Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep Investigation of late Roman pottery from Gadara of the Decapolis, Jordan using multi-methodic approach Atef Shiyab a , Ahmed Al-Shorman a, ⁎ , Nizar Turshan b , Maher Tarboush a , Firas Alawneh c , Ali Rahabneh a a Department of Archaeology, Yarmouk University, Irbid 211-63, Jordan b Department of Archaeology, The University of Jordan, Jordan c Department of Conservation Science, Queen Rania Faculty of Tourism and Heritage, The Hashemite University, Jordan ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Multi-methodic approach Late Roman pottery Archaeometry Typology Gadara ABSTRACT SelectedfragmentsoflateRomanpotterysherdsthatwereexcavatedfromGadara(UmQais),NorthJordanwere investigatedusingmulti-methodsapproach(i.e.,typologyandarchaeometry)inordertolearnmoreabouttheir raw materials, manufacturing technology and provenance. In addition to traditional typological analysis, the sampleswereanalyzedastotheirmineralogicalcontentusingpetrographyandXRD,theirchemicalcomposition using EDX-SEM, and their internal microstructures using SEM after refring some samples between 700°C and 1100°C. The results indicated that the Roman potters at Gadara manufactured jars, bowls, and juglets using ferruginous calcareous clays with minimum improvements, while they improved the wares of the cooking pots either by fring at the proper temperatures or selecting and processing the raw materials to fulfll their use. The available raw materials in Gadara and its surrounding seem to be good enough for pottery making, thus, there was no need to import such vessels at that time. 1. Introduction Ancient Gadara is located in a central position in the region of the Decapolis, ca. 120km to the north of Amman on the western bank of Yarmouk River (Fig. 1). The city spread throughout the Roman period and extended to Lake of Tiberius. Although the site was settled from Iron Age up to the present day, the majority of the archaeological ruins at Gadara belong to the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In addition, remains of reused buildings during the Byzantine and Islamic periods are present and a whole Ottoman village has been discovered in the eastern part of the site as well (Browning, 1982; Weber, 1988). Among the most important remains are the Roman theaters, namely, the northern and western theaters (Al-Dahash, 1993), the cemeteries (De Vries, 1973), the ffth century CE octagonal basilica (Guinee and Mulder, 1992).TheDecomanusandCardoarestillextant,whereatthe southernborderoftheCardo,abathislocated100mfromtheMarket, facing this bath is the Nymphaeum another bath called “Heracles bath” is located northwest of the previous one (Weber, 1990). The Depart- ment of archaeology, Yarmouk University, began annual excavations at Gadara in 2011, which uncovered large numbers of archaeological monuments such as: ruins of late Hellenistic/early Roman sport building, early Islamic residential buildings, water channels, many paved shops, and fnally, the most important, podium and remains of Hellenistic temple (Al-Roussan and Al-Bashaireh, 2014; El-Khouri, 2012; Shiyab,2015; ShiyabandAl-Shorman,2015; Shiyabetal.,2017). During the excavations at these architectural sites, huge amounts of complete objects and fragments (pottery, glass, metals…etc.) were collected. Pottery sherds were the most abundant and diverse. Among the heap of pottery sherds, a collection of late Roman sherds was se- lectedfromthe2013and2014excavationseasonsforanarchaeometric investigation. It was determined that going deep inside the body of the potteryobjectthroughavarietyoftechniques,mineralogical,chemical, microstructural, and thermal analyses, (rather than using typology), would yield information about the selection of the raw materials and technologyforpotterymanufacture,andthesourceofclayandthenon- plastic materials, which are the aims of this study. This could help in a better understanding of the technical capability of the potters and trading at Gadara and the surrounding Decapolis cities during the Roman period. 2. Archaeological context of the samples Thesamplesofthisstudyhavebeenselectedfromthelargeamount ofpotterysherdsthatwerecollectedduringthe2013and2014seasons https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.04.003 Received 21 October 2018; Received in revised form 1 April 2019; Accepted 3 April 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: ahmad.shorman@yu.edu.jo (A. Al-Shorman). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 25 (2019) 100–115 2352-409X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T