Pottery Typology versus Technological Choices: An Early Neolithic Case Study from Banat (Romania)

Abstract

During 2003-2006 a project on the Starcevo-Cris pottery was carriedout at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (UK). Theaim of the project was to shed more light on the Neolithisation process ofthe Balkan Peninsula. The methods employed to answer this question werescientific analysis of ceramics and fired clay objects, and radiocarbon datingof samples, from 20 early Neolithic sites in Serbia, Romania, and Slavonia.The ceramic analyses were carried out in order to define possibleroutes of trade/exchange in the early Neolithic and the manufacturingprocess of fired clay objects. The radiocarbon dating was required to definean absolute chronology for the early Neolithic in this region and to identifypossible routes for the spread of the Neolithic (Biagi P., Spataro M., 2005;Biagi et al., 2005).