Ceramology

Description

Presentation: This course addresses ceramic industries of ancient societies through a systemic approach. Focused on hand-built pottery, this module aims to understand this material and what information it can provide, not only about the techniques used to produce it but also about the societies that produced and/or used it. Archaeological and ethnographic data will be used. The module is taught by three ceramic archaeologists from the CEPAM laboratory and is based on various study contexts from the Near East, Europe, and Saharan and Sahelian Africa. Course coordinators: Gilles Durrenmath, Olivier Langlois, Giulio Palumbi. In-person: 12 hours of lectures, 12 hours of tutorials. Prerequisites: Before the course, I must have basic knowledge in Prehistory and Protohistory. Watch the video "The professions of archaeology: ceramologist" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvBBoAMaIiA. Objectives: By the end of this course, I should be able to describe the steps of the pottery operational chain; propose qualitative and quantitative analytical methods to characterize both raw materials and shaping techniques of archaeological pottery; argue about the links between the emergence and refinement of ceramic techno-complexes and the evolution of socio-cultural contexts since the Neolithic. Content: Ceramic operational chain: After a...