www.sci-cult.com SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 6, No. 2, (2020), pp. 73-86 Open Access. Online & Print Copyright:© 2020.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Li- cense.(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3724849 CHARACTERIZATION TECHNIQUES OF CLAYS FOR THE ARCHAEOMETRIC STUDY OF ANCIENT CERAMICS: A REVIEW Xanthopoulou V. 1,2 , Iliopoulos I. 1,3 and Liritzis I. 4 1 Department of Geology, University of Patras, Greece 2 Laboratory of Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Patras, Greece 3 ERAAUB, Facultat de Geografia i Història, Departament d'Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain 4 Laboratory of Achaeometry, Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece Received: 17/02/2020 Accepted: 30/04/2020 Corresponding author: V.Xanthopoulou (vxanthopoulou@upatras.gr) ABSTRACT The provenance of ceramic artefacts is one of the fundamental issues in ceramic analysis and is related to the location a ceramic object was produced or manufactured. This, in turn, refers to the clay source from where the ancient potter exploited their ceramic raw material. Being aware of the local geology is crucial to the identification of potential raw materials for the ceramic manufacturing. Thorough examination of clays in terms of composition, plastic behavior, shrinkage and particle size, is necessary for the evaluation of their suitability for ceramic production. A combination of several analytical techniques can contribute to the iden- tification and characterization of a ceramic raw material. The choice of the proper ones depends on different factors, such as precision, cost, time, expertise, availability and the way a researcher would combine them. The present study aims to unfold the criteria of clay sampling and investigate the appropriateness of the most relevant analytical techniques for the fully characterization of ceramic raw materials and thereafter provenance of ceramics made from them. KEYWORDS: ceramic raw material, clays, physical properties, mineralogy, analytical techniques