Chemical variability in clays and pottery from a traditional cooking pot production village: Testing assumptions in Pereruela

This paper explores analytically the contemporary pottery-making community of Pereruela (north-west Spain) that produces cooking pots from a mixture of red clay and kaolin. Analyses by different techniques (XRF, NAA, XRD, SEM and petrography) showed an extremely high variability for cooking ware pottery produced in a single production centre, by the same technology and using local clays. The main source of chemical variation is related to the use of different red clays and the presence of non-normally distributed inclusions of monazite. These two factors induce a high chemical variability, not only in the output of a single production centre, but even in the paste of a single pot, to an extent to which chemical compositions from one"workshop", or even one"pot", could be classified as having different provenances. The implications for the chemical characterization and for provenance studies of archaeological ceramics are addressed.

Une campagne en Kabylie : récit d'un chasseur d'Afrique ; Les années de collège de Maître Nablot ; Une veillée au village ; Le pâté de lapin / par Erckmann-Chatrian ; illustrés de 22 dessins par Théophiles Schuler ; gravures par Pannemaker

Collection : Contes et romans alsaciens

Le village aérien / par Jules Verne... ; dessins par George Roux...

Collection : Les voyages extraordinaires