Sinopoli, Carla M. : University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Review
"Approaches to Archaeological Ceramics will serve well as the basic text in an introductory course
on archaeological ceramics...the book is well-written and highly readable."
--American Antiquity
"This thorough, up-to-date text that leads the student from the making of pots on to chronology building,
the interpretation of function and style, and the practical mechanics of quantitative analysis. The book is at
once an accessible introduction for all students and a comprehensive guide to the more technical literature."
--Stephen A. Kowalewski, University of Georgia
Kluwer/Plenum Website
February, 2000
Summary
In this engrossing volume, Carla M. Sinopoli provides an overview of the scope and potential of ceramic analysis
in archaeology and presents a broad range of theoretical and methodological approaches utilized in such study.
Commencing with a description of ceramic production in a contemporary village in southern Indiana, Sinopoli proceeds
to address the issues of classification, analysis, and interpretation of ancient ceramics, using case studies drawn
from all over the world. Each chapter begins with a general discussion, and topics cover new interpretive issues
that include ceramic ethnography and chronology, production and distribution systems, and ceramic use in social
and political organization. Current directions in ceramic research are presented in the concluding chapter, along
with a section on statistical techniques for ceramic analysis.
The anthropological perspective utilized in Approaches to Archaeological Ceramics provides a highly readable
general introduction to the field for students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Table of Contents
1. Approaches to Archaeological Ceramics.
2. Defining Ceramics.
3. Studying Archaeological Ceramics.
4. Using Ceramics to Answer Questions: I. Ethnographic Data, Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology, and Ceramic Chronologies.
5. Using Ceramics to Answer Questions: II. Ceramic Use and Ceramic Production and Distribution.
6. Using Ceramics to Answer Questions: III. Ceramics and Social Organization.
7. Using Ceramics to Answer Questions: IV. Ceramics and Political Organization.
8. Directions in Ceramic Research.
Appendix: Statistical Techniques for Ceramic Analysis.
References.
Glossary.
Index
