Ceramic technology in the southeastern Alpine region in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: results of macroscopic and microscopic analyses

Abstract

This article examines issues of change and continuity from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages in the south-eastern Alps in terms of coarse-ware ceramic technology. Seventy-two samples of locally manufactured coarse-ware pottery drawn from four settlements were subjected to macroscopic and petrographic analyses in order to deter-mine their mineralogical composition, which serves as a proxy indicator of choices made during the production process. These analyses demonstrate that coarse-ware pottery manufacture exhibited a high degree of continuity from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages at the sites of Koper and Tonovcov grad, while it changed significantly during the same period at the site of Tinje. These results are largely congruent with historical expectations, which suggest greater socio-economic continuity in the southern and western sections of this region, and upheaval in the eastern portion, perhaps due to Slavic and Avar incursions beginning in the late 6th century.