"Provenience analysis of pottery: the Indian Ocean Trade in Antiquity", Daniele Zampierin, M.A. (BerGSAS, FU Berlin)
Abstract: The archaeological sites of Sumhuram (3rd -2nd century BC until the early 5th century AD) and Inqitat (1st millennium BC until the 1st -2nd century AD), are involved in one of the most important examples of large-scale trade network in the antiquity: the maritime trade network connecting the coasts of the Indian Ocean. The attention of this work is focused on the material characterization of both local and Indian pottery from both sites. A multi-analytical complementary approach was carried out in order to characterize the ceramics and validate the provenance identification resulting from the typological approach. The results obtained identify 8 different fabric-compositional groups with very distinct geological signatures highlighting the enormous variability in the origin of raw materials indicating the participation of several areas of the Indian subcontinent in the Indian Ocean trade network.
Discussion starters: - What are the limits and the potential of archaeometric approaches?
- How is it best possible way to combine archaeological data and archaeometry?
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