Statistical Analysis of Morphometric Data for Pottery Formal Classification: Variables, Procedures, and Digital Experiences of Medieval and Postmedieval Greyware Clustering in Catalonia (Twelfth–Nineteenth Centuries AD)

Abstract

Abstract Formal analysis of pottery is a commonplace for most archaeologists regardless of the area or period of study. The typological study of utilitarian earthenware is complex and has often been neglected in pottery studies devoted to the analytical characterization of vessels. Certainly, a low degree of variability and standardization can jeopardize a definition of vessel typologies with some sense of universality. Despite this, a global approach dealing with the function or technology of the vessels should also include typological aspects, since they are relevant at the microscale levels and have significance in determining technical choice or distribution. In the last decade, we have analysed and quantified a vast amount of medieval greyware pottery assemblages. The generation of datasets of morphometric variables and their investigation via principal component analysis, among other statistical approaches and graphical representations, has led us to the identification of regional typologies with chronological meaning among these coarse, plain, and highly functional vessels fired under reducing conditions. Clusters resulting from a combined study including up to four diameters, wall thickness, absolute, preserved or reconstructed height, and vector profile measurement allowed us to determine the degree of breakage and to consider this variable in the typological definition.