Archaeometrical Investigation of Early Neolithic Ceramics from Podgoria

Erinda Ndreçka
University of Tirana, Faculty of History and Philology, Department of Archaeology and Culture Heritage, Tirana, Albania

Abstract

The study of the composition of the materials which the products of human activity were made of, the testing of hypotheses about the origin of objects or the detailed study of the technological skills of past communities, undoubtedly constitute a necessary extension of the study of human behavior and social organization in prehistoric and historical periods What characterizes the culture of the settlement of Podgoria as representative of the Early Neolithic period in Albania and at the same time determines its internal cultural development is undoubtedly ceramics. The main characteristic of this culture is the high quality of the workmanship of its ceramics and the predominance of ceramics with fine and medium textures against those with coarse textures. Using a series of archaeometric methods such as EDXRF, micro-XRF, XRD and Optical Microscopy (OM) it is intended to shed light on the elemental and structural characterization of ceramic samples from this site. This paper presents the results obtained from the analysis of the fabrication texture, inclusions, decorative materials and elemental compositions of the ceramic samples belonging to the Podgoria site. Keywords: Neolithic ceramics, EDXRF, micro-XRF, XRD, optical microscopy

Presentation