The surface treatment of handmade pottery is often described in ceramological studies of prehistoric collections. However, beyond inferences about its meaning, few works have addressed this issue in depth. For this study, an experimental program has been carried out, where the main variable being explored was the category of tool involved in the fabrication of prehistoric handmade pottery. Therefore, we start from the hypothesis that different tools generate differentiable traces. A catalogue of traces generated by five pottery tools (pebble, flint spatula, pottery spatula, shell spatula and linen rag) was created, with the aim of characterizing and systematizing them. The resulting macroscopic analysis allowed a first qualitative classification of the traces. Microscopic analysis by confocal microscopy then confirmed the classification with quantitative data. The potential of the proposed methodology for traceological and textural analysis of surface treatment in ceramics is highlighted. Hence, the possibility of discriminating different surface treatment techniques opens new perspectives for the study of prehistoric pottery.

The present study forms part of the research for a doctoral thesis that is still in course and receives funding from the programme Ayudas destinadas a universidades, centros de investigación y fundaciones hospitalarias para la contratación de personal investigador novel (FI 2017) of the AGAUR of Generalitat de Catalunya with European Social Funds. This grant is part of the Project Modelización de los espacios prehistóricos de montaña. Un siglo del patrimonio arqueológico y los territorios pastoriles (HAR2015-66780-P/IP: Ermengol Gassiot), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Gobierno de España. With the collaboration of the project Muntanyes humanes. Arqueología del pastoralisme i l'agricultura al Pirineu Occidental (CLT009/18/00032 Ajuts per a projectes quadriennals de recerca en matèria d'arqueologia i paleontología per al periode 2018–2021, Generalitat de Catalunya/IP: Ermengol Gassiot). The work of one of the authors (N.M.) was supported by a MSCA-IF grant, project QUANT (ID: 792544).

Peer reviewed