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METHODOLOGICAL TRENDS IN INVESTIGATIONS INTO ANCIENT POTTERY FROM THE LEVANT IAN EDWARDS Victoria College,

Archaeology Research Unit,

Melbourne,

Australia

INTRODUCTION The Australian excavations at Pella in Jordan under the guidance of Professor Basil Hennessy (Sydney University, Australia) have over the past 13 years demonstrated the current range of methodologies used in pottery studies in the Levant. One feature of the Australian field team has been the continuing inclusion of this writer from the Archaeology Research Unit, Victoria College, Melbourne (ARU) as a ceramic technologist/potter. The ARU at Victoria College, which operates together with a practical pottery workshop and an Advanced Ceramic Mlaterials Development Unit, uses a multidisciplinary team approach to look at excavated ancient pottery not primarily as archaeological artefacts but as pottery. Within the ARU Dr Ralph Segnit handles the mineralogy, Dr John Hamilton the geology, while Robert Hughan, to whom I am indebted for the testing reported here, handles the ceramic chemistry and fracture mechanics aspects. My role as both a ceramic technologist involved in field archaeology and as a trained potter, is to participate in generating the questions which will form the focus of the team's investigations.

An example A specific example of the type of question which is asked in our team is,"Mow was it that the amphorae used for transporting wine and olive oil in and around the Mediterranean and the Levant survived the rigours of long distance sea and land cartage when essentially pottery is a brittle material?" This question which stems from our knowledge of the archaeological context for this class of vessel then comes to me as a potter for my response. To start with, I ask myself a practical question. If I was to receive a contract for the production of several hundred pottery vessels for the export of wine, spirits or cooking oils, how would I set about it? My proposal would be to mass produce by the extrusion forming process, using a fine stoneware clay, a cylindrical shaped vessel to which was added a base. The diameter of the vessels would be narrow in proportion to the length of the vessels and the walls would be thickish without making the vessels too heavy. The neck would be formed as part of the extrusion 0 process. I would fire the vessels to 1200 C to gain a porosity of about 2% thus rendering the vessels virtually impervious to liquids and thus, obviating the need for glazing or sealing. This would give me a tough and economically produced product suitable for today's market, similar to the stoneware bottles used by several noted Dutch Jeneever (gin) makers. My next logical question is a retrospective one. How did the potters at Rhodes and Cos make their famous wine and olive oil amphorae for export all over the Mediterranean? When all said and done, it would have been a similar set of problems. How could they earn their living by making these vessels in large quantities for the merchants dealing in these commodities. The available m