ABSTRACT

For much of the 20th century research on the Thessalian Neolithic, pottery was regarded as an indicator for different cultural groups; in the course of time, though, pottery was placed in a historically defined frame of productive, social and symbolic relations. Thessaly, situated in the heart of the Greek mainland, stands as a landmark for our knowledge of the Neolithic period in the Aegean. Petrographic analysis is considered to be the most suitable analytical technique applicable to archaeological ceramics for the investigation of both pottery technology and provenance issues. It enables the identification of the mineralogical composition of the pottery and its direct comparison with sediments deriving from geological formations in the vicinity of the site under study. The concept of the chaîne opératoire proved to be very useful for the identification of a number of fabrics, usually ware-specific and associated with exchange networks, which were characterised by different organisation patterns and degree of site involvement.