The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Ceramic Analysis draws together topics and methodologies essential for the socio-cultural, mineralogical, and geochemical analysis of archaeological ceramic. Ceramic is one of the most complex and ubiquitous archaeomaterials in the archaeological record: it occurs around the world and through time in almost every culture and context, from building materials and technological installations to utilitarian wares and votive figurines. For more than 100 years, archaeologists have used ceramic analysis to answer complex questions about economy, subsistence, technological innovation, social organization, and dating.
The volume is structured around the themes 'Research design and data analysis', 'Foundational concepts', 'Evaluating ceramic provenance', 'Investigating ceramic manufacture', 'Assessing vessel function', and 'Dating ceramic assemblages'. It provides a common vocabulary and offers practical tools and guidelines for ceramic analysis using techniques and methodologies ranging from network analysis and typology to rehydroxylation dating and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Each chapter provides the theoretical background and practical guidelines, such as cost and destructiveness of analysis, for each technique, as well as detailed case studies illustrating the application and interpretation of analytical data for answering anthropological questions.
Introduction 1: Alice M. W. Hunt: Introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Ceramic Analysis 2: M.S. Tite: History of Scientific Research Research Design and Data Analysi 3: Jaume Buxeda i Garrigós & Marisol Madrid i Fernández: Designing Rigorous Research: Integrating Science and Archaeology 4: Roberto Hazenfratz Marks: Evaluating Data: Uncertainty in Ceramic Analysis 5: Gulsebnem Bishop: Statistical Modelling for Ceramic Analysis 6: Matthew Boulanger: Data Recycling: Working with Published and Unpublished Ceramic Compositional Data Foundational Concepts 7: Giuseppe Montana: Ceramic Raw Materials 8: Valentine Roux: Ceramic Manufacture: The Chaîne Opératoire Approach 9: Kim Duistermaat: The Organization of Pottery Production: Towards a Relational Approach 10: Yona Waksman: 'Provenance' Studies: Productions and Compositional Groups 11: Gerwulf Schneider: Mineralogical and Chemical Alteration 12: Daniel Albero Santacreu, Manuel Calvo Trias, & Jaume García Rosselló: Formal Analysis and Typological Classification in the Study of Ancient Pottery 13: Ian Whitbread: Fabric Description of Archaeological Ceramics 14: Prabodh Shirvalker: Analytical Drawing Evaluating Ceramic Provenance 15: Dennis Braekmans & Patrick Degryse: Petrography: Optical Microscopy 16: Ian Wilkinson, Patrick Quinn, Mark Williams, Jeremy Taylor, & Ian Whitbread: Ceramic Micropalaeontology 17: Corina Ionescu & Volker Höck: Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) 18: Bettina Wiegand: Isotope Analysis 19: Robert B. Heimann: X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD) 20: Mark Hall: X-ray Fluorescence-Energy Dispersive (ED-XRF) and Wavelength Dispersive (WD-XRF) Spectrometry 21: Elisabeth Holmqvist: Handheld Portable Energy-Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (pXRF) 22: Marcia Rizzutto & Manfredo Tabacniks: Proton Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and its Applications for Ceramic Analysis 23: Mark Golitko & Laure Dussubieux: Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) 24: Leah D. Minc & Johannes H. Sterba: Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) in the Study of Archaeological Ceramics 25: Alan F. Greene: Synchrotron Radiation Investigating Ceramic Manufacture 26: Kent Fowler: Ethnography 27: Malgorzata Daszkiewicz & Lara Maritan: Experimental Firing and Re-firing 28: Shlomo Shoval: Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) in Archaeological Ceramic Analysis 29: Jolien Van Pevenage & Peter Vandenabeele: Raman Spectroscopy and the Study of Ceramic Manufacture: Possibilities, Results, and Challenges 30: Ina Berg & Janet Ambers: X-radiography of Archaeological Ceramics 31: Marta Mariotti Lippi & Pasquino Pallecchi: Organic Inclusions Assessing Vessel Function 32: Ana L. Martinez-Carillo & Juan Antonio Barcelo: Formal Typology of Iberian Ceramic Vesels by Morphometric Analysis 33: Noémi Suzanne Müller: Mechanical and Thermal Properties 34: Hans Barnard & Jelmer W. Eerkens: Assessing Vessel Function by Organic Residue Analysis Dating Ceramic Assemblages 35: Eugenio Bortolini: Typology and Classification 36: Sophie Blain & Christopher Hall: Direct Dating Methods
Alice M. W. Hunt is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia. Her PhD in Archaeological Materials Analysis (2012, UCL Institute of Archaeology) developed cathodoluminescence spectrometry of quartz as a method for differentiating raw material sources in fine-grained ceramics. Currently, her research focuses on developing analytical calibrations and protocols for bulk chemical characterization of cultural materials (ceramics, anthropogenic sediments, copper alloys, and obsidian) by portable XRF. Recent publications include 'Portable XRF analysis of archaeological sediments and ceramics' (Journal of Archaeological Science, 2015) and a forthcoming monograph Palace Ware across the Neo-Assyrian Imperial Landscape: Social Value and Semiotic Meaning (E.J. Brill, Leiden).
Reviews for The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Ceramic Analysis
The book is highly theoretical and written in a style to match. Nevertheless, the possibilities for ceramic studies have never been more exciting, and the volume will encourage those with pottery and those with the means to analyse it to seek collaborative projects. * Edward Biddulph, Current Archaeology *
