The CoFIPoMS project, and previous similar projects, have raised multiple research questions and possibilities to be pursued by further researchers or students.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions on the variations in Maltese clay composition. More research is needed to understand their mineral composition and how they vary across the islands. More samples would need to be analysed to build a solid database for future researchers.
Experimental archaeology research requires more samples to be produced. Approaches which are still to be perused include: manufacturing briquettes with clay materials sieved at different grain size ranges; additional firing temperatures and times tested; different “recipes” including mixing marl and clay or experimenting with different tempers (sand, marl, greensand, crushed limestone); and attempting to reproduce slips of different colours. Different material processing (e.g. crushing or levigation) could also be experimented with. More tests can be carried out on the existing samples such as hardness test, compositional analysis or petrographic analysis. Finally, only one source has been used for now, and more clays need to be tested to assess differences across the existing experimental samples.
Work needs to be performed on the possible historic and modern contamination of the raw material sources and how this can impact compositional analysis. The impact of firework debris on clay hills, use of fertilizers, or other pollutants, as well as land management measures should be explored.
When more is known on Maltese clays, comparisons with clays from Sicily (for example from the Ragusa plateau) and other parts of the Mediterranean could be carried out.
On the current sample sets, more research could be done on the identity of the inclusions using alternative characterization techniques which can pinpoint these, such as SEM-EDS.
The sample set can be enlarged to include other pottery forms (eg. amphorae, other utilitarian ware), other time periods (eg. Punic period, imperial period) and other visually distinct fabric groups. This would allow a better understanding of variation according to the shapes and uses of the vessels, and also chronological variations to technological processes. Other sites of the same period could be studied for comparison to assess possible spatial variations or possible differences between site types (eg. funerary, agricultural complex).
Image analysis on micro-photographs to automatize the counting and differentiation of inclusions could be an interesting line of research. 3D modelling of sherds for recording and typological analysis could be explored.
Characterisation of imports could be carried out to compare with locally produced artefacts. In addition, other types of pottery products such as bricks or tiles could be studied.