Provenience ceramic studies

Thus ceramic studies tend to have a regional focus in the hopes that differences can be found between the ceramics made by different people. Although some labs include regional clay samples in their analyses for comparison, most ceramic studies necessarily take an empirical approach in ceramic samples, as sets, sometimes with known provenience, are compared with other sets to see if they can be distinguished. 

The most intense NAA study of archaeological ceramics has been focused on the Bronze Age Mycenaean and Minoan pottery of Greece and Crete, and related areas around the eastern Mediterranean (Mommsen et al. 2002). This work began in Berkeley, California, in the 1960s with the work of Perlman and Asaro (1969), who went on to analyze 878 shards of pottery. The results were never fully published according to Asaro and Perlman (1973, 213), the question of provenience of the vast quantities of Mycenaean wares has... 

Unlike chemical provenience studies of geological materials, the compositions of which normally remain unchanged by human choices, the composition of ceramics are the result of human choice, making the interpretation of such chemical data much more problematic. Potters at a given location can and do choose different recipes for different pots with different functions or styles. For example, water jars from Veracruz can give a different mix of clays and tempers for the base of the jar, for the filter, and for the funnel at the top, giving three different compositions for the same vessel. 

Sayre EV, Meyers P Art Atdiaeo. Tech. AI tnK ts (1971) S 115. The AATA routinely abstract ceramic provenience studies carried out by NAA and other means. 

Harbottle G (1982) Provenience Studies Using Neutron Activation Analysis The Role of Standardization, in Archaeological Ceramics, (eds. Olin JS, Franklin AK) p. 6, Washington, Smithsonian Institution... 

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