EAA 2023: Abstract

Mollusk shells, especially of freshwater origin, are raw materials widely used throughout prehistory to make ornaments, tools, and household utensils. Moreover, they were frequently used as a temper in pottery production and as ingredients of building materials. In Neolithic Central Europe, crushed shells were used as a temper in the production of cooking pots but only by specific communities. It was a significant technological innovation as pottery production required different procedures and knowledge related to resource management, manufacturing process, and their properties.
In our studies of the Trypolye cooking pots, we managed to identify shells used for temper production and their provenience. We traced the production process of shell-tempered pots through experiments starting from the making of the temper through the production of vessels and their use in cooking. Multiple analyses such as microscopic observations, lipid analysis (both GC-MS and UPLC-MS), and petrographic studies (thin section and XRD analysis) of ceramic fragments obtained during archaeological investigations were applied. Results from the analyses and the knowledge gained during the experiments led us to clarify the whole process of shell-tempered pottery making, their properties that affect the cooking process, the products cooked in them, what they were used for, and a possible reason for the temper choice.

Neolithic, pottery, shell admixture, lipid analysis, petrography, experiments

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka¹

Aldona Kurzawska²