen samples to provide nitrogen isotope results, we cannot estimate the relative contribution of aquatic and terrestrial protein to the diet of people at Liangchengzhen. In general, however, the pattern of a diverse agricultural system on the basis of the macrobotanical remains from Liangchengzhen is supported by the isotopic results.     

X-ray fluorescence analysis and intra-island exchange in the Society Island archipelago (Central Eastern Polynesia)

We apply X-ray fluorescence (XRF) geochemical analysis to a collection of 'Opunohu Valley lithic artifacts from Mo'orea island to investigate the local scale of raw material procurement, adze production, use, and exchange within the Society Island archipelago. We use these data to document the distribution of non-local versus local volcanic artifacts in 'Opunohu Valley house sites, ritual sites, and specialized sites, as a means for establishing intra-site production and consumption patterns, and access to exotic, possibly superior, stone resources, and how these two themes correlate with site function or household wealth and status. Overall, 30% of the artifacts analyzed via WDXRF derive from non-local sources, notably two other islands in the archipelago outside of the political boundaries of Moorean chiefdoms. Our case study thus provides the first direct material evidence of intra-archipelago trade and exchange in the Society Islands. Intra-archipelago trade in adzes was certainly in place by as early as A.D. 1350, if not earlier, and continued up until the time of European contact. In addition, our analyses have identified a local adze production locale in the Afareaitu district of Mo'orea island. The patterns of local versus non-local adze production and exchange strongly suggest that dual interaction spheres were involved. The correlation between adzes and adze-related debris produced from off-island sources and sites with specialized use, which were often reserved for the social, ritual, and political elites in Ma'ohi society suggests that some of the exotic adzes derived from gift exchange between Mo'orea and ruling elites in Tahiti and the Leeward Islands. These adzes from afar would have solidified socio-political and ideological alliances between elites in the Windward and Leeward sectors of the archipelago.     

POST-COLLAPSE: THE RE-EMERGENCE OF POLITY IN IRON AGE BOĞAZKÖY, CENTRAL ANATOLIA

How communities reorganize after collapse is drawing increasing attention across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Iron Age Boğazköy provides an archaeological case study of urban and political regeneration after the widespread collapse of eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age empires in the early twelfth century BC. Recent work at Boğazköy has significantly expanded our understanding of long-term occupation in north central Anatolia. This work counters previous suggestions that Boğazköy was abandoned after the collapse of the Hittite Empire during the Early Iron Age. In this paper, we focus on the Iron Age occupations at the site to show how growth in the scale and complexity of ceramic production and trade during this period provides another line of evidence for economic and political re-emergence. Based on the increasing diversity of non-local ceramics and ceramic emulations during the Iron Age, we suggest that only in the Late Iron Age, 500–700 years after Hittite collapse, did Boğazköy re-emerge as a significant polity in central Anatolia.     

The contents of unusual cone-shaped vessels (cornets) from the Chalcolithic of the southern Levant

Cornets are cone-shaped ceramic vessels, characteristic of the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4700–3700 BC) in Israel and Jordan. Their contents and use are unknown. Gas chromatography with flame ionization and mass-selective detection, showed that extracts of cornets from five different sites with different related activities (domestic, habitation cave and a cultic complex) all contain the same assemblage of mainly n-alkanes adsorbed within their walls. This assemblage differs from those found in other types of ceramic vessels from the same sites, as well as from the residues found within the associated sediments. The assemblage of odd and even-numbered n-alkanes found in the cornets is almost identical to that found in the residues of beeswax heated on modern ceramic fragments, as well as in a beehive from the Iron Age IIA strata at Tel Rehov, Israel. Thus the cornets are most likely to have contained beeswax. The presence of beeswax in the cornets contributes to our understanding of the Chalcolithic period; a time when secondary products such as milk, olive oil and wine are thought to have come into use.     

Production centers of cooking pots in Iron Age Judah

This paper will present and discuss a multifaceted research project dealing with the production of cooking pots during the Iron Age II (ca. 1,000–586 BCE) Judah (modern Israel). In particular the new compositional analysis of 541 cooking vessels from 11 sites in Iron Age Judah will be presented. The study employs petrographic and chemical (NAA) analysis. The results of this ongoing research have already produced interesting information about production centers and movements of cooking pots in Iron Age II Judah. Apparently, the vast majority of the cooking pots sampled were made of a similar type of clay, related to terra rossa soil. This is true also for sites in the northern Negev and Judean Desert, where the type of soil was not available in the region of the sites. Furthermore, many of the cooking pots distributed around Judah were made in Jerusalem according to a well-located chemical profile (JleB). Other groups may represent Judean Shephelah production centers as the Lachish area as well as production centers in southern Israel or ancient Edom. The implications of the importation patterns of cooking pots by peripheral Judean sites will be discussed.     

A Diachronic Study of Networks of Ceramic Assemblage Similarity in Neolithic Western Anatolia,the Aegean and the Balkans (c.6600–5500 bc)

This study compares the results of Jaccard and Kulczynski‐2 similarity measures on a sample of ceramic assemblages to reveal spatio‐temporal patterns in the relationship between Neolithic sites in western Anatolia and south‐eastern Europe (c.6600–5500 bc ). The results show that the relationship between spatial distance and ceramic assemblage similarity has increased through time, which supports previous interpretations of leapfrog migrations and subsequent regionalization in ceramic assemblages during the Neolithic. A diachronic network analysis demonstrates the continuation of Aegean networking after the spread of farming.     

Ceramic production and provenience at Gordion, Central Anatolia

Phrygian Gordion was the political center of an influential Iron Age polity that extended across west central Anatolia during the first half of the 1st millennium BC. Though the borders of this polity remain vague a characteristic of the Phrygian “footprint” is the distribution of highly distinctive ceramics. The extent to which Gordion potters were the originators of these wares remains uncertain. In this paper we use Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) to establish the local signature of predominantly Iron Age ceramics for this site by combining samples from several decades of excavation with an extensive regional sediment sequence. We also compare previous NAA work at Gordion to suggest that the formative stages of the Phrygian state appears to have involved a more extensive network of non-local specialist producers than previously thought.     

Mapping prehistoric social fields on the Sepik coast of Papua New Guinea: ceramic compositional analysis using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

The Sepik coast of northern Papua New Guinea is one of the most linguistically diverse places on earth despite communities there currently being connected into wide-reaching social and economic networks that cross language boundaries. One possible explanation for observed human diversity is that social connections were substantially less intensive prior to colonial pacification. As a proxy for human interaction, we compositionally analyzed 287 ceramic sherds from archaeological contexts using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to determine their place of production. Our results indicate that ceramics produced on Tumleo Island—currently the most important regional ceramic producer—were transported to other places on the Sepik coast after ∼1000 BP, suggesting that linguistic diversity on the coast has been maintained in an interactive environment for at least a millennium.     

Cluster analysis of mixed-level data: Pottery provenience as an example

Provenience or “sourcing” studies of archaeological objects most commonly employ quantitative measurements of amounts of chemical constituents in the artifacts and source materials. These are then used in statistical grouping procedures known as cluster analyses. Many additional attributes of artifacts and sources, yielding lower-level qualitative data, are also of potential importance in determinations of artifact origins. These attributes are usually neglected because of the longstanding difficulty in treating “mixed-level” data, that is, combining both qualitative observations and quantitative information in a single powerful statistical procedure. A series of cluster analyses were run on two data sets consisting of archaeological pottery, using mixed-level characterization data in the CLUSTAN program with Gower's coefficient of similarity. The clustering solutions are interpretable in terms of provenience and production strategies.     

Multi-element soil prospection aiding geophysical and archaeological survey on an archaeological site in suburban Sagalassos (SW-Turkey)

In order to take full advantage of the archaeological information contained within buried archaeological sites, it is important to apply an integrative approach combining complementary prospection methods. In this study, geochemical prospection data are combined with archaeological and geophysical survey results on an unexcavated site in suburban Sagalassos (SW-Turkey), with the aim of obtaining better insights into the structural shapes and past functionalities of the area. Spatial and multivariate statistical analyses of the chemical data reveal anomalies of K, P and Zn on a location where archaeological and geophysical results suggest the presence of ceramic producing kilns. These elemental enrichments are thought to result from burning wood or dung as fuel for the detected kilns. In addition, local anomalies of Co, Cr, Fe, Mg, Mn and Ni were found to reflect the working and storage of ophiolitic clays, employed as a raw material for ceramic production. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal in a 2.5 m deep drill core in this zone provides ages between AD 120 and 350 at depths of 50 and 60 cm. Al, As, Ba, Ca, Na, Sr, Ti and Pb are considered geogenic elements in this study. The present study supports the theory that geochemical prospection holds potential as a surveying technique, as it was found that chemical data facilitate the interpretation of structures detected by geophysical and archaeological methods, thereby creating an extra dimension to the interpretation of survey data. The results further argue in favour of using strong-acid extractions and the consideration of a large suite of elements when applying chemical soil survey as an archaeological prospection technique, and highlight the importance of considering site lithology. Multivariate statistics proved to be invaluable in distinguishing anthropogenic from lithological soil patterns.     

Identifying food provenience using Sr/Ca ratio in human enamel

The strontium (Sr) concentration in bioapatite of human bone and teeth reflects the Sr concentration in food that is differentiated by two major factors: an abundance of Sr in local soils and the biopurification effect along the trophic levels. Eastern Syria is an area with a relatively high concentration of Sr within the Euphrates valley and a low concentration of Sr beyond the valley. For this reason, the strontium/calcium (Sr/Ca) ratio in human enamel retrieved from skeletons buried in cemeteries within the Euphrates valley may be used as a proxy for food provenience in a local population. A sample of human teeth (N = 72) from Tell Ashara and Tell Masaikh was divided into seven temporal subsets covering periods between c.2200 bce and the early 20th century ce . A significant difference in Sr/Ca values between temporal subsets is observed. The Sr/Ca values in later subsets are negatively correlated with δ¹³C values, indicating the wider exploitation of steppe areas outside the valley with more wild C4 grasses and a low Sr concentration. For periods with lower Sr/Ca values (c.2200–1900 bce and 19th–20th centuries ce ) there is additional textual and isotopic evidence for food transportation from outside the river valley, supporting the interpretation of Sr/Ca values as a proxy for food provenience in this specific area.