How Was Neolithic Pottery Fired? An Exploration of the Effects of Firing Dynamics on Ceramic Products

Abstract

The presented study is focused on the development of a new methodology for estimating the heating rate during firing as one of the principal characteristics of the firing process. We experimentally determined the limits of the heating dynamics (heating rate, cooling rate and soaking time) of the firing processes for two basic alternatives for pottery firing considered for the Early Neolithic in Central Europe—bonfires and single-chamber kilns—and analysed the thermal gradient within the walls of the fired pottery as the effect of these heating dynamics. Mineralogical transformations caused by the firing procedures were estimated by X-ray diffraction in order to apply the results of the experimental measurements in a study of archaeological ceramics. The difference between the maximum temperatures on the outer surfaces and in the cores of the vessel walls at the places where the pottery is exposed to the fastest heating and cooling rates appears to be a usable basis for distinguishing between the tested firing structures. XRD analysis has demonstrated that temperature differences measured and modelled experimentally can be traced to the products of these processes with sufficient reliability. The results of the experimental study were applied in the interpretation of the firing process employed in the manufacture of Early Neolithic pottery obtained from the Linear Pottery culture settlement in Bylany (Czech Republic).