Scientific Methods and Applications to Archaeological Provenance Studies of Pottery from Podgoria, 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

In this paper, we will summarize the results obtained from the examinations carried out on the ceramic dough from the Podgoria settlement, an Early Neolithic site in the Albanian territory, and we will try to point out the similarities and differences between them. The study of the composition of the materials these clay products were made of as part of human activity will help us understand more about the technological abilities of the communities, their behavior, social organization and on the other hand the testing of different hypotheses regarding the origin of the objects and their dating in historical periods. In the ceramics of the entire area of the south-east of Albania, what is to be distinguished is the high quality of the ceramic work and the predominance of ceramics with fine and medium textures against those with coarse textures. In this study, by applying some archaeometric methods such as Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF), micro-X-ray Fluorescence, X-Ray diffraction and Optical Microscopy (OM), we will aim to characterize the elemental composition and structure of ceramic samples selected from the site of Podgoria. Keywords: Early Neolithic peroid, ceramics, archaeometric methods, elemental composition

Presentation