From pots to people : a ceramic approach to the archaeological interpretation of plough-soil assemblages in Late Roman Cyprus
During the Roman period pottery was used in all aspects of life causing a correlation between assemblage, composition and site use. Of course, the state of the pottery collected from the surface is transformed by formation processes. Complex research strategies are formulated in order to work around this. This dissertation explores the theoretical perspectives of plough-soil assemblages and the correlation between artefact and use with the aim of suggesting a research strategy for hypothesising about the general activities taking place at different ancient rural sites identified by survey. The use typology is put forward as an analytical tool which allows us to study systematically the artefactual variability in the plough-soil assemblages related to activity differentiation. The method consists of seeking empirically generalised pottery indexes of different human activities by sorting the pottery according to a use typology and study the relative proportional distribution, the artefactual variability of the assemblage. The data used in the dissertation come from Late Roman Cyprus and the pottery indexes proposed here are chronologically, spatially, and culturally specific to this in a broader context; however
Jacobsen, K. W.
From pots to people : a ceramic approach to the archaeological interpretation of plough-soil assemblages in Late Roman Cyprus. During the Roman period pottery was used in all aspects of life causing a correlation between assemblage, composition and site use. Of course, the state of the pottery collected from the surface is transformed by formation processes. Complex research strategies are formulated in order to work around this. This dissertation explores the theoretical perspectives of plough-soil assemblages and the correlation between artefact and use with the aim of suggesting a research strategy for hypothesising about the general activities taking place at different ancient rural sites identified by survey. The use typology is put forward as an analytical tool which allows us to study systematically the artefactual variability in the plough-soil assemblages related to activity differentiation. The method consists of seeking empirically generalised pottery indexes of different human activities by sorting the pottery according to a use typology and study the relative proportional distribution, the artefactual variability of the assemblage. The data used in the dissertation come from Late Roman Cyprus and the pottery indexes proposed here are chronologically, spatially, and culturally specific to this in a broader context; however
pot people ceramic archaeological_interpretation plough soil assemblage late roman cyprus roman_period pottery use aspect_life cause correlation assemblage composition site use course state pottery collect surface transform formation_process complex strategy formulate order work around this explores theoretical_perspective plough soil assemblage correlation artefact use aim suggest strategy hypothesise general activity_take_place different ancient rural_site identify survey use typology put_forward analytical_tool allow study systematically artefactual variability plough soil assemblage relate activity differentiation method_consist seek empirically generalise pottery index different human_activity sort pottery accord use typology study relative proportional distribution artefactual variability assemblage data_use come late roman cyprus pottery index propose chronologically spatially culturally_specific broad_context however