Ethnoarchaeometric Study of the Traditional Cooking Ware Production Centre of Pabillonis (Sardinia): Investigating Raw Materials and Final Products

Ethnoarchaeometry can be used to test assumptions in ceramic provenance studies. Within the Late Roman Cooking Wares (LRCW’s) commercialised in the Western Mediterranean some fabrics such as Fabrics 1.2, 1.6/1.7 and 1.9 (Fulford and Peacock, 1984) have been proposed to have a Sardinian origin. This motivated a specific project to explore the nature of cooking pottery on the island and the raw clays as well as the production technologies that have been used traditionally for their manufacture. In this paper, the traditional cooking pottery making in Pabillonis (Oristano province) was studied. First, a field survey in the area of Pabillonis was undertaken in order to locate the raw materials …