Not sourcing: prospecting for Khitan/Liao ceramic production locales through the geochemical and mineralogical characterization of Khitan/Liao ceramic assemblages

Summary

Often the use of geochemical and mineralogical techniques to characterize archaeological ceramics is performed with the underlying idea that the goal of the enterprise will be the sourcing of the ceramics to their production locales. However, in many situations this goal may not be achievable due to such factors as a lack of variability in regional geologies or a lack of information on the scale, type and location of ceramic production. This paper looks at one such case from the Chifeng Region, Inner Mongolia, where the sourcing of Khitan/Liao (907-1125 CE) earthenware ceramic assemblages is not possible due to a lack of basic information on ceramic production. Instead ceramic mineralogical and geochemical data, attained by portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry and optical petrography, is used to narrow down the possible locations of Kitan/Liao ceramic production sites. This approach reverses the goal of characterization away from assigning a ceramic to a production locale and instead uses mineralogical and geochemical data to prospect for possible production locales as well as to provide some comment on the variety and scale of ceramic production within the Chifeng region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Medieval Cities in the Eurasian Steppe   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15592