In spite of their fragile and simple appearance, ceramic vessels were manufactured according to one of the most complex technological processes ever invented by man. The chaine operatoire of the manufacturing process is linked in such way that decisions made at each stage in the process of manufacture influence directly the technological premises of the subsequent stage(s).
Ceramic Manufacture
Ceramic Technologies implies a sensitive area focused on pottery manufacture and production, an area with very few studies undertaken to discover and/or re-create the chaine operatoire for the manufacture of Slavic ceramics. Most attempts were done as experimental archaeology in open museums like Groß Raden, Torgelow, Ostrow Lednicki, etc. Archaeological experiments dealing with the functional parameterization of ceramic vessels were carried out at Brzezno, Czech Republic (Pleinerova 1986).
The manufacture of Slavic vessels has been described partially in several notable publications, such as those written by V. Baran (1988), and P. Rzeznik (1995) in his work on early medieval ceramic assemblages from the early medieval site of Ostrow Tumski in Wroclaw, Poland. In his doctoral studies, Rzeznik proposed three manufacturing techniques
- the pinching technique (hand-built)
- the step-sliding technique (slow wheel)
- the coiling-sliding technique (slow wheel)
October 20, 2007
