Archaeometric investigation of ancient pottery with regard to their material composites allows insights into the material structures, production techniques and manufacturing processes. The applied methods depend on the classification of the pottery: some finds should remain unchanged for conservation reasons, other finds are less valuable or more common. While the first group cannot be destroyed for material analyses and the choice of analytical methods is limited, the latter can be investigated using destructive methods and thus can widen the spectrum of possible devices. Multi-element analyses of portable energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (portable XRF) have become important for archaeological research, as portable XRF provides a quick overview about the chemical composition of potteries and can be used in non-destructive as well as destructive ways in addition to conventional microscopic examination and petrographic thin sections. While most portable XRF analyses of solely fracture surfaces do not provide satisfying results, portable XRF analyses on pulverized samples are a cost-efficient and fast alternative to wavelength-dispersive XRF (WD-XRF). In comparison to WD-XRF, portable XRF on pulverized samples provides reliable concentration data (K, Fe, Rb, Ti, V, Y, Zn, Zr), but other elements need to be corrected. X-ray microtomography (µCT) has proven to be a non-destructive technique to derive not only the porosity of ancient pottery but also to characterize temper components and non-plastic inclusions. Hence, the µCT technique has the potential to extract valuable information needed by archaeologists, for example, to deduce details about manufacturing.
The transition from the late Swifterbant culture to the first appearance of the Funnelbeaker Westgroup raises numerous questions, from cultural discontinuities to gradual transitions. This process describes the transformation from a late mesolithic of hunter‐gatherer societies to a fully neolithic society in Northwestern Europe. The Early Neolithic in this area marks a technological and sociocultural transition zone, which we can identify. Although the first megalithic buildings of the Funnelbeaker Culture were erected around 3600 BC, Swifterbant sites and findings can still be traced. Many studies assume a hiatus between these phases, which is based on a research‐historical but also a conservation‐related problem. With this contribution, we attempt to generate a chronological Bayesian model on the basis of absolute chronological data. The aim is to compare the numerous available radiocarbon data from different periods in one overview. It is a model to visualize discontinuities or overlaps of the currently available data. It becomes apparent that there is a slide overlap between the archaeologically defined chronological phases. This model serves as a basis for further discussion and chronological models.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.