The focus of this workshop is based on the evidence of black-glazed pottery, from the 4th to 2nd c. BCE, recovered from various sites and contexts located in the geographical area of the Central Mediterranean (modern Italy, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania). The term ''black-glazed ware'', ''black-gloss ware'' or ''ceramica a vernice nera'' ware is employed to describe fine wares with a black surface coating, which displays a certain range of shapes and was used in everyday life as tableware, and also in funerary practices and other ritual events. This type of fine ware was produced in ceramic workshops throughout the Mediterranean, influenced both by the Attic tradition and local impulses.
The key questions we wish to address on this occasion concentrate on various aspects of the Central Mediterranean black-glazed productions.
In particular we want to look at the characteristics of their repertory and the development of shapes and decoration within archaeological contexts, as well as at technological aspects of the production(s) and socially embedded techniques used in all phases of the production cycle. The pottery economics, set firmly within the frame of social development and the dynamics of economic and other cultural aspects, can also reveal insights into the networks of connectivity through which knowledge transfer and exchange occurred.
Moreover, we wish to underline the advantages of integrated interdisciplinary approaches by discussing methodology employed in various case studies, but we also want to address the specific difficulties faced within. Like other fine wares, black-glazed pottery has always represented a challenge for provenance study in archaeometry. The fine nature of the materials makes it difficult to identify distinctive inclusions, even with the help of a microscope. Also, chemical analysis could be biased due to the possible preparation processes of the clayey raw material (i.e., sieving, levigation, mixing), which can modify the original composition. A high technological level was required for the production of black glazed pottery: from clay processing to firing, and also for making the peculiar black slip used as coating. Hence, an interdisciplinary approach is required to study this pottery both in terms of provenance and technology. More precisely, the detailed combined methodology that uses both archaeological (analysis of style, shape, fabric and context) and archaeometric methods of analysis, offers the most reliable evidence.

Organizing committee
Alberto De Bonis, Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Austria
Marina Ugarković, JESH post doc fellow of the Austrian Academy of Science at the Institute of Classical Archaeology of University of Vienna/Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb

Scientific committee
Alberto De Bonis, Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Austria
Verena Gassner, Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Austria
Alessio Langella, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie, Universitŕ degli Studi del Sannio, Benevento, Italy
Goranka Lipovac Vrkljan, Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb, Croatia
Günther Schörner, Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Austria
Branimir Šegvić, Department of Geosciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA

Program

09:00-09:10 Welcome and introduction: Alberto De Bonis, Marina Ugarković

Adriatic region (Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, Italy)
Chair: Marina Ugarković
09:10-09:45 Keynote lecture: Malgorzata Daszkiewicz, Gerwulf Schneider, Patricia Kögler
Analysis of black-coated pottery from Montenegro and Albania using MGR-analysis and WD-XRF
09:45-10:05 Eduard Shehi
The black fashion amongst the southern Illyrians. Essays on the origins, production and distribution of the black glazed fine ware (4th-1st cent. BC)
10:05-10:20 Manuel Fiedler
Black glazed pottery from Babunja, a small colonial site between Apollonia and Dyrrhachion (Albania)
10:20-10:45 Coffee break
10:45- 11:05 Jordi Principal, Albert Ribera, Javier Heras
Hellenistic black-gloss ware from Rhizon (Risan, Montenegro). A preliminary approach
11:05: 11:25 Marina Ugarković, Branimir Šegvić
Black-coated ware from Issa: evidence of local crafts or seaborne cultural connectivity?
11:25-11:45 Diana Dobreva
The black gloss pottery in Aquileia. Fabrics, forms and chronology
11:45-12:05 Andrea Gaucci
The black glazed pottery in the Etruscan Po Valley: productions and methodological issues
12:05-12:20 Adriatic region: discussion
12:20-14:00 Lunch break

Tyrrhenian region (Latium, Campania and Calabria)
Chair: Verena Gassner
14:00-14:20 Francesca Diosono
Black glazed pottery production and consumption in a Latin colony: preliminary results from Fregellae
14:20-14:40 Daniela Cottica, Anna Maria De Francesco, Erika Cappelletto, Luca Millo, Flavia Morandini, Alessandro Sanavia, Roberta Scarpelli
Archeologia e Archeometria di una produzione locale di ceramica a vernice nera a Pompei
14:40-15:00 Bianca Ferrara, Vincenza Guarino, Alberto De Bonis, Vincenzo Morra, Celestino Grifa, Alessio Langella
La ceramica a vernice nera tra Cuma e il territorio di Paestum tra il V e il II sec. a.C.
15:00-15:20 Antonia Serritella
Il contributo delle analisi tipologiche e archeometriche alla definizione delle produzioni ceramiche dei siti del golfo di Salerno (Campania – Italia)
15:20- 15:50 Coffee break
15:50-16:10 Priscilla Munzi, Vincenza Guarino, Alberto De Bonis, Celestino Grifa, Alessio Langella, Vincenzo Morra
La ceramica a vernice nera dell'abitato lucano di Laos (CS, Calabria): definizione di una produzione tra dati archeologici e analisi archeometriche
16:10-16:30 Maria Trapichler
Black Glaze Ware from Velia: Considerations to the identification of provenance by fabric analysis and archaeometric studies
16:30-16:50 Alberto De Bonis, Chiara Germinario, Celestino Grifa, Vincenza Guarino, Alessio Langella, Vincenzo Morra, Bianca Ferrara, Priscilla Munzi, Antonia Serritella
The black-glaze production in the Tyrrhenian coast of southern Italy: a review of the archaeometric data
16:50-17:05 Tyrrhenian region: discussion
17:05-17:30 Final discussion and conclusions


© Marina Ugarković, Alberto De Bonis
e-mail: marina.ugarkovic@zg.t-com.hr, alberto.de.bonis@univie.ac.at

This article should be cited like this: M. Ugarković – A. De Bonis, Identifying black-glazed pottery productions in the central Mediterranean: an interdisciplinary approach. International Workshop, Forum Archaeologiae 83/VI/2017 (http://farch.net).