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2023
Journal article
Preliminary investigation of the chaîne opératoire of Meroitic potsherds from the cemetery of Faras, northern Nubia (Sudan)
Handmade, black-burnished pottery had a significant presence in Meroitic contexts across Sudan, from Jebel Moya in central Sudan to Seyala in Lower Nubia, suggesting the production and exchange of handmade vessels was a key industry in the Meroitic kingdom. The macroscopic identification of examples with no discernible organic temper, in...Kilroe, Loretta ; Spataro, Michela
Meroitic ceramics, polarised light microscopy, and chaîne opératoire
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2023
Journal article
An exploration of potential raw materials for prehistoric pottery production in the Tao River Valley, Gansu Province, China
Northwest China is known for its Majiayao‐style Neolithic painted pottery which has received much praise for its high level of craftsmanship, yet its chain of production, in particular the step of raw material selection, is still poorly understood. To fill this lacuna, the present study explores the raw materials used...Dammer, Evgenia ; Hein, Anke ; Spataro, Michela
Northwest China, petrographic analysis, ceramic technology, and Majiayao style
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2023
Journal article
A technological study of Assyrian clay tablets from Nineveh, Tell Halaf and Nimrud: a pilot case study
Ancient Middle Eastern clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing have traditionally been studied more as textual documents than as archaeological objects per se. In contrast to previous analytical studies which, with few exceptions, focused on provenance and palaeo-environmental reconstruction, the current study aims to describe the tablet makers’ technological choices,...Spataro, Michela ; Taylor, Jonathan ; O’Flynn, Daniel
cuneiform tablets, optical microscopy, SEM-EDX, and x-ray CT
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2022
Journal article
Early Islamic torpedo jars from Siraf: scientific analyses of the clay fabric and source of Indian Ocean transport containers
This paper concerns Sasanian to Early Islamic period transport containers, usually lined with bitumen, known as Torpedo jars. Widely distributed throughout the western Indian Ocean, with outliers as far west as Egypt and to the east in Indonesia, they are an important marker of maritime exchange. Their area of production...Tomber, Roberta ; Spataro, Michela ; Priestman, Seth
Torpedo jar; Siraf (Iran); scientific analyses; bitumen; Early Islamic
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2020
Journal article
Archaeology at ras Muari: Sonari, a Bronze Age fisher-gatherers settlement at the Hab River mouth (Karachi, Pakistan).
This paper describes the results of the surveys carried out along Ras Muari (Cape Monze, Karachi, Sindh) by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Lower Sindh and Las Bela in 2013 and 2014. The surveyed area coincides with part of the mythical land of the Ichthyophagoi, mentioned by the classical chroniclers.... -
2019
Journal article
The chaîne opératoire of 6th millennium BC pottery making in the Maritsa Valley, Bulgaria: ceramics from Nova Nadezhda
40 potsherds and five other fired clay fragments from the prehistoric site of Nova Nadezhda in Bulgarian Thrace were analysed by archaeometric techniques. Twenty sherds and a daub fragment were analysed in thin section by optical microscopy; these thin sections, and thick sections of a further 24 sherds were also... -
2019
Journal article
Making pottery in the Nile Delta: ceramic provenance and technology at Naukratis, 6th–3rd centuries BC
The interdisciplinary study of Egyptian- and Greek-style pottery found in the Nile Delta aims to test and expand the potential of different scientific methods to identify regional variation and cultural traditions in ceramic fabrics from a relatively uniform geological setting. Neutron activation analysis (NAA), polarised light microscopy and SEM-EDX analyses...Spataro, Michela ; Mommsen, Hans ; Villing, Alexandra
SEM-EDX, Polarised microscopy, NAA, Egyptian pottery, and chaîne opératoire