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How Was Neolithic Pottery Fired? An Exploration of the Effects of Firing Dynamics on Ceramic Products

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Abstract

The presented study is focused on the development of a new methodology for estimating the heating rate during firing as one of the principal characteristics of the firing process. We experimentally determined the limits of the heating dynamics (heating rate, cooling rate and soaking time) of the firing processes for two basic alternatives for pottery firing considered for the Early Neolithic in Central Europe—bonfires and single-chamber kilns—and analysed the thermal gradient within the walls of the fired pottery as the effect of these heating dynamics. Mineralogical transformations caused by the firing procedures were estimated by X-ray diffraction in order to apply the results of the experimental measurements in a study of archaeological ceramics. The difference between the maximum temperatures on the outer surfaces and in the cores of the vessel walls at the places where the pottery is exposed to the fastest heating and cooling rates appears to be a usable basis for distinguishing between the tested firing structures. XRD analysis has demonstrated that temperature differences measured and modelled experimentally can be traced to the products of these processes with sufficient reliability. The results of the experimental study were applied in the interpretation of the firing process employed in the manufacture of Early Neolithic pottery obtained from the Linear Pottery culture settlement in Bylany (Czech Republic).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their inspiring comments which helped to improve the manuscript.

Funding

The research described in this paper was accomplished with support from the project ‘Variability of Neolithic pottery technology as a marker of social identity’ (Project 14-07062S), financed by the Czech Science Foundation, and by internal program of Institute of Geology, CAS in Prague RVO 67985831.

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  1. Department of Archaeology, Philosophical Faculty, University of Hradec Králové, Rokitanského 62, 50003, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

    Richard Thér

  2. Institute of Geology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    Anna Kallistová & Lenka Lisá

  3. Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Zbyněk Svoboda

  4. Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    Petr Květina & Pavel Burgert

  5. Department of Geology and Pedology, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

    Aleš Bajer

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Thér, R., Kallistová, A., Svoboda, Z. et al. How Was Neolithic Pottery Fired? An Exploration of the Effects of Firing Dynamics on Ceramic Products. J Archaeol Method Theory 26, 1143–1175 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-018-9407-x

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