Neolithic pottery of Malta : a review of techniques, decoration and firing, including an exercise in experimental archaeology

Abstract

The aims of this dissertation are mainly those of: a) analyzing how ethnographic studies and experimental archaeology shed light on pottery-making techniques that could have been uses in the Neolithic period, and how these compared with the experience or a hands-on modem ceramist. b) analyzing how the chronology for Maltese prehistory was established on the hasis of a pottery typology linked to a number of stratigraphic excavations. c) studying the typological development of Maltese prehistoric pottery as indicated by Malta's main contributors in this field, that is JD Evans and DH Trump, through the fabric, shape and decoration pertaining to the various phases within the early and late Neolithic of Malta. d) being an exercise in experimental archaeology which comprises an attempt to produce, using local clay, decorate and fire a number of vessels, imitating as much as it was thought possible the technology of the Neolithic period - that is without the use of any mechanical means.