Organic inclusions in Middle and Late Iron Age (5th–12th century) hand-built pottery in present-day Latvia.

The fabric of Iron Age pottery from Latvia has generally been analysed as a body consisting of clay and mineral inclusions. Sometimes, organic inclusions are also found in pottery, either naturally occurring or artificially incorporated. This study discusses Iron Age pottery fabric, specifically focussing on organic inclusions, which have previously not been adequately investigated in Latvia. We experimentally tested firing temperatures to establish the temperature limit for preservation of organic matter in pottery and tested a variety of organic materials in different proportions for the purpose of comparison with archaeological pottery, in order to ascertain the possible content of the fabric used in the hand-built pottery of the Middle and Late Iron Age (5th–12th centuries) in present-day Latvia. Pollen and non-pollen palynomorph analysis was applied with the aim of assessing the possible origin and composition of the organic matter in the archaeological pottery fabrics. The results of this study demonstrate that the dark colouration produced by organic matter in the core of the experimental ceramic fabric is preserved up to a temperature 700 °C. Pottery firing experiments show that chaff and flax shives left medium-to coarse-grained inclusions in the structure, resembling the archaeological pottery. On the other hand, experimental samples with seeds did not correspond exactly to any of the known ancient wares. The presence of spores of coprophilous fungi Sporormiella and Apiosordaria suggests that the fabric of a small number of Iron Age pottery samples analysed in the present study could possibly contain animal dung. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]