Ceramic micropalaentology : the analysis of microfossils in archaeological ceramics with special reference to its application in the southern Aegean.

摘要

Within the scientific analysis of archaeological ceramics, four principal aims can beudspecified: description, classification, the reconstruction of ceramic technology and theuddetermination of provenance. In order to achieve these, sophisticated methods of thinudsection analysis have been developed which permit the retrieval of detailedudinformation about the nature of the rock and mineral inclusions as well as the texturaludfeatures of the ceramic micromass. One important group of inclusions which occur inudmany archaeological ceramics are the organic or mineralised remains of variousudmicroscopic animals and plants, collectively referred to as microfossils. Microfossilsudare studied in detail only rarely by ceramic petrographers, however they containudinformation pertaining to the geological age and palaeoenvironment in which theirudhost sediment was deposited, and as such can be used to characterise and provenanceudthe raw materials of ceramic manufacture. Whilst holding great potential for theudanalysis of archaeological pottery, there are also a variety of problems associated withudthese types of inclusions, such as their alteration and removal by various processesudduring the production and post-depositional history of ceramics.udSpecialist analyses of microfossils in archaeological ceramics are small in number andudbiased towards the investigation of diatoms from the Neolithic to Iron Age pottery ofudnorth-west Europe. This thesis represents the first comprehensive study of theudoccurrence and utility of all microfossils in archaeological ceramics and is dividedudinto two main sections. The first comprises a detailed account of the occurrence,udpreservation, methods of analysis, behaviour upon firing, and utility of all groups ofudmicrofossils in archaeological ceramics. This reappraisal is followed by severaludindividual case studies from the Bronze Age of Crete and elsewhere in theudMediterranean which utilise calcareous microfossils to address a variety ofudarchaeological questions of varying geographical scale and detail concerning ceramicudprovenance and technology.