Grain size analyses in tin-lead glazes based on 2d-sections

A problem in the archaeometric classification of Catalan Renaissance pottery is the fact, that the clay supply of the pottery workshops was centrally organized by guilds, and therefore usually all potters of a single production centre produced chemically similar ceramics. However, analysing the glazes of the ware usually a large number of inclusions in the glaze is found, which reveal technological differences between single workshops. These inclusions have been used by the potters in order to opacify the transparent glaze and to achieve a white background for further decoration. In order to distinguish different technological preparation procedures of the single workshops, at a Scanning Electron Microscope the chemical composition of those inclusions as well as their size in the two-dimensional cut is recorded. Based on the latter, a frequency distribution of the apparent diameters is estimated for each sample and type of inclusion. Following an approach by S.D. Wicksell (1925), it is principally possible to transform the distributions of the apparent 2D-diameters back to those of the true three-dimensional bodies. The applicability of this approach and its practical problems are examined using different ways of kernel density estimation and Monte-Carlo tests of the methodology. Finally, it is tested in how far the obtained frequency distributions can be used to classify the pottery

La ceràmica d'engalba blanca: Una nova aportació a l'estudi del període baix-republicà (segles II-I a.C.) al nord-est del Principat

La ceràmica d'engalba és una de les produccions indígenes més personals dels dos darrers segles abans de l'era vulgar. La seva distribució queda limitada, bàsicament, a les comarques costaneres de Girona i la seva tipologia de formes s'especialitza en urnes i gerres, molts de cops de dimensions considerables, esveltes. El centre de producció cal cercar-lo a “Emporiae”, i el seu estudi pot ajudar a aprofundir en el coneixement de la primera etapa de la romanització a casa nostra

Juegos en tabletas digitales como introducci??n al modelado y la impresi??n 3D

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Una peça notable procedent de Sant Julià de Ramis

Article que descriu i analitza un fragment d'una gran gerra ceràmica amb decoració grafitada al damunt de la paret externa procedent del poblat ibèric de Sant Julià de Ramis, situat en el límit nord-oriental del Pla de Girona

Iconografia paleocristiana en ceràmiques estampades gàl·liques (d.s.p.) trobades al Nord-Est de Catalunya

Aquest article presenta un estudi detallat de peces ceràmiques que pertanyen al tipus ceràmic conegut com derivada de la sigil·lata paleocristiana (D.S.P.), obrada al migdia de la Gàl·lia des de molt a final del segle IV fins ben entrat el VI i exportada per tota la costa de la Mediterrània occidental

El material arqueològic del poblat ibèric de la Palomera

Descripció del material arqueològic del poblat ibèric de la Palomera (Serra de Finestres, la Garrotxa) procedent de les prospeccions arqueològiques que es varen realitzar entre els anys 1972 i 1975 per l'Associació Arqueològica de Girona, per mitjà de Miquel Verdaguer, i el Centre d'lnvestigacions Arqueològiques de Girona

Rhode. Caracterització del jaciment i de les produccions dels seus tallers ceràmics

RESUM En la primera part de la tesi es revisen els materials arqueològics i els documents de les excavacions antigues al jaciment grec de la Ciutadella de Roses (Alt Empordà). Es fan estudis comparatius i de conjunt amb els resultats proporcionats per les excavacions recents. A partir d'aquí s'obté una periodització del jaciment, des del moment de la fundació de la colònia massaliota de Rhode, al segon quart del segle IV aC, fins a la fi de la ciutat, al 195 aC. Es tracten aspectes de topografia, urbanisme i estudi dels edificis. La segona part analitza les produccions dels tallers ceràmics (vernissos negres, pastes clares, ceràmiques de cuina i altres produccions secundàries). Es fa una nova classificació, un estudi de les formes, de la cronologia i paral·lels. S'estudien les instal·lacions dels tallers, els forns, la seva capacitat, les argiles i les terreres. Es conclou amb una caracterització socioeconòmica i històrica de la ciutat, i dels aspectes històrics relacionats amb les fases de la seva fundació, desenvolupament i fi.

Croft Moraig and the chronology of stone circles

The Perthshire stone circle of Croft Moraig was excavated 40 years ago and is usually taken to illustrate the classic sequence at such monuments in Britain. A timber setting, accompanied by a shallow ditch, was replaced by two successive stone settings. The pottery associated with the earliest construction was dated to the Neolithic period. A new analysis of the excavated material suggests that, in fact, the ceramics are Middle or Late Bronze Age. They provide a terminus post quem for at least one of the stone settings on the site. Further study of the evidence suggests an alternative sequence of construction at Croft Moraig, involving a change in the axis of the monument. It seems possible that other stone and timber circles were equally late in date and that their period of use in Britain and Ireland may have been longer than is generally supposed.

POST-MIDDENISM: DEPOSITIONAL HISTORIES ON LATER BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENTS AT BROOM, BEDFORDSHIRE

This paper considers recent discussions of 'deliberate', 'formal', 'placed', 'special', 'structured', or 'token' deposits on later prehistoric settlements in Britain. It argues that while these concepts have certainly been very important in raising and forefronting the interpretative possibilities that depositional practices might offer, the idea of structured deposition has, at times, been adopted and applied somewhat simplistically. In such instances, exploration of the potential complexity and interpretative scope of depositional histories on later prehistoric settlements has been substantially curtailed. Current understandings of depositional practices involving pottery and burnt human bone are examined, and alternative interpretations offered, through a case study of the evidence recovered from a series of later Bronze Age settlements at Broom Quarry, Bedfordshire.

Neolithic woodland composition and exploitation in the Southern Levant: a comparison between archaeobotanical remains from WF16 and present day woodland at Hammam Adethni

Excavations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of WF16 in the Southern Levant produced an archaeobotanical assemblage constituted by plant macro-fossils and wood charcoal. As with all such assemblages, its species composition will most likely provide a biased reflection of those within the Neolithic woodland that had been exploited owing to cultural selection and differential preservation. As a means of facilitating its interpretation, a survey was undertaken of a relatively undisturbed patch of gallery woodland associated with a permanent water course at Hammam Adethni, approximately four kilometres south-east of WF16. The substantial overlap of the species within this woodland and those in the archaeobotanical assemblage suggests that this present-day woodland provides an analogue for that of the Neolithic and may therefore indicate what other plant resources the inhabitants of WF16 may have exploited, but which have left no archaeological trace. The interpretation of the results is supported by a comparative study of wood charcoal from present-day Bedouin hearths in Wadi Faynan.

Sexual symbolism in the Early Neolithic of the southern Levant: pestles and mortars from WF16

WF16 is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in the Southern Levant that has produced an important collection of ground stone artefacts. These include one explicit and one ambiguous representation of a phallus – the latter may be a human head and shoulders. The authors note the visual similarity of certain pestles from WF16 to phalli and suggest that such artefacts and their use may have been imbued with sexual metaphor. As such, the most potent references to sex, reproduction and fertility in the early Neolithic may not be the exotic figures claimed to be ‘Mother Goddesses’ but located in the most mundane of domestic artefacts.