Thin section petrography, geochemistry, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction are key scientific methods used to investigate the raw materials, origins and production technology of archaeological pottery, ceramic building materials, ancient refractories and plaster. Using over 400 colour figures of a diverse range of artefact types and archaeological periods from 50 countries worldwide, this book outlines the mineralogical, chemical and microstructural composition of ancient ceramics and provides comprehensive guidelines for their scientific study within archaeology. The core of the book is dedicated to the versatile approach of ceramic petrography. This is complimented by a detailed account of the principles of bulk instrumental geochemistry, as well as the SEM microanalysis and XRD characterisation of ceramics. The book is intended as a reference manual for research as well as a course text for specialist training on scientific ceramic analysis.

Using over 400 colour figures of a diverse range of artefact types and archaeological periods from 50 countries worldwide, this book outlines the mineralogical, chemical and microstructural composition of ancient ceramics and provides comprehensive guidelines for their scientific study within archaeology.

Thin section ceramic petrography is a versatile interdisciplinary analytical tool for the characterization and interpretation of archaeological pottery. Using over 200 photomicrographs of thin sections from a diverse range of artefacts, time periods and geographic regions, this provides comprehensive guidelines for their study within archaeology.

Lynn Rainville's revised thesis uses micro-debris analyis' to investigate aspects of domestic life in three Early Bronze Age sites, two urban and one rural, in southeastern Turkey.

D.R. Brothwell and A.M. Pollard have got together to create the first large scale review of the many sciences which contribute to modern archaeology for over 30 years. The Handbook of Archaeological Sciences is intended to bring together a substantial overview of the sciences in archaeology in one complete volume. The book is organised under eight broad headings: dating, quaternary palaeoenvironments, human palaeobiology, developments in biomolecular archaeology, resource exploitation, archaeological prospection, conservation science in the archaeological context and statistical and computer applications. The contributors, who are all well-known in their own areas of expertise, bring together in each chapter the basic science and the relevance of this science to the overall goal of archaeology - understanding humans in the past. This book is an invaluable source of reference for those interested in archaeology, anthropology, quaternary studies, geography, palaeoecology, computing, biology, chemistry and physics, those involved in commercial and local authority field archaeology units, museums and archaeological organisations.

As part of the INSTAP Archaeological Excavation Manual series, Thin-Section Petrography of Ceramic Materials provides a concise overview of the history and application of the practice while detailing how this type of petrographic analysis can benefit archaeologists in the field. When thin-section analysis is employed as part of a thorough, multi-disciplinary study of ceramic materials, it provides a wealth of additional interpretative data to archaeologists, allowing for more accurate interpretations of the past, especially regarding pottery production, provenance, variations in technology over time and space, exchange networks on local and non-local scales, and even social issues such as choices of both manufacturers and consumers and traditions of manufacture.

A comprehensive manual of thin-sections of cultural stone and ceramic objects.

This volume presents a range of petrographic case studies as applied to archaeological problems, primarily in the field of pottery analysis, i.e. ceramic petrography. Petrographic analysis involves using polarising optical microscopy to examine microstructures and the compositions of rock and mineral inclusions in thin section, and has become a widely used technique within archaeological science. The results of these analyses are commonly embedded in regionally specific reports and research papers. In this volume, however, the analytical method takes centre stage and the common theme is its application in different archaeological contexts. Contents: 1) Henry Clifton Sorby (1826-1908) and the development of thin section petrography in Sheffield (Noel Worley); 2) The provenance potential of igneous glacial erratics in Anglo-Saxon ceramics from northern England (Rob Ixer & Alan Vince); 3) Technological insights into bell-beakers: a case study from the Mondego Plateau, Portugal (Ana Jorge); 4) Indigenous tableware production during the archaic period in western Sicily: new results from petrographic analysis (Giuseppe Montana, Anna Maria Polito & Ioannis Iliopoulos); 5) Petrographic & microstratigraphic analysis of mortar-based building materials from the temple of Venus, Pompeii (Rebecca Piovesan, Emmanuele Curti, Celestino Grifa, Lara Maritan & Claudio Mazzoli; 6) Provenance & production technology of Early Bronze Age pottery from a lake-dwelling settlement at Arqua Petrarca, Padova, Italy (Lara Maritan, Claudio Mazzoli, Marta Tenconi, Giovanni Leonardi & Stefano Boaro); 7) Ceramic technology & social process in late neolithic Hungary (Attila Kreiter, Gyorgy Szakmany & Miklos Kazmer; 8) Early pottery technology & the formation of a technological tradition: the case of Theopetra Cave, Thessaly, Greece (Areti Pentedeka & Anastasia Dimoula); 9) Fine-grained Middle Bronze Age polychrome ware from Crete: combining petrographic & microstructural analysis (Edward W. Faber, Peter M. Day & Vassilis Kilikoglou; 10) Pottery technology and regional exchange in Early Iron Age Crete (Marie-Claude Boileau, Anna Lucia d'Agata & James Whitley; 11) The movement of Middle Bronze Age transport jars a provenance study based on petrographic and chemical analysis of Canaanite jars from Memphis, Egypt (Mary Ownby & Janine Bourriau); 12) Petrographic analysis of EB iii ceramics from Tall al-'Umayri, Jordan: a re-evaluation of levels of production (Stanley Klassen); 13) Comparison of volcaniclastic-tempered Inca imperial ceramics from Paria, Bolivia with potential sources (Veronika Szilagyi & Gyorgy Szakmany); 14) Multi-village specialized craft production & the distribution of Hokoham sedentary period pottery, Tuscon, Arizona (James M. Heidke); 15) A preliminary evaluation of the Verde confederacy model: testing expectations of pottery exchange in the central Arizona highlands (Sophia E. Kelly, David R. Abbott, Gordon Moore, Christopher Watkins & Caitlin Wichlacz); 16) Ceramic petrography & the reconstruction of hunter-gatherer craft technology in Late Prehistoric Southern California (Patrick Quinn & Margie Burton). [See above also for Ceramic Petrography: The Interpretation of Archaeological Pottery & Related Artefacts in Thin Section by Patrick Sean Quinn. ISBN 9781905739592.]

The focus of attention in ceramic research is increasingly turning away from duplicative amassing and reporting of material and towards synthetic work. This handbook sets out information which might be sought by ceramic analysis, and gives broad outlines of the different methods of analysis.