广州南越国宫署遗址出土五代十国刻款瓷器研究

广州是五代十国南汉国的都城兴王府所在地,自1995年以来,在南越国宫署遗址发掘出南汉国时期的宫殿和池苑等遗迹,出土大量晚唐至五代十国时期的陶瓷器,部分瓷器还刻写有"掌要局""要""女""卢""昌""官"等款识,内容涉及南汉宫殿、内廷官署、职官和皇帝宠臣等。这些瓷器既有五代越窑生产的秘色瓷,也有定窑和景德镇窑白瓷,还有南汉本地生产的青瓷等。这些瓷器为研究南汉宫廷用瓷来源,南汉与中原及吴越、南唐、闽等周边政权关系等方面提供了重要实物资料。     

Investigating compositional diversity among Fijian ceramics with laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS): implications for interaction studies on geologically similar islands

This paper presents a ceramic provenance analysis of 260 Fijian sherd clays by laser-ablation inductively-coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Our analyses define three compositional groups in western Fijian ceramics distributed across the 2700 year ceramic sequence. Frequencies of compositional groups represented in the diachronic assemblages indicate an increasing spatial sphere of interaction until approximately 1500 BP. By 1000 BP interaction had spatially contracted to a significant degree. These findings suggest re-evaluation of current ideas about interaction in the southwest Pacific is necessary.     

Shifting social networks along the Nile: Middle Holocene ceramic assemblages from Sai Island, Sudan

During the middle Holocene, profound changes in environment, economy, and social relations laid the foundations for the emergence of Africa’s earliest polities: the Egyptian Old Kingdom and the Kerma state. Regional shifts in economy and society may be reflected in local changes in patterning of ceramic production and exchange. Analysis of two pottery assemblages from Sai Island, north Sudan, reveals dramatic shifts in the scale of cultural spheres and the nature of cross-cultural interaction between 5000 BC (Khartoum Variant) and 2600 BC (Pre-Kerma). Near-sedentary Khartoum Variant hunter–gatherers at site 8-B-10C participated in a longstanding cultural sphere that extended far into the Sahara, but were beginning to focus more tightly on resources by the Nile. By Pre-Kerma times, Sai occupants familiar with animal husbandry started to use southwest Asian plant domesticates; they began to experiment with large-scale storage facilities and engage in long-distance trade along the Nile, outside of their own cultural boundaries. Beyond a shift in axes for contact from east–west to north–south, these changes signal progressive geographic and temporal compression of cultural entities, amidst accelerating processes of economic innovation and social change that finally culminated in the polities of Egypt and Kerma.     

Identifying pottery clay from rice fields: an example from southern Luzon,the Philippines

The general type of clay used by potters can often be identified from attributes of the finished ceramic vessel or sherd. This information is important for compositional and sourcing studies and may also shed light on the variables influencing clay choice such as social, economic, and landscape use patterns. Rice paddies are one type of clay source that are readily identifiable in archaeological ceramics. This paper describes rice paddy clays gathered during ethnoarchaeological studies of traditional potters in Paradijon, southern Luzon, the Philippines. We analyze the effects of clay processing and vessel manufacture on these clays and find that the most diagnostic attribute of paddy soils, the iron oxide mottling, is retained in finished vessels.     

Integrated geological,petrologic and geochemical approach to establish source material and technology of Late Cypriot Bronze Age Plain White ware ceramics

Late Cypriot Bronze Age Plain White Wheelmade ware samples from several Cypriot excavation sites and the northern Canaanite coast were studied to ascertain their production centres and details of their manufacturing processes and post-depositional alteration. The investigation of the ceramics, using combined geoscientific analytical techniques (XRF, ICP-MS, XRD and EPMA) allowed four groups of pottery to be distinguished based on their common raw-material sources and/or technological analogies. Sediments that were sampled in East Cyprus (eastern Mesaoria Plain) for comparative purposes indicated that most of the investigated ceramics were produced from raw materials available around the ancient settlement of Enkomi. Appraising technological variations and discriminative raw-material characteristics, several pottery producing workshops in ancient Enkomi (Eastern Cypriot coast) have been identified that merchandised their commodities on Cyprus and, in all probability, also overseas.     

Woodland period ceramic provenance and the exchange of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped vessels in the southeastern United States

Results of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of Middle and Late Woodland pottery (n = 313) and clay (n = 22) samples from northeastern Florida and southeastern Georgia are presented. Assemblages in this region include Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery that preserves unique evidence of social interactions through the inimitable qualities of designs stamped into vessel surfaces. Archaeologists have proffered various hypotheses to explain movement of ceramic vessels or the carved wooden paddles used in the manufacture of these vessels. This study tests these hypotheses and indicates that nonlocal vessels, particularly complicated stamped ones, were deposited almost exclusively in mortuary contexts, a pattern that requires new explanations for the role of pottery in social interactions. These data are being integrated with a larger project that aims to reveal the social processes that were tied to the manufacture, use, and distribution of pottery.     

“Crestspeak”: British Military Crested Ceramics, Military Socialization, and Collective Memory

In many parts of the world, excavations of British military sites have unearthed material reflecting lifeways in the British Empire. Specifically, studies of historical ceramics and glass have greatly advanced our understanding of status and material expression. This study highlights the current body of knowledge on British military crested ceramics, contrasting the rarity of archaeological finds with their abundance in documentary sources. An elemental stylistic analysis reveals that these crests expressed regimental affiliation as the fundamental unit of self-identification. Symbolic interpretation of these crests stresses their active role in the socialization of officers and structuring collective memory, particularly through the mess institution.     

In the beginning: Marhashi and the origins of Magan's ceramic industry in the third millennium BC

Ceramics from the Jiroft plain in southeastern Iran are compared with material of Umm an-Nar-type dating to the mid- and late third millennium BC in the Oman Peninsula. Technological and stylistic comparisons suggest the strong possibility that potters from the Iranian side of the Straits of Hormuz may have been the instigators of Magan's earliest ceramic industry.     

Re-examining the Egyptian colonial encounter in Nubia through a compositional,mineralogical, and textural comparison of ceramics

Textural, mineralogical, and X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses are used as a cost effective method to distinguish for the first time ancient Egyptian and Nubian-style ceramics found in Nubia. Textural and mineralogical data suggest that Nubian-style sherds are mixtures of sand, silt, and clay sediment that is generally finer grained and poorer in quartz than is the sediment mixture used to produce Egyptian-style pottery. Chemical data also establish a significant difference in the amount of chemical variation found within each style population, but nonetheless supports a considerable overlap in the possible provenance of both styles. Observations and data obtained during this study indicate that standardized, Egyptian-style manufacturing was introduced into Nubia under colonialism, without substantially altering the diversity of native methods of production.     

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.