Temporal patterns in ceramic production in the Berbati valley, Greece

This research explores temporal patterns in the procurement of raw materials for ceramic production, based mainly on material recovered in regional survey. The underlying premise is that potters indifferent cultural phases will preferentially exploit the same geological landscape for the most suitable raw materials, but different materials may be preferred depending upon the potters' technological traditions. A program of petrographic and chemical analyses was carried out on ceramics from the Berbati-Limnes Archaeological Survey, Argolid, Greece. Ceramic fabrics from several cultural phases were studied and compared with patterns of settlement within the valley. The results show that ceramics from regional surveys can be used to identitify broad patterns of change in exploitation of the same landscape. In some cases these patterns correlate with changes in settlement and may indicate that different choices in raw material procurement mark the arrival of potters from outside the valley.