Trace Elemental Characterization of Maltese Pottery from the Late Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age

Abstract

Abstract:The aim of this research was to determine the provenance of Maltese ceramics and to determine the role pottery played in Maltese prehistoric trade and interaction networks. This study involved 236 Maltese ceramic samples, 19 geological clay samples from Ġnejna Bay & Selmun along with 18 ceramic samples from Ognina, Sicily, and four Sicilian clay samples from the outskirts of Siracusa that were nondestructively analyzed using a portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer in order to determine their trace elemental compositions (Th, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr and Nb). The results of this analysis were statistically analyzed using principal component analysis in order to ascertain relationships in the chemical compositions among the samples. The results of this analysis indicate that the majority of all the Maltese ceramic samples have a local Maltese provenance and that pottery played a more significant role in defining the nature of Malta's trade relationships during the Bronze Age. The following study has provided new insights into Malta's role in trade and interaction networks from the late Neolithic to the Bronze Age and has allowed for new ideas in explaining the cultural change observed from the Temple Period to the Bronze Age.

Establishing the Middle Sea: The Late Bronze Age of Mediterranean Europe (1700–900 BC)

“…Borġ in-Nadur pottery has been found in large quantities at 11 sites in southeastern Sicily, including Thapsos and Cannatello, with the largest assemblage at Cozzo del Pantano (Tanasi 2008(Tanasi , 2011. The pXRF analysis of Maltese ceramics found in Sicily shows that they were produced with Maltese clays and therefore imported to Sicily (Pirone 2017). Sicilian pottery of the Thapsos phase is reported from the northern enclosure of Tas-Silġ (Recchia and Cazzella 2011, pp.…”

The Xlendi Bay shipwreck (Gozo, Malta): a petrographic and typological study of an archaic ceramic cargo

“…This study builds on a growing body of existing archaeometric data for Maltese pottery, stemming from the seminal petrographic analysis carried out on the fabrics of two Roman amphorae types suspected to be local to Malta (Bruno and Capelli 2000). This study was eventually followed by a variety of macroscopic, as well archaeometric, analyses paying close attention to the variety of local fabrics dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Age (Tanasi 2011;Barone et al 2015;Pirone and Tykot 2017), Phoenician and Punic (Sagona 2002;Mommsen et al 2006;Schmidt and Becthold 2013), Roman (Anastasi 2019) and the post-Medieval periods (Palmer et al 2018, Palmer 2020.…”