Re-examining the Egyptian colonial encounter in Nubia through a compositional, mineralogical, and textural comparison of ceramics

The technology and craft organisation of Kushite technical ceramic production at Meroe and Hamadab, Sudan

“…This finding corresponds with the results of other studies, which demonstrate that Nile clays were procured to manufacture domestic pottery and fine wares in the region (cf. Bourriau et al, 2000;Brand, 2016;Carrano et al, 2009b;Daszkiewicz and Bobryk, 2003;Daszkiewicz and Schneider, 2011;Mason and Grzymski, 2009;Smith, 1991Smith, , 1996Smith, , 1997Smith, , 1999. Whether or not the same clay sources were used in making the domestic pottery and fine-ware ceramics that were found together with the technical ceramics in the slag heaps requires further analyses.…”

“…Since our focus is on the raw materials and methods used in making the technical ceramics rather than their refractory properties, thin-section petrography is the ideal method, as it has been readily used to examine the production of domestic pottery and/or fine-ware ceramics in the region; thus making our data comparable with other ceramic studies (cf. Brand, 2016;Carrano et al, 2009b;Daszkiewicz and Bobryk, 2003;Daszkiewicz and Schneider, 2011;Mason and Grzymski, 2009;Smith, 1991Smith, , 1996Smith, , 1997Smith, , 1999. Thin-section petrography characterises the composition of technical ceramic samples by identifying their mineralogical constituents.…”

“…This study, therefore, serves to differ from previous Nubian ceramic analyses, which largely centered on domestic pottery and/or fine-ware ceramics, by placing our emphasis on technical ceramics (cf. Brand, 2016;Carrano et al, 2009aCarrano et al, , 2009bDaszkiewicz and Schneider, 2011;Daszkiewicz et al, 2005;Dittrich, 2010;Edwards, 1999;Mason and Grzymski, 2009;Smith, 1991Smith, , 1995Smith, , 1996Smith, , 1997Smith, , 1999. This study also serves to deviate from past technical ceramic characterisation works, which focused mostly on their refractory properties, by exploring the technology and craft organisation involved in technical ceramic production.…”

Discriminant function analyses in archaeology: are classification rates too good to be true?

“…DFA can be used for studies ranging from the determination of the style or point of origin of ceramics (e.g. Carrano et al, 2009;Abbott and Watts, 2010) to the identification of site activity areas (e.g. Hjulström and Isaksson, 2009;Wilson et al, 2009).…”

The successful ‘recipe’ for a long-lasting tradition: Nubian ceramic assemblages from Sai Island (northern Sudan) from prehistory to the New Kingdom

“…Nordström 1972; Hays & Hassan 1974; Francaviglia & Palmieri 1983; Khabir 1991; Klein et al . 2004; Carrano et al 2009; Dal Sasso et al 2014; Spataro et al 2015), this is the first time that prehistoric and historical materials have been compared, and that such a large dataset has been investigated within a broad and continuous time frame.…”