Pottery Distribution and Raw Material Resources in the Area of Medieval Ras

Abstract

Technological properties of ceramic vessels from medieval sites in the area of Ras reveal a unique production trend, including well defined technological choices with respect to raw materials, workmanship and firing procedures, whereas preliminary results of petrographic analyses are indicative of local sources of raw materials. By combining all available data, both archaeological and archaeometric, including environmental features and characteristic toponyms, this article proposes a framework for a strategy for obtaining raw materials and organizing pottery production in the greater area of Ras from the beginning of the thirteenth to the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, relying on ethnographic and ethnoanthropological investigations and established threshold models.