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Analytical ceramic studies offer the opportunity to determine cultural development and change on the basis of origin and use of raw materials. In this particular study, an archaeometric approach on ceramics in central Pisidia contributes to the discussion of contact and exchange between indigenous communities and several cultural spheres of influence on a long-term timescale (eighth to second centuries BCE). Morphological data as well as mineralogical (optical microscopy; n = 273) and chemical composition (by ICP-OES/MS; n = 122) of ceramics and raw materials show distinct resource zones for the production and distribution of ceramics in this connecting region of Anatolia. The use of trace element profiles (REE, HFSE, LILE and TTE) in particular is regarded as instrumental in detailing high-resolution provenancing of ceramics. The ceramic provenance indicates different patterns of material interactions during the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods. A significant increase in regional interaction occurs coinciding with the development of pottery activities at Sagalassos.

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Portable XRF was used to analyse the chemical composition of 52 indigenous Cayo ceramics from excavations and from private collections on Grenada, Lesser Antilles. Initially, a comparative baseline of data representing three different islands (Grenada, St Vincent and Trinidad) was created by analysing with pXRF ceramic material that had previously been analysed both chemically and petrographically. The field data, when compared to the laboratory baseline data, indicated that the majority of the ceramics were made with clay local to Grenada. Four samples were potentially made with clay from another, as yet unidentified, source.

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The practice of re-melting glass was well known, certainly from the Roman period onwards. This can be seen not only in ancient literary evidence but also in the archaeological evidence, collections of broken glass have been found in, for example, Pompeii (79AD) and the Iulia Felix shipwreck (3 rd century AD). Elevated levels of certain transition metals in archaeological glasses are interpreted as indications of the mixing and/or recycling of different glasses. Assumptions have been made that all glasses could be recycled, but to what extent are these valid? Why does the evidence for the recycling of glass only occur from the Roman period onwards? From the middle of the 1 st millennium BC to the 9 th century AD, natron glass was the predominant glass type in the Mediterranean and Europe, however, plant ash glass was still in use in some areas. To test the effects on the final product of mixing different composition glass types, experimental glasses were made by mixing varying quantities of replica plant ash glass, replica natron glass, and a modern glass. At low temperatures crystalline material formed in the products containing replica plant ash glass. As the plant ash glass content increased, so too did the amount of crystalline material produced. This is due to a combination of the glass compositions and the firing temperature. It appears that natron type glass can be more easily recycled at lower temperatures, although, if a high enough temperature is used then most glass types can be recycled. Early furnace technology, i.e. the vertical heating chamber furnace, may not have been able to achieve these high temperatures, hence the widespread practice of recycling did not begin until after the invention of glassblowing which required a change in the furnace technology to the use of a horizontal heating chamber furnace.