Characteristics of Early Iron Age pottery from northeastern Slovenia through the prism of ceramic technology and petrography

Abstract

Pottery technology in the Early Iron Age remains understudied in Slovenian archaeology, especially in the combined use of description on a macroscopic level with the addition of petrographic thin sections analysis. In this study we focused on pottery technology of vessels from two Early Iron Age sites in north-eastern Slovenia, Poštela near Maribor and Novine above Šentilj (NE Slovenia). We analysed the clay pastes, inclusions in the clay, as well as surface treatment, firing properties, vessels shape, and decoration techniques using macroscopic description and ceramic petrography. Within the sites we looked at the different contexts, comparing pottery from settlements, i.e. hillforts, to pottery found within the adjacent cemeteries. The results show that potters from the two contemporaneous sites produced similarly shaped vessels using different pottery recipes from locally available raw materials. The use of grog as a possible chronological marker in the Early Iron Age is also discussed.