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This article presents the results of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of, altogether, 145 pottery and clay samples deriving from five sites located in the Thessalian region of Magnesia: Dimini, Nea Ionia, Kastro/Palaia (Volos), Pefkakia and Velestino. Chronologically, the sampled pottery covers the entire Late Bronze Age (LBA), with a few samples dating to the Middle Bronze Age. Within this broad chronological range, Mycenaean-type pottery dominates, the majority of it being decorated, with an addition of fine unpainted pottery and such used for transport and cooking. Pottery of non-Mycenaean derivation is represented by a variety of types belonging to the early LBA as well as two classes of the early post-palatial period (i.e. after 1200 BC): Handmade Burnished Ware and Grey Ware. Importantly, samples associated with two pottery kilns at Dimini and Velestino were included in the project, although no kiln wasters were identified. Results of the analysis provide important insights into both local Thessalian pottery production and inter- and intra-regional pottery exchange. Local production utilising clay beds around Dimini is best evidenced, with a distribution of its products reaching beyond Thessaly. Two further chemical patterns appear to be associated with Velestino, while an additional two small chemical groups are likely Thessalian as well. In terms of identified imports, the Argolid stands out as the major source of non-local pottery from the beginning of the LBA until the end of the palatial period. Other regions and production localities play a significantly smaller role as sources of supply. On the basis of the study, for the first time the local production as well as importation of pottery in the region of Magnesia is documented by scientific means, opening new research perspectives and strengthening the region's standing as part of the Mycenaean world.

This paper, jointly written by participants of a workshop held in 2021, argues for an increased recognition and application of neutron activation analysis (NAA) in the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean. Discussing the methodological strengths and challenges, it highlights the great potential NAA has for collecting proxy data from ceramics in order to develop progressive concepts of archaeological research within and beyond the Mediterranean Bronze and Iron Age, pointing out opportunities to revisit long-held assumptions of scholarship and to refine visual/macroscopic provenance determinations of pottery. To take full advantage of NAA’s strengths toward a better understanding of the socioeconomic background of ceramics production, distribution, and consumption, the paper emphasises the need for both interdisciplinary collaboration and basic data publication requirements.

The Sant Genis Formation is located in the NE of the Iberian Peninsula (Catalonia, Spain) and is dated to the Priabonian (upper Eocene), being part of the evaporitic formations of the margin of the Ebro Basin. It is formed by a succession of sandy lutites, occasional limestone layers, marls, and local stratified gypsum and cherts, including the Sant Marti de Tous chert. The Sant Marti de Tous chert type is confirmed by its abundance at specific locations within the territory (NE Iberian Peninsula). This is an important raw material procurement area, as evidenced by the presence of this chert in the main prehistoric sites of the region (e.g., Abric Romani) and the constant discovery of new sites in the area around the Sant Genis Formation, especially from the Neolithic period onwards (e.g., Cal Sitjo, La Guinardera Nord workshop). All these features, together with the great heterogeneity of the Cenozoic evaporitic cherts, prompted us to carry out a multi-proxy characterization for obtaining a valid criterion by which to identify this chert in the archaeological record. This very heterogeneity hampers the macroscopic characterization of archaeological cherts (e.g., at Abric Romani), but through petrographic analysis we have been able to identify their origins and, albeit to a lesser extent, their lithostratigraphic unit of provenance within the formation. The complementary mineralogical and geochemical techniques applied in this study show that, although it is difficult to establish an exact origin, through intensive sampling and criteria such as the differential presence of Fe and Ca, some differences among the siliceous varieties within a formation can be detected. CLT009/22/000044; PID2019-103987 GB-C3; PID2021-123092NB-C21; PID2019-105796 GB-I00; GV/2021/054; CEX2019-000945-M info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Neutron Activation Analysis was carried out in Bonn on 12th century BC Aegean-style pottery from Maa: Palaeokastro. The results gave rise to a survey of maritime trade at Maa and of winds and currents in the east Mediterranean, leading to a discussion of the date and reason for the foundation of the site.

Mycenaean imports to fourteen sites in north Israel are examined by Neutron Activation Analysis in an attempt to reconstruct the routes from the Mycenaean centres to the main ports and thence into the interior of the land.

This paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary study of Lydian pottery excavated at Daskyleion between 1988 and 2002. Before becoming the satrapal centre of Hellespontine Phrygia in the Achaemenid period, to judge by the historical and archaeological evidence, Daskyleion had close interrelations with the Lydian kingdom. Previous stylistic and macroscopic fabric studies of Lydian pottery from Daskyleion have shown that as well as items produced in the Lydian capital of Sardis, ceramics may also have been imported from other production centres in the region of Greater Lydia (Gürtekin-Demir 2002). New chemical analysis by neutron activation (NAA) of 31 samples from Daskyleion presented here confirms this suggestion. We determined four chemical provenance groups of Lydian pottery, each of them defined by an element pattern which is distinct from the pottery made in Sardis. Although these four provenance groups cannot be located at present due to the lack of reference data from potential Lydian-style ceramic production centres in Anatolia, they prove that other production centres existed outside Sardis. Daskyleion may have been one of those.

This article discusses the results of neutron activation analysis made on a limited number of LH IIIB and LH IIIC period sherds from the Argive settlement Asine, Greece. The analysis indicates that the transformation from the palatial to the post-palatial period, on a local level of a village as Asine, was not signified by loss of contacts with the surrounding world. Rather continuity and interaction prevailed, although with other geographical areas as production and use of pottery in the LH IIIB period apparently had a more regional preponderance. The geographical dominance of pottery assigned to producers in north-eastern Peloponnese and distributed over the Mediterranean was terminated, but other operators may have responded to the demand for pottery.

Our study of Black-on-Red sherds found in well-stratified Iron IIA contexts at Megiddo shows that the earliest examples of this ware appear in an early stage of the Late Iron IIA, radiocarbon dated...

In Weimar the interest groups, particularly big business and agriculture, exerted direct pressure on the bourgeois middle and right-wing parties and claimed also personal concessions where the composition of the leadership and of the Reichstag delegation were concerned. The Social Democrats’ room for manauvre was also limited by the increasing influence of the Free Trade Unions which filled up to a third of their Reichstag seats. The erroneous assumption that they could solve the crisis in production costs by expanding capacity in the steel and coal industry intensified social tensions. Official speakers of the Federal government tend to interpret the failure of Weimar democracy as a result of increasing radicalism of the political left and the political right which eventually strangled the Republic under the pressure of the world economic crisis. An evaluation of the domestic factors leading to the dissolution of the Republic should not overrate the shortcomings of the Weimar constitution, especially in respect of its plebiscitarian elements.

Two Early Helladic II terracotta rollers from the Third Terrace at Asine are presented. The objects, used to impress relief decoration on pithoi and hearths, are unique in that no other examples are known from the Early Bronze Age Aegean. Their origin is discussed based on chemical characterization and their depositional contexts are reviewed from an archaeological perspective. Although there are no known impressions from these rollers on pithoi and hearths at Asine, it is shown that their owners surrounded themselves with different objects featuring similar glyptic impressions. Two such impressions find identical parallels at Tiryns and the combined evidence strongly suggest that Asine was the home for one or several potters who produced Early Helladic impressed hearths and pithoi.

The interdisciplinary study of Egyptian- and Greek-style pottery found in the Nile Delta aims to test and expand the potential of different scientific methods to identify regional variation and cultural traditions in ceramic fabrics from a relatively uniform geological setting. Neutron activation analysis (NAA), polarised light microscopy and SEM-EDX analyses were used to examine raw materials and technological tradition in 32 objects, including 15 previously partly analysed pieces, chosen to test the hypotheses of (a) chemical and (b) technological variation between regionally and/or culturally distinct pottery traditions. Several hundred published NAA data from other studies of Egyptian ceramics were re-assessed within this work. Our NAA results confirmed that all 28 objects analysed originated in Egypt, but could not distinguish production centres. Polarised light microscopy clarified the chaine operatoire and highlighted Greek and Egyptian technological traditions and regional variations in the production of macroscopically similar ware (e.g. Black Ware). SEM-EDX was essential in distinguishing different recipes used for slips, suggesting patterns of technological transfer and adaptation.

This paper presents the results of three NAA sample series from Ascoli Satriano (Apulia), Ripacandida (Basilicata) and Monte Iato (western Sicily). Based on the identification of the chemical patterns of each site, the study aimed to outline the range of local pottery production, as seen against the backdrop of cultural contacts in the course of the so-called Greek colonization. For this purpose, colonial and imported Greek vessels, supplemented by kitchen and coarse wares, were sampled alongside traditional indigenous pottery. The chronological framework covered the 8th/7th to the 4th c. BCE. The results revealed that a highly diverse pottery production existed from early on in areas of intensive cultural contacts and wide-ranging networks, as at Monte Iato. More remote areas, on the other hand, tended to remain integrated into networks of lesser scope; in these areas, local production was primarily limited to traditional wares and external stimuli were taken up rather late, if at all. In this context, the results are understood as reflecting potters’ reactions to local demand defined by social differentiation.

Results of the Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of 61 pottery samples of Middle and Late Helladic date from recent excavations in Midea are presented. Chronologically, the sampled pieces fall into two groups, the first of Middle Helladic and Late Helladic I/II, the second of LH III date, with most samples dating to LH IIIB or IIIC. The analyses suggest an Argive/North-eastern Peloponnesian provenance for the majority of the sampled pottery, since 26 of the samples are assigned to the NAA group Mycenae-Berbati (MYBE) and 15 to the NAA group Tiryns (TIR), including their subgroups. In addition to the two main groups the analyses include three other categories: “non-Argive”, unlocated, and singles. The differentiation into a small number of distinct chemical patterns is much more evident in the second chronological group of sampled pottery than in the earlier one which comprises a variety of chemical patterns in a small number of samples. Evidently, during the Mycenaean Palatial period several specialized workshops operated in the wider region of the North-eastern Peloponnese for the production of fine and coarse ware pottery in large quantities.

This paper presents a first large-scale compositional study of Iron Age pottery from Jerusalem, the capital of Judah during the Iron Age II (ca. 1000–586 B.C.E.). A sizable group of pottery vessels was analyzed by petrography and neutron activation. The aims were to identify more clearly the compositional profile of the Jerusalem pottery products and attempt to reconstruct trade and taxation patterns during the Iron Age II in the days of the kingdom of Judah. We present results defining new petrographic and chemical profiles not linked with the Moẓa clay previously associated with the Jerusalem production. Vessels made of Moẓa clay showed diverse chemical profiles, possibly indicating several sources within the Central Hills of Israel. The petrographic and chemical deductions were compared, and the complementary nature of these two techniques for pottery analysis was further emphasized, in particular in regards to the sourcing of highly calcareous clays. The compositional results of the pottery indicate that trade or transition of tax commodities related to sites around Jerusalem may have been more intensive in the latter part of the period (the Iron Age IIB), while evidence for trade with more distant regions is generally limited.

To date, the pottery production of Rhodes, Kos and other ‘East Dorian’ islands and coastal areas remains little understood. This article presents and discusses new neutron activation analysis (NAA) of eighth–sixth-centurybcvessels found on Rhodes and in related areas, placing them in the wider context of past and present archaeometric research. The results highlight the role of Kos as a leading regional centre of painted pottery production and export in the seventh–sixth centuriesbc, notably of ‘East Dorian’ plates. This includes the famous ‘Euphorbos plate’, which can now be attributed to Koan production. Contemporary Archaic pottery workshops on Rhodes, in contrast, had a less ambitious, if diverse, output, ranging from vessels in a Sub-Geometric tradition, imitation Corinthian wares and modest local versions of Koan- and Ionian-style plates to finely potted and richly decorated ‘Vroulian’ cups and black-figured situlae. It was imported mainland and East Greek wares, however, that dominated the island's consumption of Archaic painted wares. This represents a departure from the preceding Geometric period, which was characterised by a local pottery production of considerable scale and quality, although receptivity to external influences remained a consistent feature throughout later periods. As patterns of demand were changing, the island's craft production appears to have concentrated on a different range of goods in which high-quality figured finewares played a lesser role.

This contribution is dealing with Mycenaean pottery from the settlement sites of Dragoyna in the Rhodopes and Koprivlen in the Mesta Valley. The production regions of that pottery could be established by means of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), and we compare the earlier results of Dragoyna with the new ones from Koprivlen. These results give us the opportunity to re-evaluate the development of contacts between the eastern Balkans, the northern Aegean and Mycenaean Greece. Two economic-historical periods can be discerned. The earlier one comprises the phases LH IIB and IIIA1 and is characterised by the importation of Mycenaean pottery and Mycenaean weapons from the regions of the rising and expanding Mycenaean palace state in the framework of directional exchange of products. This could have been linked to gold mining in the Rhodopes. The later period lasted from approximately LH IIIB to LH IIIC Early. During that time Mycenaean pottery from different production regions reached the eastern Balkans, some from northern Aegean workshops, some from the Mycenaean south. In contrast, imports or imitations of late palatial or post-palatial weapons are not attested.

Bronze tripod cauldrons were one of the most prestigious types of objects in Greece during the Early Iron Age (EIA). Because of its character as an exchange object with a value easy to assess, the tripod became an attribute used in the communication of personal status. Consequently, the distribution of archaeologically recovered tripods can be used to identify hotspots of elitist interaction. Fortunately, quite a lot of the extant tripod fragments have a clay core and/or show preserved residues of the casting molds on their surface. In our pilot study with 61 samples from Olympia and five samples from Kalapodi, it is shown that neutron activation analysis (NAA) allows a coherent internal chemical grouping of the clay pastes used in the ancient casting workshops. Furthermore, comparative material from workshop debris and also geological samples allow a geographical localization of many of the chemical groups. In general terms, NAA therefore seems to be an effective method to define production sites of artifacts cast in the lost wax technique. In the case of EIA tripods, sites and travel routes of workshops can be traced as well as travel routes of clients. This provides new hard data for modeling both the political and the economic structures of EIA Greece.

The article reports on the results of provenance analyses by NAA on pottery of Aegean type found at the settlement of Punta di Zambrone in southern Calabria (Italy). The analyzed pottery predominantly consists of Mycenaean-type vessels and to a lesser degree of Minoan-type vessels and was excavated in strata dating to the Italian Recent Bronze Age. The majority belongs to the phase LH IIIC Early while a few pieces are of older date (LH IIIB). The NAA results assign the largest part of the 44 analyzed vessels to production regions in western Greece and mainly to the northwestern Peloponnese. Other Aegean regions represented among the sample include Laconia, Boeotia and western Crete. No local products of the region of Punta di Zambrone could be identified but some pots stem from workshops in northern Calabria. These results considerably change the picture of Mycenaean pottery use in southern Italy from the 13th to early 12th centuries BCE.

Neutron activation analysis (NAA) has been applied to a set of red-figure pottery fragments excavated in Olympia, in Elis: (a) to determine the provenance of these vases, since this is difficult by archaeological means, and the vessels might be local Elean or Attic, Corinthian or Italian products; and (b) to determine the characteristic elemental pattern of the clay paste prepared by the potters of this Elean region. Included for comparison are several Corinthian sherds excavated in Kyme, Italy, that are archaeologically classified as exports from Corinthia to Italy, and fragments of local Italian Corinthian imitations. The majority of the red-figure vases were made locally in the north-western Peloponnese and show the elemental pattern termed OlyA, which is represented in many vases and clay samples from this region that were known previously. It is not very different from the well-known pattern of the north-eastern Peloponnese (Argolid/Corinth) termed MYBE (Mycenae/Berbati), but can be separated by its lower Cs, Rb and K concentrations, as proven by many sherds from the Argolid and wasters from Berbati. Only a few red-figure vessels are imports from Attica, but none come from Italy.

It has been suggested that the collapse of the Late Bronze Age trading networks severed connections between Cyprus and the Philistine cities of the southern Levant. However, the excavators of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon have uncovered two examples of vessels made in Cyprus and then imported to Philistia during the mid-12th century b.c. These vessels are characterized below, and the consequences of their discovery are briefly addressed.

After August 1914 fears of contact with the bourgeois-capitalist society in its Wilhelmine form receded more and more. The markedly national view of most union representatives encouraged the union leadership to institutionalize co-operation with the state administration. It is thus entirely understandable that the Free Trade Unions agreed to the Burgfriedenspolitik without waiting for a statement from the Social Democratic Party executive and that they readily integrated themselves into the war economy. The Free Trade Unions were able to conclude collective agreements for about one-third of total membership before the outbreak of the First World War. The endeavours of the Free Trade Unions to rationalize industrial disputes and to replace them by agreements which would preserve their fighting power necessarily led to a growing interest in collective wage agreements. The reasons for the German union leaders' lack of enthusiasm for engaging in industrial disputes go back to the early period of union organization.

The ‘Dor 2006’ shipwreck was discovered in 2006 south of the Dor/Tantura lagoon, Israel. The hull remains are of a large ship that was unable to enter the shallow anchorage. Among the finds were 20 ceramic items, including bowls, cooking–pots, jugs, a juglet, lids and amphoras. The cargo has not yet been found. Pottery typology, coins and 14C tests of organic material date the shipwreck to between the second half of the 6th and the first quarter of the 7th centuries CE. The construction tradition is different from contemporary shipwrecks from Dor. Petrography and chemical composition analyses of the ceramics indicate an eastern Mediterranean origin.

Using the Bonn statistical procedure to form groups of samples of similar composition and hence origin, published NAA concentration data of Mycenaean pottery sherds from Mycenae and Tiryns measured in Vienna have been newly grouped and, after minor interlaboratory adjustments of a few elemental concentration values, proven to agree with well known Mycenaean patterns measured in Bonn and other laboratories. This demonstrates the importance of a good grouping procedure and also, that data from different laboratories can be used in provenance studies providing a larger reference data base.

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) has been carried out in order to determine the provenance of a selected set of 30 sherds of Mycenaean style excavated at Tarsus-Gozlukule. The provenance could be established or made feasible in 80% of the samples. The results confirm the current status of research, namely that in the LH IIIC phase trade patterns changed and Mycenaean wares, which used to be exported to the Near East, were now produced locally. At Tarsus, the LH IIIC imports came from Cyprus and the eastern Aegean.

Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) apparatus of the last generation was tested to determine its potential for routine provenance determination of clay cuneiform tablets, which cannot be analyzed by “classical” intrusive methods. A group of tablets from Hattusa (Bogazkoy) and from el Amarna, which were previously provenanced using optical mineralogy (OM) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), was analyzed by pXRF and the results were used to establish the grouping according to their elemental concentrations. These groups were compared with the previous results retrieved by OM and INAA in order to confirm their validity. The results corroborate the high potential of the pXRF for non-destructive study of well-defined, ‘closed’ assemblages of clay-derived, delicate artifacts, such as cuneiform tablets, bullae, and fine-ware pottery. Consequently, a group of previously unexamined tablets from Hattusa was analyzed by pXRF and the results are discussed with implications on future research.

Late Bronze Age Handmade Burnished Ware (HMBW) from Tell Kazel was studied by thin-section petrography and neutron activation analysis in order to investigate its manufacturing technology and origin of production. Results show that the majority of the HMBW fabric groups point to a local area of production while a few petrographic loners might have been produced elsewhere in the Akkar Plain or imported. The manufacturing technique, in terms of clay paste recipe, forming and finishing techniques, is however new in the Tell Kazel pottery assemblage, hinting at the work of foreigners present at the site. The historical and archaeological contexts further suggest that these foreigners were some of the Sea Peoples and the stylistic and analytical data further reinforce the link between the northern Levant and the western Mediterranean.

The occurrence of imported Mycenaean pottery in the Late Bronze Age southern Levant is one of the most conspicuous aspects of Eastern Mediterranean trade connections during this period. A group of 183 Mycenaean pottery vessels from 14 sites in northern Israel, from both coastal and inland settlement contexts were analyzed by Neutron Activation Analysis. The results indicate that the vast majority of these vessels have a similar profile and can be provenanced to the north-eastern Peloponnese or more specifically, to the Mycenae/Berbati workshop in the Argolid. Possible interpretations of these results are presented and discussed against the historical and cultural background of the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean.