INTERPRETING LONG-TERM USE OF RAW MATERIALS IN POTTERY PRODUCTION: AN HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Summary

Potters can exploit certain clay resources for long periods of time due to several reasons of different nature. In this presentation I will address how raw material procurement can be made according to ecological, economic and functional concerns, but also considering social and symbolic phenomena. In order to test these different theoretical perspectives and promote more holistic positions in the interpretation of the raw material procurement I will present a case study focused on the Late Bronze and Iron Age communities that inhabited in the Santa Ponsa area (Mallorca, Spain). On the one hand, I carry out the identification of the raw materials used in the pottery production by means of the petrological, chemical (XRF) and mineralogical (XRD) characterization of both, archaeological ceramics and clays from the nearest area. Moreover, experimental research has been also undertaken with the aim to approach the physical properties of the raw materials. Secondly, I approach the reasons why these prehistoric communities exploited particular clays of the landscape throughout time by considering the foundations of ceramic ecology, functionalism and the social theory of technology.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Advances in the Method and Application of Ceramic Petrography: international perspectives on key archaeological questions, Part I

Keywords

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