Analysis of Elemental Composition, Fabrication Texture and Inclusions in Pottery Samples from Vashtemia, Site of the Early Neolithic Period in Albania.

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

Abstract

A necessary expansion of the study on human behaviour and social organization in prehistoric periods leads us to study in more detail the elemental composition of the materials the products of human activity, such as ceramics, were made of. It takes the main place in the production of this period and its analysis helps us to know more about the advancement of production technologies and shed light on the origin of clay sources. From the Vashtemia site, a number of samples have been selected for analysis, by means of different techniques, in order to identify the raw materials used for the production of ceramic vessels, the technique of surface processing, the style of decoration and also to understand the construction of the furnaces used for clay firing, starting from the characterization of the mineral phases of the ceramics that we studied. Keywords: Vashtemia, prehistoric periods, ceramics, raw materials, spectrometry analysis.

Presentation