Wood, JR;
Greenacre, M;
(2021)
Making the most of expert knowledge to analyse archaeological data: a case study on Parthian and Sasanian glazed pottery.
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
, 13
(7)
10.1007/s12520-021-01341-0.
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Abstract
Chemical compositional data sets of archaeological artefacts are often analysed using standard statistical procedures. Adopting a different approach, we examine the major element oxides found in Parthian and Sasanian glazed pottery by identifying statistically important ratios of oxides in conjunction with the expert knowledge of the archaeological scientist during, rather than after, the identification process. This results in meaningful ratios, both statistically and archaeologically, which help identify the recipes and production practices used by Mesopotamian glass and glaze producers. The application of logratio analysis to interrogate the chronological groups suggests that the silica sources used for glazes were significantly purer in later periods and exhibited less variation. Comparing the expert-assisted selection of ratios derived from a legacy data set to the ratios from compositional data of Parthian glazed pottery recovered at the early 3rd century CE Roman military outpost of Ain Sinu in northern Iraq supports the hypothesis that there was a shift to more standardised recipes in the production of glass used for glazes. If this translates to a centralised glass-making industry, it would suggest that there are, as yet, undiscovered glass production centres, potentially in areas associated with increased urbanisation in southern Mesopotamia around the time of the Parthian–Sasanian transition.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Making the most of expert knowledge to analyse archaeological data: a case study on Parthian and Sasanian glazed pottery |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s12520-021-01341-0 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01341-0 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > Centre for Languages and Intl Educatn |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10129250 |
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