MEETINGS 2010
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
- Tampa (Florida – USA), 10-14 May 2010:
V. Renson, J. Coenaerts, C. Sauvage, N. Mattielli, F. Vanhaecke, C. Lorre, M. Rautman, K. Nys & P. Claeys, “Lead Isotope Analyses on White Slip II Sherds from Late Bronze Age Sites in Cyprus (Hala Sultan Tekke, Sanidha) and in Syria (Ugarit) and Assessing Potential Raw Materials” – 38th International Symposium on Archaeometry (ISA 2010), University of South Florida. Poster Presentation.
- Paphos (Cyprus), 1 May 2010:
V. Renson, J. Coenaerts, C. Sauvage, N. Mattielli, F. Vanhaecke, C. Lorre, M. Rautman, K. Nys & P. Claeys, “Lead Isotope Analyses on White Slip II Sherds from Late Bronze Age Sites in Cyprus (Hala Sultan Tekke, Sanidha) and in Syria (Ugarit) and Assessing Potential Raw Materials” – International Congress on Archaeological Sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East (ICASEMNE), The Cyprus Institute, STARC. Podium Presentation.
- Paphos (Cyprus), 30 April 2010:
M. Samaes, A. Felicetti, S. Hermon, F. Niccolucci & K. Nys, “Towards a Digital Hala Sultan Tekke: Building a Semantic Database of Full-Text Excavation Records” – International Congress on Archaeological Sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East (ICASEMNE), The Cyprus Institute, STARC. Podium Presentation.
- Granada (Spain), 9 April 2010:
F. Niccolucci, A. Felicetti, M. Samaes, S. Hermon & K. Nys, “Ontologies and Semantic Tools for the Management of Full-Text Archaeological Documentation. Assessments from the Hala Sultan Tekke Case-Study” – Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA 2010), University of Granada. Podium Presentation.
- Ghent (Belgium), 25 March 2010:
J. Coenaerts, M. Samaes, V. Renson & A. Jacobs, “Ongoing Research at the Mediterranean Archaeological Research Institute” – Interuniversitary Symposium, UGent, KULeuven, VUB. Podium Presentation.
MEETINGS 2009
19 February 2009
Ceramic Petrology Group Reports,
University College London, Institute of Archaeology
Ariane Jacobs and Barbara Borgers, Towards a better understanding of ceramic variability: macro-analysis versus micro-analysis and micro-analysis versus macro-analysis.
Abstract:
Since 2005, ceramic material from the Late Bronze Age site of Alassa-Pano Mandilaris (Cyprus) has been the subject of a detailed examination. The site was excavated as part of a rescue excavation by the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus from 1983-1986 (Dr. S. Hadjisavvas). Remains of a settlement were found with a small square and a street with a number of houses (Hadjisavvas 1989: 33). Different contexts can be identified within the settlement (rooms, pits, courts, wells, tombs, cultic areas) which allow to make correlations between ceramic assemblages and contexts. The material under study represents the bulk of ceramic material deriving from those different contexts. The central aim of this study is to examine the ceramic material from Alassa-Pano Mandilaris in order to provide more information about the nature and the scale of this site and the impact of the ceramic distribution on local, regional and inter-regional level. This examination will be viewed in three variation levels: ceramic variability, intrasite variability and intersite variability. This examination will provide a model of social organisation in the Kouris valley whereby pottery production, distribution and consumption will be considered.
Ceramic variability is studied with a focus on Plain Ware ceramics as they are the largest group of ceramics uncovered on the site. Unfortunately, our knowledge on them is limited because Plain Wares are often neglected as they do not belong to the fine and decorated wares. At Alassa-Pano Mandilaris there is an enormous variation in the fabrics used on site. A first distinction can already be made macroscopically as the variables are explicit: inclusions, colour and firing core, hardness, texture and porosity. The aim to study the fabrics and their preparation in more detail is to provide answers on the selection of certain clays or a particular technology (preparation, levigation, mixing of different clays). Generally, a typo-chronological grouping is based on the study of complete vessels. Unfortunately, when one is dealing with material from settlements, the material is in fragmentary state and measurement variables are not of great help. Therefore, a technological approach is favoured instead of a more traditional morphological classification that very often provides long lists with all possible variations on one shape. In these classifications measurement variables are considered as most important and the fabric is only described in a general way. As the material under study is very fragmentary a technological approach imposes itself. Petrographic analysis (Barbara Borgers – Vrije Universiteit Brussel/University of Sheffield) from 20 samples has confirmed that the potters at/near Alassa used a wide variety of fabrics. The combination of the study of the analysis of potsherds in hand specimen (Ariane Jacobs) and thin section petrography (Barbara Borgers) provided many answers on production techniques used at Alassa. Both studies have resulted in a classification of fabrics in order to understand ceramic variability. In this paper we will consider the results from both methodologies and try to compare, understand and interpret these results to come to a better understanding of ceramic variability and extrapolate these results on a larger scale.
Page Under construction
Ancient Meeting on European Ceramics. Abstract and Presentation, UCL 10-13 September:
V. Renson, J. Coenaerts, K. Nys, N. Mattielli, F. Vanhaeke, P. Claeys. Identifying Potential Sources of Late Bronze Age pottery from Cyprus using Lead Isotopic Analysis. Ancient Meeting on European Ceramics. Abstract and Presentation. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/EMAC09
Virginie RENSON (1) , Jan COENAERTS (2), Karin NYS (2), Nadine MATTIELLI (3), Frank VANHAECKE (4) and Philippe CLAEYS (1)
(1) Department of Geology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, vrenson@vub.ac.be; (2) Department of Art Sciences and Archeology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium; (3) Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, (4) Department of Analytical Chemistry, Krijgslaan 281 S12, 9000 Gent, Belgium
This provenance study, which is part of a larger multidisciplinary project pertaining to the study of man and paleoenvironments at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, uses lead isotopes as a tracer of sources of raw material used in pottery production. Lead isotopes commonly trace the provenance of metal artifacts or lead-rich materials, but so far, they have not been applied to the analysis of the raw material used for pottery production.
A selection of eighty sherds from the most common pottery wares (Canaanite, Coarse, Base Ring, Black Slip, Bucchero, Plain White Wheel-made, Red Lustrous Wheel-made, White Painted, White Slip) from the Late Bronze Age site of Hala Sultan Tekke in southeast Cyprus were analyzed and compared to thirty potential clays sources collected in the surroundings of this site. The samples were selected based on their lithology: Quaternary clayey sediments, Pliocene, Miocene and Palaeogene marls, and clayey weathering products from the ophiolithic complex. Lead isotopes were measured using MC-ICP-MS. In addition to the isotopic analysis, elemental geochemistry and mineralogical analyses were carried out on a selection of sherds and sediments.
A preliminary set of results on a limited number of sherds from the Late Bronze Age site of Hala Sultan Tekke and clays demonstrated the effectiveness of lead isotopes for tracing pottery provenance and the use of local sources for pottery production (Renson et al. 2007). The scope of the provenance research was then enlarged and supplementary sherds and clays from other Late Bronze Age sites in Cyprus were analysed (e.g., at Sanidha). Current results focus on the lead isotopic composition of the local pottery production at Hala Sultan Tekke and its comparison with the composition of the potential clay sources collected in the vicinity. Furthermore, White Slip (WS) sherds were analysed to test the hypothesis of their possible provenance. This pottery ware, which is found all over the Mediterranean, is considered to come mainly from Sanidha (south Cyprus) and may also be locally produced at Hala Sultan Tekke (Hatcher 2002). Therefore, the composition of 31 WS sherds from Hala Sultan Tekke have been compared to the composition of 22 WS sherds from Sanidha and to the composition of the potential clay sources collected in the surroundings of both Hala Sulan Tekke and Sanidha (c.15-20 km).
Renson et al., 2007. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, 45:12, 53-62.
Hatcher H., 2002. British Archaeological Reports International Series, 1040, 161-168.
Giornate di Studio Antichità cipriote: la valle del fiume Kouris e altre ricerche.
Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità “G. Pasquali”
Dottorato di Ricerca in Storia e Civiltà del Mondo Antico
Ariane Jacobs, Pottery production and distribution at the Late Bronze Age site of Alassa.
Postgraduate in Cypriot Archaeology 2009
University of Oxford, Ioannou Centre for Research in Classical and Byzantine Studies
Ariane Jacobs and Barbara Borgers (?), Pottery production and consumption and the Late Bronze Age site of Alassa Pano-Mandilaris.
Abstract:
This paper deals with the research on raw materials and production technologies of different pottery wares at Alassa, such as coarse-ware cooking pots, Black Slip wheel made, White Painted Wheel-made III, Base-ring and White Slip, by using ceramic petrography. The data will be compared to those from previously carried out research on Plain Wares, which forms the bulk of the ceramics at the site of Alassa.
In doing so, we would like to explore which production system was (or were) in operation at the important site of Alassa; household production, household industry or workshop industry. In order to understand the production, our typo-chronology is based on a functional grouping of the ceramic wares, since the function generates the demand (or production) and consumption of that object.
By understanding the pottery production technologies at the site of Alassa, we hope to shed light on the socio-economic organisation at the site of Alassa. In the next stage of this project, we will compare these results with the ceramic assemblage of another site, namely Episkopi Bamboula, in order to understand the (in)dependence of both sites in the Kouris Valley.