The article presents an experimental archaeology project dedicated to the painted pottery from Lumea Nouă archaeological site, aimed to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire of Neolithic ceramic technology in Transylvania. Archaeological, typological-stylistic, and archaeometric data (SEM-EDS, ATR-FTIR, and XRD) are integrated with controlled experiments designed to replicate the procurement of raw materials, preparation of clay and ochre-based pigments, vessel formation, surface treatment, decoration through painting, and firing. The experimental reconstruction of a bichrome globular bowl and its red geometric decoration on a light-yellow slip clarifies the technological options regarding clay selection, levigation procedures, the application and polishing of slips and painted decorations, as well as the optimal drying stages. Firing tests in a single-chamber, ground-dug kiln with a combustion tunnel reached temperatures of 600–800 °C and reproduced the “sandwich”-type internal structure of the original fragments, demonstrating that painted pottery can be produced in simple installations. The results provide robust analogies for interpreting the technological traditions, resource management strategies, and pottery firing practices of the Neolithic community at Lumea Nouă, proposing a replicable methodological framework for investigating other categories of Neolithic painted pottery. Through this article, the proposed project demonstrates how integrated experimental and archaeometric approaches significantly refine the accepted interpretations regarding the Neolithic pottery production.
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[2] For explanations on the meaning of the term, see Peter Reynolds,“The Nature of Experiment in Archaeology,” in Experiment and Design. Archaeological Studies in Honour of John Coles, Ed. A. Harding, (Oxford: Oxbow, 1999), 159.
[3] James M. Skibo, “Ethnoarchaeology, experimental archaeology and inference building in ceramic research,” in Archaeologia Polona 30 (1992): 18.
[4] Reynolds, “The Nature,” 159.
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[6] James R. Mathieu, “Introduction – Experimental Archaeology: Replicating Past Objects, Behaviors and Processes,” in Experimental Archaeology: Replicating Past Objects, Behaviors and Processes, Ed. James R. Mathieu (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2002) [BAR International Series 1035], 1–2.
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[8] The explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language: https://dexonline.ro/definitie/tehnologie.
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[10] André Leroi-Gourhan, Le geste at la parole: Technique et langage, I, (Paris: Albin Michel, 1964); André Leroi-Gourhan, Evolution et Technique: Milieu et Technique, II, 2nd edition, (Paris: Albin Michel, 1973).
[11] Marcel Mauss, “Les Techniques du corps,” in Journal de Psychologie XXXII (1936).
[12] Miller, Archaeological, 29–30.
[13] Marcia-Anne Dobres, “Technology’s links and Chaȋnes: The Processual Unfolding of Technique and Technician,” in Contemporary Archaeology in Theory. The New Pragmatism, Eds. Robert W. Preucel and Stephen A. Mrozowski (New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 124.
[14] Ibid., 125; Olivier P. Gosselain, “Technology,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion, Ed. Timothy Insoll (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 246; Caroline D. Jeffra, “Experimental approaches to archaeological ceramics: unifying disparate methodologies with the chaȋne opératoire,” in Archaeological and Anthropological Science 7/1 (2015).
[15] Marcos Martinón-Torres, “Chaȋne opératoire: The concept and its applications within the study of technology,” in Gallaecia 21 (2002): 33.
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[17] See for Vinča A3 Phase Gheorghe Lazarovici, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici and Marco Merlini, Tărtăria and the sacred tablets (Cluj-Napoca: Mega, 2011), 78 and for Vinča A3-B1 Phase Sabin A. Luca, Tărtăria Rediviva (Alba Iulia: Editura Muzeului Național Brukenthal, Altip, 2016) [Bibliotheca Brukenthal LXXI], 25, 84, Fig. 57/1, 89, Fig. 61/4, 97, Fig. 69, 159, Fig. 212, 213, 245, Fig. 167; Marius-Mihai Ciută and Elena-Beatrice Ciută, “New Considerations about Neolithic Development Habitation in the Archaeological Site Limba-Oarda de Jos (Alba County),” in Acta Terrae Septemcastrensis XIV (2015): 62, Fig. 18.
[18] Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici and Gheorghe Lazarovici, Arhitectura neoliticului şi epocii cuprului din România (I) Neoliticul [The Neolithic and Eneolithic arhitecture in Romania (I) The Neolithic] (Iaşi: Trinitas, 2006), 406; Mihai Gligor, Așezarea neolitică și eneolitică de la Alba Iulia–Lumea Nouă în lumina noilor cercetări [Alba Iulia–Lumea Nouă Neolithic and Eneolithic Settlement in the Light of Recent Research] (Cluj–Napoca: Mega, 2009), 159; Luca, Tărtăria, 213.
[19] Lazarovici and Lazarovici, Arhitectura, 406; Gheorghe Lazarovici, “Cronologia absolută, relativă și evoluția culturii Zau” [The Absolute and Relative Chronology and the Evolution of Zau Culture], in Identități culturale locale și regionale în context european, Studii de arheologie și istorie, In memoriam Alexandri V. Matei, Eds. Horea Pop, Ioan Bejinariu, Sanda Băcueț Crișan and Dan Băcueț Crișan (Cluj-Napoca: Mega, 2010): 64; Gligor, Așezarea, 159; Sorin Marcel Colesniuc, Cultura Zau (Constanța: Ex Ponto, 2014), 47, 190–191, 197, 198, 199, Fig. 136, Fig. 137; Luca, Tărtăria, 25.
[20] Gheorghe Lazarovici, Mihai Meşter and Lidia Dascălu, “Cheile Turzii 1994. Raport de cercetare arheologică şi etnoarheologică” [Cheile Turzii 1994. Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Report], in Acta Musei Napocensis 32/I (1995): 546; Gheorghe Lazarovici and Mihai Meşter, “Cheile Turzii, Jud. Cluj. Punct: Peştera Ungurească” [Cheile Turzii, Cluj County, Research Point: Peştera Ungurească] in Cronica Cercetărilor Arheologice din România (1996): 31; Lazarovici and Lazarovici, Arhitectura, 419; Gligor, Așezarea, 158.
[21] Nicolae Vlassa, Neoliticul Transilvaniei [The Neolithic in Transylvania] (Cluj-Napoca, 1976) [Bibliotheca Musei Napocensis III], 20-24, Fig. 3/1–2; Lazarovici and Lazarovici, Arhitectura, 418, Fig. IIIe 15a; Colesniuc, Cultura, 144, Fig. 76.
[22] Sanda Băcueţ Crişan, Neoliticul şi eneoliticul timpuriu în depresiunea Şimleului [The Neolithic and Early Eneolithic in Șimleu Depression] (Sibiu: Brukenthal. Bibliotheca Musei XXIII, 2008), Pl. 235–238.
[23] Sanda Băcueț Crișan and Horia Pop, “Așezarea neolitică de la Șimleul Silvaniei–Str. T. Vladimirescu nr. 7 (II),” [The Neolithic Settlement of Șimleul Silvaniei-Str. T. Vladimirescu nr. 7 (II)], in Arheovest II. Interdisciplinaritate în arheologie. In Honorem Prof. Univ. Dr. Gheorghe Lazarovici (Szeged: JATEPress Kiadó, 2014), 33–50, Fig. 6, 8, 10.
[24] John Coles, “Experimental Archaeology,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 99 (1967): 1–20; Reynolds, “The Nature”; Rasmunssen, “Building”; Tine Schenck, Accessing.
[25] According to Schiffer et al., “New perspectives,” 198.
[26] According to the definition given by Mathieu, “Introduction,” 1–2.
[27] Reynolds, “The Nature,” 158–162.
[28] Linda Elis, “Ceramics,” in Archaeology in Practice, Eds. Jane Balme and Alistair Paterson, 2nd edition (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2014), 207–231; Daniel A. Santacreu, Materiality, Techniques and Society in Pottery Production. The Technological Study of Archaeological Ceramics through Paste Analisis (Berlin: De Gruyter Open, 2014), 5–108; Jaume Garcia Rosselló and Manuelo Calvo Trias, Making pots: el modelado de la ceramica y su potencial interpretativo (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013) [BAR International Series 2540]; Miller, Archaeological Approaches to Tehnology, 103–128; Dan Anghel, “Consecințele metodelor de prelucrare asupra stării de conservare și a măsurilor de restaurare aplicate în cazul unor vase neo-eneolitice decorate prin pictare,” [The Consequences of Processing Methods on the State of Preservation and Restoration Measures Applied in the Case of Decorated Neo-eneolitical Vessels by Painting] in Patrimonium Apulense I (2001): 208–214; Dan Anghel, “Metode și etape în studiul tehnologiilor de confecționare a ceramicii preistorice,” [Methods and Phases in the Study of Ceramics Technologies of Prehistoric Pottery Making], in Apulum 43 (2006): 393–401; Marius Breazu, “Aspecte privind tehnologia de confecționare și decorare a ceramicii pictate aparținând grupului cultural Lumea Nouă,” [Aspects Regarding the Technology of Painted Ceramics Belonging to the Lumea Noua Cultural Group], in Buletinul Cercurilor Științifice Studențești 5 (1999): 43–45; Marius Breazu, “Restaurarea-conservarea unui vas ceramic pictat de tip Lumea Nouă,” [Restoration/Preservation of a Lumea Noua Painted Pottery Pot], in Buletinul Cercurilor Științifice Studențești 6 (2000): 175–180; Clive Orton, Paul Tyers and Alan Vince, Pottery in Archaeology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 111–131; Carla M. Sinopoli, Approaches to Archaeological Ceramics (New York: Plenum Press, 1991), 9–42; Prudence M. Rice, Pottery Analysis. A Sourcebook (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1987), 113–167; Anna O. Shepard, Ceramics for the Archaeologist (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1985), 49–94.
[29] Without exceeding 1 km, the most common distance for the procurement of basic raw materials, attested to by ethnographic research conducted on dozens of pottery communities in different geological areas in Latin America. For more information, see Dean E. Arnold, “Linking society with the compositional analyses of pottery: a model from comparative ethnography, ” in Pottery Manufacturing Processes: Reconstruction and Interpretation (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2005) [BAR International Series 1349], 15–21); see also Dean E. Arnold, Ceramic theory and cultural process (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 39–49, Table 2.1, Table 2.3; Dean E. Arnold, Ecology and Ceramic Production in Andean Community (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 201. A similar situation was noted for potters in the region of Moldova by Felix A. Tencariu, Instalaţii de arderea ceramicii în civilizaţiile pre-şi protoistorice de pe teritoriul Romaniei [Pottery Firing Installation in Pre- and Protohistorical Civilizations in Romania] (Iași: Editura Universității ‘Alexandru Ioan Cuza’, 2015), 147; Ruxandra Alaiba, Complexul cultural Cucuteni-Tripolie. Meșteșugul olăritului [The Cucuteni-Tripolie Cultural Complex. The Pottery Craft] (Iași: Junimea, 2007), 45.
[30] Alina Bințințan, Mihai Gligor, Ioana-Daniela Dulamă, Sofia Teodorescu, Raluca Maria Știrbescu and Cristiana Rădulescu, “ATR-FTIR and SEM-EDS Analyses of Lumea Nouă Painted Pottery from Alba Iulia-Lumea Nouă Neolithic Site,” in Revista de Chimie 68, 4 (2017): 847–852.
[31] Arnold, “Linking,” 17, Figure 1.
[32] Alaiba, Complexul, 46; Arnold, Ceramic, 39–49; Rice, Pottery, 116, Table 5.1.
[33] This is a practice of improving the quality of clay that alters its properties and interferes with studies of provenance affecting the chemical composition; see Ellis, “Ceramics,” 211; Arnold, Ceramic, 15.
[34] Daniel A. Santacreu, Materiality, Techniques and Society in Pottery Production. The Technological Study of Archaeological Ceramics through Paste Analisis (Berlin: De Gruyter Open, 2014), 68; Edward B. Banning, The Archaeologist’s Laboratory.The Analysis of Archaeological Data (New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002), 167; Alex Gibson and Ann Woods, Prehistoric Pottery for the Archaeologist (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1990); Shepard, Ceramics, 52; Linda Ellis, The Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, a study in technology and the origins of complex society (Oxford: Archaeopress, 1984) [BAR International Series 217], 114.
[35] Arnold, “Linking,” 16.
[36] Rice, Pottery, 148–149; Alaiba, Complexul, 37–47.
[37] Arnold,“Linking,” 15.
[38] Sándor J. Sztáncsuj, Grupul cultural Ariușd pe teritoriul Transilvaniei [The Ariușd Cultural Grupul in Transylvania] (Cluj–Napoca: Mega, 2015), 130; Tencariu, Instalaţii, 81–82; Colesniuc, Cultura, 251; Alaiba, Complexul, 21; Gheorghe Lazarovici and Magda Lazarovici, “The Neo-Eneolithic Architecture in Banat, Transylvania and Moldavia in Recent research in the Prehistory of the Balkans,” in The Prehistoric Research, Ed. V. Grammenos (Thessaloniki: Archaeological Institute of the Northern Greece, 2003), 382–383; Lazarovici and Lazarovici, Arhitectura, 185–187.
[39] See also Caroline D. Jeffra, The Archaeological Study of Innovation: An Experimental Approach to the Pottery Wheel in Bronze Age Crete and Cyprus (Exeter: Exeter University, 2011), 50–53.
[40] Alaiba, Complexul, 29, 33–34; Sztáncsuj, Grupul, 205.
[41] See for example Garcia Rosselló and Calvo Trias, Making and Monica Mărgărit, “Spatulas and abraded astragalus: Two types of tools used to process ceramics? Examples from the Romanian prehistory,” in Quaternary International 438 (2017): 201–211.
[42] Gligor, Așezarea, 64–69, Pl. CLXVII/1b-1c.
[43] Based on the methodology for the archaeological and experimental study of pottery formation techniques described in detail by Rémi Martineau, “Methodology for the archaeological and experimental study of pottery forming techniques,” in Ceramics in the Society. Proceedings of the 6th European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics, Eds. E. Di Pierro, V. Serneels and M. Maggetti, (Fribourg, 2001), 210–214.
[44] Gheorghe Lazarovici, Corina Ionescu and Lucreția Ghergari, “Artefacte ceramice din neoliticul mijlociu în Transilvania: Cultura CCTLNI din stațiunea Zau (jud. Mureș),” [Ceramic Artifacts from the Middle Neolithic in Transylvania: The CCTLNI Zau Culture Site (Mureş County), in Angustia 7 (2002): 10.
[45] Rice, Pottery, 125-128; Orton et al., Pottery, 117–120.
[46] Guillermo A. De La Fuente, “Chaine operatoire, technical gestures and pottery production at Southern Andes during the Late Period (c. AD 900–AD 1450; Catamarca, Northwestern Argentina, Argentina),” in Archaeological Ceramics: A Review of Current Research, Ed. Simona Scarcella (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2011) [BAR International Series 2193], 89–102, 98, Fig 14; Aikaterini Glykou,“Pointed-based pottery: An experimental approach to the manufacturing of the pottery of the Late Mesolithic in Northern Germany,” in The Old Potter’s Almanack 17, 1 (2012): 11.
[47] Orton et al., Pottery, 117; Jasna Vuković, “Archaeological Evidence of Pottery Forming Sequence: Traces of Manufacture in Late Neolithic Vinča Assemblage,” in Archaeotechnology: studying technology from prehistory to the Middle Ages, Eds. Selena Vitezović and Dragana Antonović (Belgrad, 2014), 177–198, 179–180; Edward Banning, The Archaeologist’s Laboratory. The Analysis of Archaeological Data, (New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002), 168–173.
[48] According to Yuri Tsetlin, “Experimental Research into Pottery Making,” in The Old Potter’s Almanack 15/1 (2010): 8, Fig. 4.
[49] See, for example, Ina Berg, “What’s in a forming technique? An investigation into wheel-throwing and wheel-coiling in Bronze Age Crete,” in The Old Potter’s Almanack 16/2 (2011): 9–12.
[50] Paula Mazăre, “Tehnici de fasonare a vaselor ceramice,” [Pottery Making Techniques], in Ceramica neolitică – o lecţie de istorie (Alba Iulia: Aeternitas, 2007), 115, Fig. 1; Tencariu, Instalaţii, 52, Fig. 18; Susan Peterson and Jan Peterson, The Craft and Art of Clay (London: Pearson, 2003), 32.
[51] Anna O. Shepard, Ceramics for the Archaeologist (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1956), 57–59; Rice, Pottery, 127–128; Tencariu, Instalaţii, 53, Fig. 20.
[52] Shepard, Ceramics, 63–65; Rice, Pottery, 126; Orton et al., Pottery, 118–120; Tencariu, Instalaţii, 53, Fig. 21.
[53] Alina Bințințan, “Confecționarea experimentală a ceramicii preistorice: tehnica presării în forme de lut,” [Manufacturing Experimental Prehistoric Pottery: Pre-shaped Clay Molds Pressing Technique], in Analele Banatului. S. N. Arheologie-Istorie XXIII (2015): 89–94.
[54] The use of such supports during lifting or (most likely) during drying is attested to throughout the Neolithic and Eneolithic by the presence of textile or vegetal impressions on the bottoms of ceramic vessels. See Vuković, “Archaeological,” 158, Fig. 6; Susanna Harris, “Cloth culture in the Middle Neolithic Square-mouthed Pottery culture of Northern Italy (c. 4900–4250BC) with special reference to basketry,” in Accordia Research Papers 13 (2013): 111–120, Fig. 5–18, 20; Alaiba, Complexul, 54.
[55] See Rice, Pottery, 125; Orton et al., Pottery, 118; Tencariu, Instalaţii, 52, Fig. 19.
[56] Gligor, Așezarea, 65, Pl. CLXVII 1c; Mihai Gligor, “Grupul cultural Lumea Nouă,” [The Lumea Noua Cultural Group], in Ceramica neolitică – o lecţie de istorie (Alba Iulia: Aeternitas, 2007), 46, Fig. 27.
[57]Alina Bințințan, “Arheologie experimentală. Arderea controlată în aer liber – o posibilă modalitate de obținere a efectului cromatic black-topped,” [Experimental Archaeology - Controlled Open Air Firing - A Possible Methode of Black-Topped Pottery Production], in Buletinul Cercurilor Științifice Studențești 19 (2013); Alina Bințințan, “Arheologie experimentală. Arderea în instalația verticală – o altă posibilă modalitate de obținere a efectului cromatic black-topped,” [Experimental Archaeology. The Firing in the Vertical Installation – Another Possible Method of Black-Topped Pottery Production], in Buletinul Cercurilor Științifice Studențești 20 (2014); Alina Bințințan, “Confecționarea experimentală a ceramicii preistorice: tehnica presării în forme de lut,” [Creating Experimental Prehistoric Pottery: Pre-shaped Clay Molds Pressing Technique], in Analele Banatului. S. N. Arheologie-Istorie XXIII (2015); Tencariu, Instalaţii, 172; Felix A. Tencariu and Ioana Robu, “Experimente privind arderea neolitică,” in Carpica XXXIII (2004): 56.
[58] Rice, Pottery, 152.
[59] Alaiba, Complexul, 54.
[60] Santacreu, Materiality, 81.
[61] See also Marie-Agnès Courty and Valentine Roux, “Identification of wheel throwing on the basis of ceramic surface features and microfabrics,” in Journal of Archaeological Science 22 (1995): 24; García Rosselló and Calvo Trias, Making, 35–36.
[62] Gligor, Așezarea, 66, Pl. CLXV/1, 3–4, Pl. CLXVII/1a–1b, Pl. CLXVIII/8, Pl. CLXIX/1–2, Pl. CLXX/3, 5–6, Pl. CLXXIII/8–10, Pl. CLXXV/11, Pl. CLXXVI/7, Pl. CLXLI/1–1a. Analysis by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) allowed for the exact identification of the composition of the black painted layer, which is organic in nature, present on the Neolithic ceramic fragments discovered at the site of Porț-Corău. The black pigment has been shown to be predominantly birch bark tar mixed with natural bitumen according to Polixenia Georgeta Popescu, “Aplicații ale metodelor spectrale de analiză în caracterizarea ceramicii arheologice pictate cu negru,” [Applications of Spectral Methods of Analysis in the Characterization of Archeological Painted Pottery whit Black Pigment], in Sargetia. Acta Musei Devensis V/XLI (2014): 433–446 and Polixenia Georgeta Popescu, Cristian Enache-Preoteasa, Florin Dinu Badea, Emanoil Pripon and Maria Maganu, “GC-MS Spectroscopy as Valuable Tool for the Study of Archaeological Ceramics,” in Revista de Chimie 63, 5 (2012): 470–474.
[63] Rice, Pottery, 150; Shepard, Ceramics, 68.
[64] See, for example Alaiba, Complexul, 63. However, while the slip prepares the surface of the vessel for painting, the engobe appears to have only the purpose of changing the colour of the surface; see also Rice, Pottery, 149.
[65] Ibid., 151–152; Miller, Archaeological, 120.
[66] Banning, The Archaeologist’s, 175.
[67] Breazu, “Aspecte,” 43.
[68] Rice, Pottery, 148–149; Banning, The Archaeologist’s, 175; Alaiba, Complexul, 62–63.
[69] For definitions, examples and explanations, see M. Elias, C. Chartier, G. Prévot, H. Garay and C. Vignaud, “The colours of ochres explained by their composition,” in Materials Science and Engineering B 127 (2006): 70.
[70] See, for example Elias et al., “The colours”.
[71] See Lucia Angeli, Claudio Arias, Gabriele Cristoforetti, Cristina Fabbri, Stefano Legnaioli, Vincenzo Palleschi, Giovanna Radi, Azenio Salvetti and Elisabetta Tognoni, “Spectroscopic techniques applied to the study of Italian Neolithic potteries”, in Laser Chemistry 61607 (2006): 1–7; Zsuzsanna Tóth, Mihály Judith, Tóth Attila Lajos and Ilon Gábor, “Vibrational spectroscopic and scanning electron microscopic study of pigment raw materials and painted ceramics excavated at Szombathely-Oladi Plató, Hungary,” in Archeometriai Műhely X, 2 (2013): 103–110.
[72] See Roxana Bugoi, Bogdan Constantinescu, Emmanuel Pantos and Dragomir Popovici, “Investigation of Neolithic ceramic pigments using synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction,” in Powder Diffraction 23, 3 (2008): 195–199; Dumitru Boghian, Ion Sandu, Viorica Vasilache and Sergiu-Constantin Enea, “Studiul unor probe de pigmenți minerali din situl cucutenian de la Buznea (com. Ion Neculce, jud. Iași),” [Study of Mineral Pigments from the Cucutenian Site of Buznea (Ion Neculce, Iaşi County)], in Orbis Praehistoriae. Mircea Petrescu-Dîmbovița – in memoriam, Eds. Victor Spinei, Nicolae Ursulescu, and Vasile Cotiugă (Iași: ‘Editura Universităţii Alexandru Ioan Cuza’, 2015), 435–450.
[73]Aurica Goleanu, Ana Marian, Mihai Gligor, Cristian Florescu and Simona Varvara, “Chemical and structural features of the Neolithic ceramics from Vinča, Lumea Nouă and Petrești cultures (Romania),” in Revue Roumaine de Chimie 50, 11–12 (2005): 939–949. 944, Table 4; Simona Varvara, Bruno Fabbri, Sabrina Gualtieri, Paola Ricciardi and Mihai Gligor, “Archaeometric Characterisation of the neolithic pottery discovered at Alba Iulia-Lumea Nouă archaeological site (Romania),” in Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Chemia LIII, 1 (2008): 10, Table 2; Bruno Fabbri, Mihai Gligor, Sabrina Gualtieri and Simona Varvara, “Archaeometric comparison between the Neolithic pottery of different cultures at the archaeological site of Alba Iulia (Transylvania, Romania),” in Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyay. Geologia 54, 1 (2009): 25.
[74] Lazarovici et al., “Artefacte,” 9; Corina Ionescu and Lucreția Ghergari, “Modeling and firing technology – reflected in the textural features and the mineralogy of the ceramics from Neolithic sites in Transylvania (Romania),” in Geologica Carpathica 53 (2002): Table 1.
[75] Alan K. Outram, “Introduction to Experimental Archaeology,” in World Archaeology 40, 1 (2008): 1-6.
[76] Joeri Kaal, Oscar Lantes-Suárez, A. Martínez Cortizas, B. Prieto and M. Pilar Prieto-Martínez, “How Useful is Pyrolysis-GC/MS for the Assessment of Molecular Properties of Organic Matter in Archaeological Pottery Matrix? An Exploratory Case Study from North-West Spain,” in Archaeometry 56 (2014): 187–207; Schenck, Accessing, 201.
[77] See, for example Somayeh Noghani, Mohammadamin Emami, “Mineralogical phase transition on sandwich-like structure of Clinky pottery from Parthian Period, Iran,” in Periodico di Mineralogia 83/2 (2014): 171–185.
[78] Horst Klusch, “Considerații critice pe marginea respectării tehnologiei tradiționale în producerea ceramicii populare,” [Critical Considerations Regarding Traditional Technology in Pottery Production], in Studii și cercetări de istorie a civilizației populare din România 1 (1981): 256; Anghel, “Consecințele,” 207.
[79] Marin Nica, “Cuptoare de olărie din epoca neolitică descoperite în Oltenia,” [The Neolithic Pottery Kilns Discovered in Oltenia], in Drobeta 2 (1978): 18, 20–21, 22–24.
[80] Felix A. Tencariu, “Some thoughts concerning the pottery pyrotechnology in Neolithic and Chalcolithic,” in Signa praehistorica: studia in honorem magistri Attila László septuagesimo anno, Eds. Neculai Bolohan, Florica Măţău, and Felix Adrian Tencariu (Iaşi: ‘Editura Universităţii Alexandru Ioan Cuza’, 2010): 126; Tencariu, Instalaţii, 85–89.
[81] Alan Livingstone-Smith, “Bonefire II: The Return of Pottery Firing Temperatures,” in Journal of Archaeological Science 28 (2001): 998–999; Yannis Maniatis, “The Emergence of ceramic technology and its evolution as revealed with the use of scientific techniques,” in From Mine to Microscope: Advances in the Study of Ancient Technology, Eds. Andrew J. Shortland, Ian C. Freestone and Thilo Rehren (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2009), 4.
[82] See also Anghel, “Consecințele,” 210.
[83] See Ovidiu Cotoi, “The Cucutenian painted pottery. An archaeological experiment at Cucuteni (Iași County, Romania),” in Interdisciplinary Research in Archaeology. Proceedings of the First Arheoinvest Congress, Eds. Vasile Cotiugă and Ștefan Caliniuc (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2012) [Bar International Series 2433], 155.
Plate I: Preparation of raw materials. Levigation and decanting. [a-b] – Obtaining the red engobe for painting; [d-e] –– Obtaining the yellowish-white engobe background (the slip); [c] – Keeping the engobe in the form of dry matter.
Plate II: The toolkit
Plate III: Experimental methods of vessel manufacturing. [a] –The pressing technique; [b] – The technique of ‘successive coils’.
Plate IV: Experimental ornamentation of Lumea Nouă painted ceramics. [a-b] – The application of the slip after reaching the ‘critical point’ or leather-hard stage; [c-d] – Painted decoration with red parallel stripes applied with a textile thread; [e] – The appearance of flaking during drying process.
Plate V: Experimental pots painted before firing.
Plate VI: Stages of painted decoration process before firing.
Plate VII: Single-chamber kiln type buried in the ground; [a] – Cârcea-Viaduct, Starčevo-Criș IV (apud Nica 1978); [b] – Cârcea-Viaduct, Starčevo-Criș IV (apud Nica 1978, 20-21).
Plate VIII: Single-chamber kiln type buried in the ground; [a] – Cârcea-Viaduct, Starčevo-Criș IV (apud Nica 1978, 22); [b]– Cârcea-Viaduct, Dudești-Vinča (apud Nica 1978, 22-24).
Plate IX: Schematic representation of the experimental kiln.
Plate X: Building the single-chamber kiln.
Plate XI: The experimental kiln before the firing.
Plate XII: The operating principle of the experimental firing installation.
Plate XIII: The experimental firing; [a] – The placement of the pottery in the burning chamber; [b-c] – Pots in the burning chamber.
Plate XIV: Aspects during experimental firing.
Plate XV: The results of experimental firing; [a] – Lumea Nouă painted bowl-type vessel (apud Gligor 2007); [b-c] – Experimental pots.
Plate XVI: The graph of the temperatures during experimental firings.
Plate XVII: The results of experimental firings; [a] – Compared section view through the wall of some original artifacts and experimental pots.; [b] – Experimental pottery section view.