Ceramics (pottery, terracottas, tiles, beads, molds etc.) often are the single most common class of artifact preserved on archaeological sites. Ceramics also frequently occur in museum collections (the Hearst Museum of Anthropology on campus, for example, has over 10,000 pots in its Egyptian collection alone). Ceramic analysis provides important insights into a wide range of historical and anthropological concerns, including ancient chronologies and technologies, trade and exchange and production and consumption patterns, population movements and affiliations, expressions of social identities, and ritual practices. In short, ceramics, and above all pottery, are a critical and primary source of raw and interpretive data for archaeologists, anthropologists and historians.
Studying, analyzing and publishing ceramics, especially pottery (whole or broken), typically incporates different levels and types of descriptive, analytical and visual recording, study and processing, ranging from the microscopic to the macroscopic and from the simply descriptive (e.g., color, shape, form) to the highly technical (e.g, instrumental neutron activation or mass spectrometry analysis). It also includes reconstructing numerous shapes and forms (and calculating volumetrics as well as the general recording and processing of typically enormous numbers of samples.
True data sharing across time, space and academic fields Traditional publication of ceramic data Even though its fundamental importance, pottery continues to be studied with uneven methodologies and described with subjective and non-standardized terminology. Also, pottery is still published in a traditional manner. Paper journals, reports, monographs, all share the same characteristics of the visual documentation: low resolution, black and white pictures, non-standardized drawings. This heterogeneity of methods and formats, and the lack of accuracy in the “graphic apparatus” of pottery publications, prevent true data sharing. Research to be meaningful has to be shared, and the work of archaeologists would be faster and more efficient if would fully exploit the potential of web.
Integration of digital technologies with ceramic research and publishing would seem to be an obvious choice.
We plan to meet twice a month while classes are in session on Thursdays from 4-5 in 254 Barrows Hall (the Near Eastern Studies Department Lounge). We will focus on the following overarching issues using lectures, general discussions, round-table-discussions, electronic discussions and demonstrations: 1) best/good practices for pottery studies in general and methods for collection of digital data in particular; 2) best/good practices for standardizing and disseminating pottery data on the web; and 3) how to construct functional and collaborative on-line resources for pottery studies. The working group also will create a website and a blog for on-going discussion and experimentation between meetings.
Specific topics to be addressed include:
On-site and Museum Data Collection
1) methods for morphological analysis and description;
2) study of the archaeological contexts and description;
3) how to create an accurate graphic and photographic documentation;
Lab analysis, data processing, and archaeological interpretation
4) fabrics characterization analysis and existing reference systems
5) elaboration of digital archives for pottery collections;
6) statistical data processing to investigate frequency and distribution of pottery types;
7) definition of the chronology of the ceramic types based on statistics;
8) definition of chronological components of an archaeological site based on the ceramic evidence;
Standardization of digital data and digital archives
9) international standards for archaeology and heritage documentation (Dublin Core and CIDOC-CRM)
10) creation of thesauri of technical terms;
11) how to build a Digital Catalog;
12) verification and validation of the model
Going on the Web
13) principles to create a shared and collaborative web resource for pottery studies
14) blogging about pottery
15) exploring the possibilities of the WebGIS to access data on pottery
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