The use of statistical tools in the reconstruction of pottery function. A case study from the Middle Copper Age Carpathian Basin

Abstract

The traditional, typological approach of pottery analysis is often difficult to apply in the case of prehistoric settlement assemblages, as the material is highly fragmented, which limits the possibility of reconstructing pottery shapes and types. Moreover, recent research trends have started questioning the effectiveness of the methods solely based on classifying individual pieces into predefined types. Due to this, a different approach is proposed: the aim of the present research was to perform a functional reconstruction on a fragmented pottery assemblage by combining statistical methods and considerations about vessel usage. It can be assumed that – besides adhering to sociocultural restrictions – potters designed vessels to fulfil primary practical functions. Therefore, it is verifiably possible to identify these primary functions by analysing the attributes linked to them. The study focuses on the Middle Copper Age Hunyadihalom culture’s (3900–3700 BCE) pottery material from Bükkábrány–Bánya XI/B site, located in the northern part of the Great Hungarian Plain. This approach made it possible to include 92% of all Middle Copper Age sherds in the study (16,506 fragments of 9,150 vessels), thus improving the representativity of the results. The analysis was supplemented by a series of petrographic examinations, shedding some light on the raw material usage of the community. The functional reconstruction reveals not only the composition of pottery sets but also the practical considerations and habits of the potters. Functional reconstruction as a method can look beyond traditional typology: it might shed light on how past people thought about the vessels they used and how they created a pottery set that met all their needs, all within the framework of their cultural and cognitive systems.