ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an overview of ceramics classification, from typology and seriation to ethnoarchaeological research to archaeochemical methods. It discusses the data collected through an ethnographic experience in a university classroom, taught by a professor whose main method of ceramics classification is quantitative typology. The book includes class lecture, exercises, exchanges between teacher and student, and a follow-up interview with the professor. It demonstrates that even within these science-based analyses, category negotiation is taking place. The book shows that how a contemporary potter looks at the classification of ceramics. It focuses on the practice of pottery-making and the ways in which potters use language as an additional tool in the creation of their work. The book considers a single set of potsherds from multiple perspectives in order to look at how different classificatory narratives can be created by different kinds of archaeological investigation.
