Voices From the Field (2024-11-20)
We are proud to announce another completed PhD from the Kaymakçı team! This time, Assistant Director Tunç Kaner has earned his doctoral degree with a dissertation submitted successfully to the Department of Archaeology and History of Art at Koç University. See below for details!
Ceramic Energetics: A Holistic Approach to Pottery Production
Tunç Kaner
Abstract: Ceramics are the most frequently encountered archaeological material and are often used simply as chronological markers or indicators of consumption habits. However, their production is a sophisticated and collaborative process that requires a considerable workforce, raw materials, and time. This dissertation aims to go beyond traditional typological analysis to reconstruct the size, organization, and energetic requirements of ceramic production at Kaymakçı, a second millennium BCE site in western Anatolia.
This research develops a new methodological approach, referred to as “ceramic energetics,” to investigate the processes and necessary infrastructure for ceramic production throughout the different phases of occupation at Kaymakçı. Ceramic energetics combines petrographic analysis, traditional ceramic studies, experimental archaeology, and ethnographic comparisons to assess the labor and resources required for each stage of ceramic production. These stages include raw material acquisition and transportation, water and fuel provision, and firing infrastructure. The research employs quantitative methods, including 3D volumetric calculations and ceramic fabric group classifications, to estimate the time and labor required to produce ceramic assemblages from each phase of occupation at Kaymakçı. This approach aims not only to reconstruct the operational organization of ceramic production, but eventually also to enable exploration of the socio-economic structures communities at Kaymakçı. By examining ceramic fabric types, their phase-specific distribution, and their associated energetic costs, this dissertation assesses how ceramic production may have shaped broader settlement dynamics.
Ultimately, the study contributes to a deeper interpretation of the role of ceramics in ancient societies and provide a replicable methodology that can be applied to ceramic assemblages from diverse archaeological contexts anywhere in the world.