ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates briefly the potential and the limitations of a petrological approach to the scientific examination of ancient pottery, and in so doing familiarise those concerned with the classification of pottery with the kind of results which might be expected from this form of analysis. The real value of petrological analysis is evident in the study of the non-plastic mineral inclusions which may be present in the fabric of a pot. To the ceramic petrologist pottery types will ultimately be based on the distribution of the technological attributes, more especially the choice of clay or temper. The thin sectioning of pottery is shown at its best when minerals of a limited geological distribution are identified within the clay body. For pottery which contains a fairly large quantity of sand, a heavy mineral separation may provide an assemblage which can be assigned to a specific geological source.
