An Experimental Approach to Studying the Technology of Pottery Decoration

Abstract

The early Middle Chalcolithic pottery tradition of Seh Gabi Tepe in Iran is called Dalma tradition. Among the different types of Dalma pottery, I have focused on monochrome painted ceramics, to investigate, by means of experimental analysis, how their decoration technology was undertaken. Moreover, I would like to see how advantageous experimental archaeology could be regarding the pottery decoration techniques. Among different technological aspects, my study is narrowed down to brush strokes and order of decoration. Here I did not replicate the whole pottery manufacturing process; I made clay slabs to apply the decoration to, instead of making complete vessels. This study confirms that experimental analysis can have a supplementary role along with the examination of actual pottery in analysing the technology of pottery decoration.

Keywords

• ceramics
• furnace
• kiln or oven
• chalcolithic
• canada
• iran