The Brief «Walk-through» in the Archaeological Ceramic Investigations in the Way to a New Approach in Neolithic Ceramics Styles Research

Abstract

The study of ceramic is one of the broadest research areas in archaeological sciences. Over the last two centuries, archaeologists have developed a number of approaches and methods that have had different goals of the studies: from the study of ceramics as an object of art to the reproduction of the manufacture technologies, and the study of pottery as a «mediator» for the study of everyday life of the ancient population. From the end of the XIX century of the archaeological research scholars looking for different algorithms and strategies in the ceramic studies and attributions. To the end of the XX century, ceramics studies became more complex: from pottery as an object to the technology of the manufacture. Scholars defined methodological groups of the ceramic’s investigation as 1. the description of the technologic information; 2. Form description; 3. Patterns analyses; 4. Reconstruction of the cultural traditions of the pottery. Different methodic together with physical-chemical analyses can prove a theoretical hypothesis. Together with the development of physical methods in archaeological research should also develop the methods of form and pattern analyses and fit to the new archaeological theories’ concepts The purpose of the article is a brief review of the scientific methods developed at different times in Western and Eastern Europe, North America, and to discover new combinations of research approaches that would allow archaeological ceramic complexes to be explored at a new level. This is especially true of the difficulties encountered in the study of Neolithic utensils, given the incomplete forms of utensils, the relatively small number of finds, and natural damage. The new paradigm in ceramics investigations is the studies of the raw material of Neolithic cera-mics using natural methods of analysis, such as binocular, p-XRF, spectrographic analyses. The results may open up new knowledge regarding the mobility of the ancient population and the cultural exchange between different groups of the Neolithic population. Key words: Neolithic, ceramic studies, pottery, migration, cultural exchange.