‘Atlas of Ceramic Fabrics 2. Italy: Southern Tyrrhenian. Neolithic – Bronze Age’ presents and interprets the petrographic composition of pre-protohistoric pottery (6th-1st millennia BCE) found in southwestern part of Italy. This is the second in a Atlas series organised according to geographical areas, chronology and types of wares. In this book 890 samples from 29 sites are discussed, encompassing results of more than 50 years of interdisciplinary archaeological, technological and archaeometric research by the authors’ team. Ninety petrographic fabrics (the potters’ ‘recipes’) are defined and presented based on their lithological character – a tool that can be used to compare different components of the ceramic pastes and to check possible provenance of non-local pots. The volume is organized in chapters focused on methodology, fabric description and distribution, followed by the archaeological implications and the database, with contribution by Andrea Di Renzoni (CNR-ISMA, Roma). Illustrations and descriptions of the fabrics and a list of samples provide a rigorous and transparent presentation of the data. The archaeological implications are discussed through cross-correlatios between origin and technology, variability, standardisation, chronology, function, social organization, circulation, style, typology and cultural identity. We hope that this work will be considered an another stepping-stone in demonstrating that technological variability is as important as stylistic distinctions.

Michael Simpson tells in easy-to-understand steps, according to traditional methods, how to gather and process clay, form several types of Native American pots, make designs and finishes, slip and decorate, and burnish and fire pottery without using a kiln. Simpson (part Cherokee and Yakima) was taught by Doris Blue, a Catawba master potter. Fully illustrated with color and black and white photographs.

This is the first volume to bring together archaeology, anthropology, and art history in the analysis of pre-Columbian pottery. While previous research on ceramic artifacts has been divided by these three disciplines, this volume shows how integrating these approaches provides new understandings of many different aspects of Ancient American societies. Contributors from a variety of backgrounds in these fields explore what ceramics can reveal about ancient social dynamics, trade, ritual, politics, innovation, iconography, and regional styles. Essays identify supernatural and humanistic beliefs through formal analysis of Lower Mississippi Valley ""Great Serpent"" effigy vessels and Ecuadorian depictions of the human figure. They discuss the cultural identity conveyed by imagery such as Andean head motifs, and they analyze symmetry in designs from locations including the American Southwest. Chapters also take diachronic approaches?methods that track change over time?to ceramics from Mexico's Tarascan State and the Valley of Oaxaca, as well as from Maya and Toltec societies. This volume provides a much-needed multidisciplinary synthesis of current scholarship on Ancient American ceramics. It is a model of how different research perspectives can together illuminate the relationship between these material artifacts and their broader human culture.