Archaeological samples clays

The thermal analysis of different archaeological samples of bricks, terra-cotta, and local clays provides useful information on the chemical composition of historical samples and can provide confirmation of specific sites of originJ ] The thermal characterization of local clays is valuable to assist the restoration of historical pottery materials. 

The groups are not exhaustive in representing all possible clay procurement and manufacturing localities for pottery sampled in the archaeological survey. Approximately one-third of the initially considered sherds - those characterized by medium to fine quartz sand - were not amenable to independent grouping or to membership in the established reference units. 

Methodologically, inevitably some questions must always be considered. Do the control sherds adequately represent the output of all of the relevant vessels from all of the relevant kiln sites There is always potentially the problem of kiln X - an unknown (or at least, uncharacterized) kiln which is producing wares similar to those under consideration, but not included either because it has not been identified archaeologically, or because it was not known to produce the type of ware under question. This problem should be at least considered since a geochemical knowledge of the type of clay deposits being exploited may restrict the geographical extent of the possible clay sources. The question of the representativeness of the samples is more difficult. Most kiln... 

In addition to the archaeological material, majolica sherds were obtained from two modern factories in Puebla La Trinidad and Santa Maria. Both of these potteries use a clay body blended from a mixture of equal amounts of a black volcanic clay and a white marl obtained from the immediate area around Puebla (4), Samples from these sherds were analyzed by neutron activation analysis and the data used to represent a Puebla composition. 

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