Professional paper
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CLAY; TECHNOLOGY AND MINERALOGY OF CERAMICS
Romuald Zlatunić
; Arheološki muzej Istre Carrarina 3, 52100 Pula, HR
Abstract
SUMMARY
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CLAY; TECHNOLOGY AND
MINERALOGY OF CERAMICS
Romuald ZLATUNIĆ
The article partly involves, from the aspect of archaeology, a series of natural processes
that determine the development of clays and their specific qualities that inf luence the
production of ceramics. The appearance and production of ceramics through the millennia
of human historical development constitute one of the main elements that are used by
archaeologists in determining and explaining of the way of life and the economic and social
structure of the societies in certain periods, particularly the prehistoric period (Batović
1979; Benac 1971; 1973; 1979; Dimitrijević 1979; Garašanin 1979; Müller 1994; Budja
2001; Cullen 1985; Bloedow 1991; Perlès - Viteli 1999; Perlès 2001). The archaeological
methods that are applied in those cases are greatly aided by the methodological approach
using the natural sciences, in which the geological-petrographic-chemical one plays a
very important part.
The geological-petrographic analytic approaches are used to explain the mineral structure
of the clays, their development, characteristics, hardness, and colour. The chemical
approach is used to determine the burning temperature of the clay minerals, their colour,
the development of new minerals during the burning process, and the source of the
clay. Those approaches are greatly facilitated by technological development, in this type
of research a series of technical instruments are used, from microscope to electronic
microscope and various x-rays and spectrometers, the results of which undergo further
statistical computer processing. The data obtained this way are subsequently used by
archaeologists as additional or subsidiary source of knowledge with which they supplement
their methodological approaches at the macroscopic level of research of ceramic objects,
from analyses of surface colour, hardness, processing technology, ornamentation, production
mode, and burning technique, to other various typological analyses of ceramics.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
40939
URI
Publication date:
15.11.2007.
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