Potter's Wheel Research Articles

Ceramic technology evolution at the beginning of the Roman Period

This exploratory archaeometric study investigates pottery from a Großromstedt culture associated with a significant migratory wave from the north into the Bohemian Basin at the transition from the Late La Tène to the Roman periods. The analysis of ceramics from the Mlékojedy settlement reveals evidence of technological discontinuity in two key chronological transitions. The first and more significant transition between the Late La Tène period and the Early Roman period (LT D/R A) is characterised by a change in the pottery forming method, with a turn away from the use of the potter's wheel. New pottery shapes and a new range of ornamentation are also introduced in this period, potentially indicating cultural import or/and population migration. However, the technological changes in pottery production were not absolute, as certain processes persisted. The second technological discontinuity was found between phases R A and R B1 of the Roman period. It appears as a natural evolution of the ceramic technology, which was accelerated by the social changes. The findings suggest that the vast majority of pottery could have been produced from local sources.

From the potter's wheel to modern automobiles (The flywheel through the ages)

From the potter's wheel to modern automobiles (The flywheel through the ages)

Electric Throwing Wheel from Repurposed Bucket, Ceiling Fan Motor, and Sewing Machine Regulator for Pottery Demonstration

The cost of electric potters’ throwing wheel keeps soaring high even when throwing yet a course that firmly exists and is valued in the ceramic production process besides other forming techniques in art/design schools. The challenge herewith is the need to look for cheaper alternative electric throwing wheels through local fabrication to alleviate the impending high cost of imported ones and the general scarcity of potter’s wheels for demonstration in a simple ceramic studio setting by improvising available materials. The experimental-based methodology was deployed by sourcing and assembling the required components – an electric potter's wheel using a sewing machine regulator, iron bucket and basin, German plywood ½ inch, 1inch screw nails, bolts, and nuts, and 3 pin plug head. The principles of the ‘development cycle’ and the ‘rotational kinetic energy (RKE’ were adopted. The results of the study revealed that: the electric has the capacity speed of 200rovulation per minute (rpm) sufficient to center a-2kg of a well-prepared mass of leather hard clay - 50 rpm cylinders and bowls of various heights and widths up to 6" (height) and 5" (width) are viable; the repurposing of the conventional functions of the water bucket and fan the provision of air into an electric throwing wheel was successful. In conclusion, the study showed some success. The recommendations of the study include thus: further improvement as the focus of this one (project) is primarily to proffer a concept even though the topic is relevant to both product and service design; adoption of improvisation through repurposing for the mass construction of wheels as an alternative to the costly imported ones should be encouraged.

Use of the potter's wheel at Shimao, Shaanxi, China

Shimao is among the largest settlements dating back to the late Longshan to early Bronze Age in Northern China. The Huangchengtai locality is often identified as the palace center of Shimao. The excavation of a large number of ceramic artifacts from this site presents an excellent opportunity to study Shimao's pottery technology. To understand the use of the potter's wheel and the traces left on ceramics, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of ceramics from the Huangchengtai locality. This investigation involved observing technological traces, X-ray photography, and microstructural analysis. The results revealed that the majority of the ceramic pots were made using the techniques of coiling and molding. However, a small portion of the pottery displayed techniques of throwing and turning. Interestingly, neither Shimao nor its neighbors had access to highly developed fast-wheel technology during that period. Moreover, many of the pots made on the potter's wheel in Shimao show a connection to pots found in the Longshan culture in the Central Plains. Therefore, it is likely that Shimao's fast-wheel technology originated from the Central Plains.

Capturing technological crossovers between clay crafts: An archaeometric perspective on the emergence of workshop production in Late Iron Age northern Spain.

In the Iberian Iron Age, the transition to workshop-based pottery production involved the use of innovative tools (the potter's wheel and kiln) and dedicated workspace. This facilitated an intensification of production, with repercussions for consumption practices and the economy. Cross-craft comparison can contribute to understanding the transmission processes underpinning this transition, as well as its impact on local craft traditions. This paper discusses an archaeometric methodology to compare the technological procedures underpinning different clay crafts to reveal crossovers and divergences that are meaningful for understanding cross craft interaction and the spread of technological innovations. We use thin-section ceramic petrography, X-Ray Fluorescence, Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry, and X-Ray Diffraction to analyse the mineralogical and geochemical compositions and levels of standardisation in hand-made pottery, wheel-made ceramics, and ceramic building materials from the Late Iron Age oppidum of Monte Bernorio (Aguilar de Campoo, Palencia) and the kiln site of El Cerrito (Cella, Teruel). The results demonstrate that wheel-made pottery was produced according to a highly uniform clay preparation and clay selection procedure, which spanned the northern Iberian Plateau and largely existed in isolation from local pottery traditions. At Monte Bernorio, wheel-made pottery was made on-site from non-local clays, suggesting that suitable clays were brought to the site, perhaps by itinerant potters working on a seasonal basis. Technological traditions were thus largely polarised, demonstrating that knowledge, skills, and markets relating to workshop-produced pottery were enacted by a segment of society operating as part of a closed technological system.

The relationship between inclusion/void orientation and speed in wheel-thrown pots

The activity of wheel-throwing a ceramic vessel is governed by a number of physical forces. These are the rotational kinetic energy (expressed in terms of angular velocity and the moment of inertia) and manual pressures. Given the importance of the potter's wheel worldwide, and the frequently postulated socio-cultural meaning of wheel-throwing in particular, foundational research on the physics behind wheel-throwing has been under-represented, and there is a lack of understanding of the relationship between speed of wheel rotation, lifting speed and the orientation of clay pores or inclusions. The speed of rotation is highly relevant as different wheels can achieve different speeds. Thus, knowing the speed during manufacture may allow scholars to reconstruct the original device, manufacturing technique, and perhaps even the potter's level of skill. Two contrasting views can be found in the literature: a) there is a direct positive relationship between these variables, and that the angle of the inclusions/voids can therefore tell us about the wheel's speed at the time of making the pot and hence the device used; b) because pots are never thrown in one single motion, the angle of inclusions/voids is an averaging of all actions executed by the potter, and thus cannot provide meaningful inferences about speeds or device. Experiments with professional potters were devised to explore the relationship between these variables. They show that the interaction between the various physical forces, clay and potter is complex, leading to a large variance even within the work of a single potter, with finger pressure recognized as a major influencing variable. It is clear that angles of inclusions or voids cannot be used to project backwards to the wheel speed, lifting speed, skill level or device used.

Ефект мультиплікації в декоруванні посуду доби пізньої бронзи

Проаналізовано систему декорування доби пізньої бронзи. Розглянуто ефект мультиплікаціїв оздобленні глиняного посуду означеного періоду.
 The era of light chariots with wheels on spokes drawn by horses was the prologue to the epoch-makingchanges in the transition to the Late Bronze Age. It can be assumed that the contemplation of the rapidmovement of wheels on spokes gave almost the first idea of the effect of multiplication in the societies ofSteppe cattlemen. The vortex effect of the rotational movement of the wheel led to the image of the swastika,i.e. the sacred symbol of the Aryan chariots. The rotation of the swastika mounted on the axle creates anoptical effect of the wheel on the spokes. It was recorded in cases when the swastika was inscribed fromthe outside in the circle of the bottom of the pot. The effect was enhanced when the vessel (cup) had abase, and the circle of the base together with the swastika was even more harmoniously associated withthe rim of the wheel. Rotating the cup in an upside down position on a mobile stand allows you to achievethe effect of animation in the context of the ritual. The era of unprecedented speeds gave impetus to thecreation of new dynamic spectacles. Among them were acrobatic games with a bull, artistically embodiedin the frescoes of the Minos Palace on the island of Crete and other examples of Cretan and MycenaeanArt. Episodes of this game have been recorded in the ancestral homeland of the Mycenaean rulers inthe steppes of Eurasia and in the South Caucasus, in particular petroglyphs of Gobustan, pictograms onceramics and metal. The study is based on a number of assumptions. The author does not have access tothese artefacts, which are currently contained in the museum collections of the four states. But with theirsize, shape and illustrations of iconic compositions, you can make copies, put on a potter's wheel and tryto rotate at different speeds to see if the effect of animation will play on these objects.

Material Culture of the Horizon of the 10th Century at the Hillfort near Spitsino Village

The article presents the results of research in 2019-2020 of the 10th century settlement on a multi-layered hillfort near the village of Spitsino (4th -5th, 10th centuries). The monument is located at a considerable distance from the main river routes in the region, which excludes its relationship with the Upper Oka section of the Don trade route in the 9th -10th centuries. A significant part of the finds discovered during exploration 2019, are of Northern European origin and date back to the mid. - 2nd half 10th century. There are also a few finds related to steppe antiquities. According to the materials of the excavations, the buildings of two construction periods are identified. The ceramic complex of buildings of the early construction period is represented by fragments of stucco vessels of the Romaine type and redeposited fragments of vessels of the 4th - 5th century. Fragments of early vessels made on a potter's wheel dating from the second half of the 10th century are found in the ceramic complex of the late construction period. Thus, the monument can be attributed to the period of the middle - second half of the 10th century. This period until recently represented a chronological lacuna in the period of Slavic colonization of the region.

Hagia Sophia: Byzantine Alterity in the Core of Ottoman Identity

Hagia Sophia:Byzantine Alterity in the Core of Ottoman Identity Bissera V. Pentcheva (bio) KEYWORDS Hagia Sophia, Byzantine, Ottoman Hagia Sophia is a masterpiece of world architecture and art (Fig. 1). Within it, two religions share a vision of heaven: a unity-within-diversity. Remarkably, the chief figure of this conciliatory gesture was no less than Mehmed II the Conqueror. Gülru Necipoğlu, in her important study of the Ottoman use of Hagia Sophia, has shown that "the conquerors chose to define their self-identity in terms of the conquered, while simultaneously remaining meaningful to their own past."1 Mehmed II left most of the figural mosaics uncovered.2 Moreover, he helped promote a new mythology about the building that built on the Greek legends but helped inscribe Hagia Sophia in an Islamic narrative: For instance, the story of the prophet Mohammad and how at his birth the eastern semidome of Hagia Sophia collapsed and was only fixed when a special mortar was procured, which intermixed sand from Mecca, water from the holy well of Zemzem, and the Prophet's saliva.3 Another important legend was that of the follower of the Prophet, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, who allegedly came as the first Muslim to pray at the site and was then martyred there. Presiding over the composition of these narratives, Mehmed II ensured the preservation of Hagia Sophia as a sultanic mosque and silenced the desire of some segments of his elite and army to destroy the building.4 But how long did the Ottomans allow for the Byzantine extimacy to live at the heart (intimacy) of Ottoman [End Page 223] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Hagia Sophia 532–537 and 562, interior. The Byzantine Institute and Dumbarton Oaks Fieldwork Records and Papers, ca. late 1920s-2000s Courtesy of Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C [End Page 224] identity?5 This essay seeks answers by focusing on the meaning and experience of the central space of Hagia Sophia (which the Greek called kallichoros) and on two mosaics and their Quranic glosses: the Virgin and Child in the apse and Christ Pantokrator in the dome. Kallichoros Hagia Sophia is a symbol of the universe: an enormous void of over 250,000 cubic meters topped by a soaring glittering golden dome. It is a microcosm of the macrocosm, envisioned as a sphere of unity.6 In Greek this central performance space was called kallichoros, or the beautiful choros.7 Choros means a performance space, a stage, but also the action––dance and song–unfolding in it.8 The kallichoros of Hagia Sophia gives a plastic expression of the cosmos. In the sixth century, Procopius described the newly built Hagia Sophia as having a central performance space alight with three energies: humanity's ascent to the divine, divinity's descent to earth, and the swirling energy of circumscription or perichoreusis uniting terrestrial and celestial. Procopius imagined the interior as clay shaped by the turning of a potter's wheel–apotetorneutai–into a vessel holding a void.9 The generative, circular movement is supplanted by the lifting and ascending energy towards the skies (epairomenos aerobatei). And this ascending vector brings its opposite: divinity descending and hovering over the kallichoros, "loving to dwell in this space emphilochōrein." Thus, Hagia Sophia is experienced as a material shell, whose central void spins and propels humanity to the divine.10 Hagia Sophia's architecture embodies the concept of diversity within unity. The modern engineer and architectural historian, Roland Mainstone perceptively communicated this insight in his analysis of the form: [End Page 225] Unity is achieved on the other hand, by an underlying geometrical discipline that becomes obvious only at the level of the semidomes and dome, and on the other, by details like the horizontal cornices that sweep unbroken across the piers and above the arcaded colonnades, and by the overall unity-in-diversity of the colonnades themselves and the decorative treatment of the wall surfaces––even, perhaps, by a consistent absence of the precise uniformity typical of a modern machine age.11 For Mainstone, Hagia Sophia succeeds in achieving unity without canceling...

Construction Ceramics of Gabala XI-XIII Centuries

The article deals with the construction ceramics of Gabala in the XI-XIII centuries, including samples of tiles, bricks, tiles, pottery pipes and their main characteristics. Typological and analytical methods were used to study the samples found during the research, and the information and materials obtained from the archeological research reports were thoroughly analyzed by comparison.
 Construction ceramics has not been a separate field of research in the medieval city of Gabala, which has a special place in Azerbaijani historiography. Therefore, the relevance of the article is to determine the current state of construction ceramics for the period, the general level of development of the art of construction and the main characteristics.
 It is important to study the technology of making tiles used in the roofing of buildings, bricks used in masonry, tiles used to decorate the walls and pottery pipes used in the construction of water lines in the city, their shape and size.
 If we look at the shape of the tiles, most of the patterns have a protrusion in the middle. Bricks were widely used in construction because they were cheaper. The main raw material for making bricks was clay. The abundance of clay deposits in the ancient city of Gabala created ample conditions for the production of bricks here. It is noteworthy that during archeological excavations in Gabala in 2009, two bathrooms were discovered. One of the rooms was replaced by baked bricks and the other by pottery.
 In the XI-XIII centuries, tiles were widely used by craftsmen as a decorative material in construction. Tiles were mainly used in mosques, baths, palaces and other public buildings. Floral drawings were also made on the tiles of different colors. Such images gave a new shape to the appearance of the building.
 In Gabala, pottery was widely used in the construction ceramics of the time for the construction of water lines. The use of a potter's wheel by craftsmen in the manufacture of pottery and the perfect development of water pipes was a great achievement. When the pipeline was laid, the pipes were fastened to each other with lime mortar. The pottery pipes, one of which was inserted into the other, were durable and did not leak water.

Reading social change on a potter's wheel: Chalcis (Euboea) from the Byzantine to the Modern Greek era

In this article, the socio-economic and cultural identity of Chalcis is traced through, and combined with, the story of its material culture and, in particular, of its impressive pottery production and consumption. Through this lens, the historical conditions and daily life over more than ten centuries (from the ninth to the early twentieth century) of this relatively unknown provincial town are closely examined. This makes it possible to detect one field in which local communities reacted to, adjusted to, took advantage of, survived or sometimes succumbed to the wider turmoil of the Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek eras.

Cultural Worlds of the Jesuits in Colonial Latin America

Cultural Worlds of the Jesuits in Colonial Latin America is the result of an international conference marking the 250-year anniversary of the Jesuit expulsion from Spanish territories in 1767. Edited by Linda A. Newson, the 12 essays of this volume largely turn away from Jesuit conversion efforts to the order's other cultural contributions to Portuguese and Spanish America. The black robes in this book develop language tools, introduce technologies, promote new artistic styles, study the natural world, and teach music. They may occasionally baptize and offer spiritual instruction, but they rarely, if ever, pray, practice the Spiritual Exercises, or promote Marian devotion. While one book clearly cannot cover the entire history of the Society of Jesus in the Americas, as Newson openly confesses in her introduction, it must be emphasized that Cultural Worlds is primarily an account of Jesuit activities in South America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A few chapters offer some comparisons with New Spain, but overall this volume is focused on the southern Atlantic.While Cultural Worlds is largely concerned with Jesuit legacies, transculturation—a familiar theme in mission historiography—still drives the analysis of a few chapters. Kate Ford highlights the ways in which Chiquito painters drew on their own artistic traditions of rock painting, tattooing, and body painting to decorate their mission churches. She reads mission art not as the work of ingenious Jesuits but rather as a “fusion of European decorative imagery and indigenous memory” (p. 65). Clarissa Sanfelice Rahmeier studies the introduction of the potter's wheel among the Guaraní, which altered how ceramics were made, who crafted them, and how they were conceptualized as objects. Instead of only looking at how Jesuits modified traditional forms of pottery, she argues for the coexistence of Guaraní and European elements in the material culture of the missions in Paraguay. These examples of cultural hybridity in the visual and plastic arts mirror other ceremonial changes taking place on Jesuit missions because of disease. In one of the few essays dealing with demographics, Oriol Ambrogio compares perceptions of baptism on the frontiers of Chile and northwestern Mexico. He concludes that Christian rituals and local healing practices merged because Indigenous peoples did not see Jesuits and traditional healers as mutually exclusive in their worldviews.Another important theme in Cultural Worlds is the circulation of ideas, goods, and peoples in the Atlantic world and beyond. Samir Boumediene offers a fascinating look at the Jesuit drug trade and how their apothecaries formed part of medical marketplaces on both sides of the ocean. He shows how Jesuit procuradores played important roles in circulating plants and pharmacopoeia through systems of exchanges that they established in Madrid, Seville, and Rome. Turning our focus away from ships as the mainstay of early modern transportation, William G. Clarence-Smith shines the spotlight on the millions of mules on Jesuit estates. They bred them, sold them for cash, and used them in their operations, thus sustaining their educational and architectural programs and fueling the colonial economy. While most studies are rooted in Atlantic entanglements, Gauvin Alexander Bailey extends his gaze to the Pacific to reflect on the global character of the Society of Jesus. The fusion of European and Indigenous styles is a familiar story in studies of colonial art, but Bailey demonstrates that in certain cases in Brazil the Jesuits turned to Chinese-inspired works to decorate their churches.Most chapters in Cultural Worlds are based on Spanish and Portuguese texts, but a select few turn to Indigenous-language sources. Barbara Ganson and Capucine Boidin draw on an expanding corpus of works in Guaraní, which, as they point out, is increasingly available today in online databases. Concentrating on cases of adultery and grammatization respectively, they demonstrate that the Guaraní—much like Indigenous intellectuals and rulers in central Mexico and the Andes—created a “Euro-Amerindian legal and political space” in which they were able to voice their concerns to local authorities and the Spanish crown (p. 141). Vivien Kogut Lessa de Sá and Caroline Egan highlight another important aspect of access to Indigenous-language texts: many were never published and ended up in European repositories as curiosities. They follow the travel itinerary of the “Christian Doctrine in the Brazilian Tongue,” a manuscript composed in Tupi between 1549 and 1591 that is today housed in the Bodleian Library. This early catechism represents the transatlantic connections between Indigenous Brazilians, Portuguese Jesuits, and English privateers.Transculturation, transatlantic circulation, and archival access are only three of many important themes emerging in Cultural Worlds. The volume rightly confirms that being a Jesuit missionary was more than just preaching Christianity to Indigenous neophytes. When combined with older narratives of evangelization that are centered on spiritual dialogues, this enlarged focus on other cultural spheres allows us to construct a more holistic vision of Jesuit-Indigenous encounters across the colonial Americas.

TRAVELLING WITH THE POTTER'S WHEEL IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE AEGEAN

By adopting thechaîne opératoireapproach as a dynamic theoretical and methodological framework for studying ancient technologies, this paper investigates the modalities behind the appearance of the potter's wheel in the Aegean during the Early Bronze Age II (c.2550–2200bc). Based on the comparative examination of ceramic assemblages from different Aegean sites, an extended technological study has been carried out in order to track the earliest wheel-made pottery and reconstruct the craft behaviours perpetrated by the use of the potter's wheel across the Aegean. The paper presents the results of this multi-site study and aims to (a) trace out the wheel-based technological traditions, (b) explore the contexts of the learning and transmission of the new tool, (c) shed light on the connectivity among Aegean and western Anatolian communities that enabled the transfer of the new craft knowledge, and, finally, (d) bring into view the mechanisms behind its emergence and appropriation. By considering technologies as representing an entire social system of knowing, perceiving and acting on the material world, it will be argued that the spread of the potter's wheel in the Aegean does not reflect a moment of linear diffusion of a technological innovation, adopted thanks to certain techno-functional advantages. Instead, it discloses the resilience of social identities and values embedded through the practical engagement of individuals in the production of their material culture. The potter's wheel, in fact, emerges as a socially and culturally mediated practice, specific to small groups of potters trained within a technological tradition of Anatolian origin, performing their craft in the Aegean socio-cultural milieus. Furthermore, its transfer reveals a multidirectional and dynamic crossing of material cultures that designated a navigable world where traditions, objects and people travelled, mixed and merged in unpredictable ways.

Clay in situ resource utilization with Mars global simulant slurries for additive manufacturing and traditional shaping of unfired green bodies

The wet processing of regolith simulant for clay in situ resource utilization (ISRU) on Mars is presented. The two raw materials from the Mars global simulant family, one without clay (MGS-1) and one with clay - sodium montmorillonite smectite - (MGS-1C) were milled and mixed to produce a simulant with small particle size and reduced clay content (MGS-1C/8). All three simulants and the pure clay raw material were extensively characterized using XRF, synchrotron XRD, gas adsorption and gas pycnometry methods. In a straightforward processing approach, MGS-1C/8 was mixed with water and different dispersant approaches were investigated, all of which gave stable slurries. Particle size distribution, rheology, ion concentration, pH and electrical conductivity of these slurries were characterized. The slurry systems can easily be adapted to fit all typical ceramic shaping routes and here parts of varying complexity from slip casting, throwing on a potter's wheel and additive manufacturing, including material extrusion (robocasting) and binder jetting (powder bed 3D printing) were produced. The unique properties of the sodium montmorillonite clay, which is readily accessible in conjunction with magnesium sulfate on the Martian surface, acted as a natural nanosized binder and produced high strength green bodies (unfired ceramic body) with compressive strength from 3.3 to 7.5 MPa. The most elaborate additive manufacturing technique layerwise slurry deposition (LSD) produced water-resistant green bodies with a compressive strength of 30.8 ± 2.5 MPa by employing a polymeric binder, which is similar or higher than the strength of standard concrete. The unfired green bodies show sufficient strength to be used for remote habitat building on Mars using additive manufacturing without humans being present.

Coiling or slab building: Potential of orientation analysis for identification of forming techniques used by Early Neolithic potters

This work explores the potential of analysis based on quantification of the orientation of components of a ceramic body to distinguish between the two basic families of hand-building techniques (coiling and slab-building). The previous application of the method to techniques related to the use of the potter's wheel showed that this approach can yield details specific for the relationship between the orientation of the components of a ceramic body and the pottery forming technique. Consequently, we explored its potential for identification of the basic hand building techniques and found that it is very limited in this case. However, the study provides important information related to the effects of the studied forming techniques on the orientation. The results show that the hypothetical effects of the basic forming forces that define these techniques can be significantly altered during the forming of a vessel. The results of the experimental study warn against a schematic view of the orientation patterns. Slab building and coiling are among techniques where the vectors of the forming force are not sufficiently constrained by the basic principles of the technique. Consequently, they can produce very variable orientations of the microstructures of the completed ceramic vessels.

Формування виробів на гончарному крузі та їх декорування на уроках ліплення

Формування виробів на гончарному крузі та їх декорування на уроках ліплення

Face to face – Considering the moulding of Attic head vases reconsidering Beazley's groups by quantitative analysis

To the fundamental paper of Sir John Beazley in 1929 we owe the classification of Attic head vases of archaic/classical time. He categorized the vases in the form of human heads in twenty groups and a miscellaneous list, according to the depicted figure and the stylistic development of the face.The vast majority of the Attic pottery was thrown by the potter's wheel. Concerning the head vases, the potters used the same technique only for the upper part of the vessel whereas the head of the head vase was made by two moulds, one for the face and a second for the rear. This process of production interconnects head vases and terracotta figurines. Dealing with coroplastic workshops the issue of original model, moulding, and reused moulds was always raised. Due to the comparable production process, we will raise similar questions in connection with the head vases in our paper.Physical, chemical and petrographic analysis has already been established in the pottery research, we will present an autonomous method for the documentation and evaluation of the shape based on 3D models and will describe a case study for the analysis. On a computerized basis, the quantitative comparison of the faces of the head vases may be executed systematically, regardless of the secondary painted decoration of the face (often even revised in modern times) and the location of storage. These methods do not affect the original material in any way.The face of the head vases originally drawn from a negative form is recorded by a 3D scan which can secure the accurate geometry. 3D shape comparison based on scanned surface geometry of the heads was performed. The geometry of the faces is compared to each other and a series of interdependent productions can be established based on the geometry. This provides to us information about the relative chronology of the vessels which may finally be interwoven with the absolute chronology.In total, based on objective criteria we search for common moulds to update Beazley's stylistically made classification.

Presentation of Romanian Engineers who Contributed to the Development of Global Aeronautics – Part I

It is said that Romanian is born poet. And so it is, but we could say rather that Romanian is born and an having deeply embedded himself, the vocation of the builder, the innovator, the inventor. The great cathedrals, the beautiful monasteries built, or even the churches and churches (built or wooden) clearly show this vocation. After centuries, the Voroneţ blue still retains its vivid colors, even on the outer walls, beaten by rain, snow and wind. Suveica, the loom of war, the potter's wheel, the water and windmills, the musical instruments, the wells or the fountains, the agricultural tools, the traditional Romanian houses with porch, are only some proofs of the folk craftsmanship (engineering) over time. Ever since the beginnings of civilization on today's territory of Romania, the inhabitants of these lands have been pioneers in the creation and have thought of things that others have found much later. Henri Marie (June 7, 1886 - November 25, 1972) was an Academician and Romanian engineer, aviation pioneer, physicist, inventor, inventor of the reaction engine and discoverer of the effect that bears his name. The first Coanda attested in the village of Strehaia was in 1630, Vladoianu Coanda. From the same source (Strehaia City Hall), we learn that Matei was the protector of Iancu Jianu, the defensive hood of the orphans. Henri was born in Bucharest on June 7, 1886, being the second child of a large family (Henri had four brothers and two sisters, a total of seven children). His father was General Constantine Coanda, a former mathematics professor at the National School of Bridges and Highways in Bucharest and former Prime Minister of Romania for a short period of time in 1918. His mother, Aida Danet, was the daughter of French physician Gustave Danet. Even from childhood, the future engineer and physicist was fascinated by the miracle of the wind, as he will later remember. Henri was first a pupil of the Petrache Poenaru School in Bucharest, then of St. Sava High School in 1896 where he attended the first three classes, after which, at 13, he was sent by his father who wanted to guide him towards his career Military High School in Iasi, 1899. He graduated high school in 1903, receiving the rank of major sergeant and continuing his studies at the School of Artillery, Genius and Marine Officers in Bucharest.

The innovation of the potter's wheel: a comparative perspective between Mesopotamia and the southern Levant

The southern Levant and northern Mesopotamia are two areas in which the potter's wheel seems to have appeared independently. New data enable us to undertake a comparison between both regions. As a result, it appears that in both regions the context of production of the first wheel-made vessels was very similar. Wheel-coiled bowls were made by craft specialists attached to some kind of elite and responding to the demand of this same elite for fine vessels. Thus the potter's wheel was not adopted to improve productivity, but to produce to strong vessels with status value. As a consequence, this technology was not transferred to more utilitarian categories of vessels, and in both regions its development followed the same distinctive saw-tooth evolutionary trajectory.

IMPORTED CERAMICS FROM THE SETTLEMENT KENT

At the end of the Bronze age so-called community of the roll ceramics cultures (crcc) occupied the territory of the steppe belt of eurasia. despite the vast distances that separate sites, ceramic vessels of these cultures have a high degree of resemblance. the technical and technological analysis of pottery enables, in particular, to determine the depth of the cultural differences of the ancient population groups. Unfortunately, such analysis for most cultures of the crcc not carried out, and this fact greatly complicates the work to establish the degree of kinship and identification of contacts existed between them. this article analyzes the ceramic assemblage of Kent settlement - the largest for sargary-alekseev culture, part of crcc. it was found that the population that left the site, consisted of not less than 3-4 groups, which were in the process of mixing. on the base of comparison of the results of technical and technological analysis it was found the pottery, imported from related communities. in addition, the technology of foreign culture pottery samples is considered and conclusions about areas of their origin are made. Vessels with ornaments and shape similar to the synchronous archaeological cultures of Western siberia and central asia are attributed as foreign. it was found that ceramics, coming from central asia, was constructed by sculptural modeling methods, and a potters wheel was used only for profiling the main part of the container. it is concluded that sargary-alekseev groups were not closed communities. they were in constant contact with related settlements and also in trade and exchange relations with the population of neighboring areas.