Prehistoric Pottery

In base ai materiali raccolti sulla superficie dei campi dagli appassionati scopritori dell’insediamento preistorico e a quelli emersi nel corso degli scavi, l’area di Meduno sembra essere stata frequentata quasi esclusivamente in un periodo compreso tra l’Eneolitico e il Bronzo Antico. Ciò vale non solo per le fosse e i pozzetti indagati nella parte meridionale del terrazzo fluviale, ma anche per il terrapieno difensivo che si sviluppa a nord di queste strutture per circa 115 m di lunghezza e 6-7 m di larghezza. Le datazioni al radiocarbonio disponibili per l’abitato si collocano tra IV e III millennio a.C. La particolare configurazione di questo insediamento è conosciuta in Europa occidentale e centrale con il nome di “éperon barré” o “sperone sbarrato”, con una funzione che nel caso di Meduno può essere di rifugio legato all’esistenza di una situazione generalizzata di insicurezza o piuttosto di controllo del territorio o di una via di passaggio. La produzione ceramica consente di fare alcune considerazioni dal punto di vista culturale, valutazioni che rafforzano l’ipotesi di molti autori secondo cui i repertori ceramici eneolitici della regione Friuli Venezia Giulia troverebbero poche correlazioni con i contesti delle altre regioni dell’Italia settentrionale e maggiori affinità con quelli orientali. Vengono inoltre presentati i dati paleoeconomici e paleoambientali.
According to the archaeological materials recovered in the site during the survey and excavations, the prehistoric settlement of Meduno-Sach di Sotto seems to have been inhabited almost exclusively between the Copper Age and Early Bronze Age. This is valid not only for pits which were excavated in the southern part of the fluvial terrace, but also for the defensive earthwork that lies northernmost for about 115 m of length and 6-7 m of width. The available radiocarbon dates from the site and the earthwork are distributed from the 4th to the 3rd millennium BC cal. The particular typology of this archaeological site, which is known in western and central Europe with the name of “éperon barré”, has the possible role in its territory as a shelter tied to the existence of generalised situation of insecurity or rather as a control of the territory. The pottery production allows some considerations with the cultural point of view to be made, evaluations that reinforce the hypothesis of some scholars according to which the Copper Age pottery of Friuli Venezia Giulia region would find few correlations with the ones of the other region of Northern Italy and greater affinities with the eastern regions. Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoeconomic data are also presented.

ArcheoLogica Data offers researchers and professionals the opportunity to publish Open Access and peer-reviewed articles free of charge, as required by the European community and desired by the ANVUR national directives. POTTERY AND BEYOND: Pottery is commonly considered as an index fossil for archaeological research. Its study requires an interdisciplinary approach to the reconstruction of operational sequences, productions, trade networks, as well as the usage of pottery and the identity of its users. The unravelling of questions related to the production and circulation of ceramics requires a holistic perspective, beyond geographic and chronological boundaries. The advent of digital tools has remodelled traditional approaches to the study of ceramics-and not just quantification methods-. Databases, artificial intelligence, and regressive models allow new analyzes, interpretations and syntheses.

A B S T R A C T This contribution discusses the results of an integrated approach of use wear analysis, spectroscopic analysis and experimental archaeology, applied for the investigation of the actual use of selected ceramic vessels, taken from domestic Copper Age contexts in the modern Rome area. This study is based upon the consideration of a vessel as a tool, used during everyday life and thus reflecting human activities and social behaviours. To this end, the paper here presented proposes an interpretation of the actual use activities which led to the modification of prehistoric vessels. The methodology of this study integrates the traditional approach to ceramic use wear studies, based on experimental and ethnoarchaeological studies, with principles of tribology, along with the application of a dedicated experimental framework which enabled the development of a detailed collection of comparative use wear. Moreover, the application of spec-troscopic analysis provided preliminary data related to the charred encrustations found inside the archaeological specimens. These data, when combined with use wear, palaeobotanical remains and archaeological preserved structures, aided interpretation of the archaeological ceramic vessels as cooking pots.

Schnurartige Verzierungen erscheinen auf Tongefäßen unterschiedlicher Zeitstellung. Während zur Herstellung dieser Verzierungen in einigen Fällen in der Tat Schnüre verwendet wurden, entstanden sie in anderen Fällen durch das Eindrücken oder Abrollen von Metallgegenständen. In dieser kleinen Studie werden sowohl die Zierweisen der endneolithischen Schnurkeramik-Kultur als auch jene der Urnenfelderzeit untersucht. Experimentelle Archäologie gibt weitere Aufschlüsse zur Herstellungstechnik der Verzierungen.

The introduction of farming had far-reaching impacts on health, social structure and demography. Although the spread of domesticated plants and animals has been extensively tracked, it is unclear how these nascent economies developed within different environmental
and cultural settings. Using molecular and isotopic analysis of lipids from pottery, here we investigate the foods prepared by the earliest farming communities of the European Atlantic seaboard. Surprisingly, we find an absence of aquatic foods, including in ceramics from
coastal sites, except in the Western Baltic where this tradition continued from indigenous ceramic using hunter-gatherer-fishers. The frequency of dairy products in pottery increased as farming was progressively introduced along a northerly latitudinal gradient. This finding
implies that early farming communities needed time to adapt their economic practices before expanding into more northerly areas. Latitudinal differences in the scale of dairy production might also have influenced the evolution of adult lactase persistence across Europe.