Archaeological Ceramic Materials: Origin and Utilization

This book is conceived as an introduction to the origin and the analysis of the most abundant material found in archaeology: ceramics. The book attempts to explain the origin of the components of ceramic materials, the choice of these materials by potters as a function of use and physical properties, the effect of firing on ceramic materials, and the means used to analyse the ceramics in a post-use context. The target readers are archaeologists (students, professors and research personnel) and other scholars in the material sciences and geosciences related to archaeology.