Defining Local versus Nonlocal Ceramic Production at Sardis (Turkey) Using Isotopic Analysis: The Example of Asia Minor Light-Colored Ware

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

For over 50 years, material analytic studies have investigated the production and exchange of pottery across Asia Minor from late prehistory through the early Iron Age. Compositional data provided by ceramic petrography, neutron activation (NAA), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) have successfully differentiated major regional wares and, in many cases, have proposed geographic areas for their origin. A recent NAA study of clays and ceramics from the site of Sardis (Turkey) has established the elemental consistency of local production from Archaic Lydian through Roman periods. This project uses lead and strontium isotopic analysis to clarify the relationship between local products and imported Roman wares. Forty-five ceramic specimens were subjected to isotopic analyses to further assess the provenance of the Asia Minor Light-Colored Ware (AMLC) recovered at Sardis and previously defined as local versus non-local based on elemental chemistry. The contribution of the isotopic approach to the understanding of ceramic production and exchange in Sardis and western Anatolia is also evaluated.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36743.0