We are happy to invite you to the online lecture by dr. Noémi Müller (Fitch Laboratory, British School at Athens) on “Archaeological ceramics: analytical techniques and approaches to provenance and technology”.

The Eastern Mediterranean Region has a rich history of research on archaeological ceramics and has seen a wide application of analytical techniques to answer archaeological questions over the last 50 years. Benefitting from a large number of researchers from various backgrounds and an ever-increasing dataset, the importance of integration of archaeological data with results of analytical techniques - providing information on both provenance and technology – has been recognised early on in EMR ceramic research.

From an archaeological viewpoint, only the integration of information on both provenance and technology will allow discussion of issues such as technological transfer, mobility of craftspeople etc, and it is perhaps the increased interest in these issues within the archaeological community which has helped raising awareness on the potential entanglement of these aspects in the ceramic artefacts themselves and - by extension - in the data provided from analytical research on those. The seminar will provide an introduction to a selection of analytical techniques, with emphasis on those that may be considered part of the ‘standard practice package’ for analytical research on archaeological ceramics conducted in the region, and give examples on how both technological and provenance aspects are reflected in data gathered and if and how we may go about trying to disentangle them.

The seminar will take place on Friday 30 October 2020, at 4 pm (Brussels CET) – 5 pm (Athens EET).

This seminar is part of a series entitled “Provenance and technology – separate research fields or intimately entangled? Current perspectives on inorganic materials analysis in EMME archaeology”.

The series is organized by the Centre for Archaeological Sciences at the KU Leuven as part of ‘Promised: Promoting Archaeological Science in the eastern Mediterranean’, a H2020 Twinning project (Grant No 811068).

The seminar is open to all, but places are limited and registration is mandatory.

To register, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

An invitation link will be sent to you on the day of the seminar.

Please feel free to circulate this invitation to interested colleagues and students.

We hope you can join us and look forward to welcoming you!