Insights into the Production Technology of the Late Bronze Age Pottery Identified at Topolița (Neamț County)
Insights into the Production Technology of the Late Bronze Age Pottery Identified at Topolița (Neamț County)

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to identify the technological features of the Late Bronze Age ceramic assemblage discovered at Topolița (Neamț County). The archaeological site is located in the Subcarpathian area of the eastern Romania and was assigned based on the typological features of the ceramic artefacts to the Noua culture (second half of the 16th century to the 12th century BC). The dataset investigated in this study consists in 30 samples, selected to represent the stylistic and functional variability detected at the site. For assessing the various stages of the chaîne opératoire (raw materials selection, paste preparation, manufacturing procedures, surface finishing and firing conditions), the pottery samples were studied by means of an integrated analytical approach combining macroscopic observation with petrographical and mineralogical investigations performed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD). This study revealed various aspects of the pottery production and emphasized a rather conservative behaviour in terms of raw materials selection combined with a significant degree of variability in the processing and finishing sequences. Besides, the technological analysis of the ceramic assemblage discovered at Topolița in terms of chaîne opératoire provided qualitative data to reconstruct technological features that corresponds to networks of socially linked object-makers.

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