This paper considers how to make the most out of the rather imprecise chronological knowledge that we often have about the past. We focus here on the relative dating of artefacts during archaeological fieldwork, with particular emphasis on new ways to express and analyse chronological uncertainty. A probabilistic method for assigning artefacts to particular chronological periods is advocated and implemented for a large pottery data set from an intensive survey of the Greek island of Antikythera. We also highlight several statistical methods for exploring how uncertainty is shared amongst different periods in this data set and how these observed associations can prompt more sensitive interpretations of landscape‐scale patterns. The concluding discussion re‐emphasizes why these issues are relevant to wider methodological debates in archaeological field practice.

This paper focuses on various categories of glazed pottery, which were in circulation in western Euboea (Greece) during the Middle Byzantine and Late Byzantine Periods. The production technology and particularly the surface treatment of Byzantine glazed pottery have been investigated on the basis of 56 ceramic fragments from a rescue excavation in Orionos street in Chalkis, Euboea. This paper focuses on the manufacture of glazed pottery within the local pottery repertoire of Chalkis, while trying to contextualise the pottery typology and to consider the issues of technology. The chemical analysis by non-invasive energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) provided information about the compositional variation of the examined glazed ceramics assemblage. Moreover, sections of the samples were examined by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to determine the microstructure of the samples, as well as the vitrification and the porosity of the ceramic body. Finally, X-ray diffraction (XRD) was applied for qualitative mineralogical analysis indicating presence or absence of high temperature phases and information about firing conditions.

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