Using provenance data to assess archaeological landscapes: an example from Calabria, Italy Kostalena Michelaki a, * , Ronald G.V. Hancock b , Gregory V. Braun c a School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, 900 S. Cady Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402, USA b Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences and Department of Anthropology, McMaster University,1280 Main St. West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada c Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd. North, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1C6, Canada article info Article history: Received 27 April 2011 Received in revised form 18 August 2011 Accepted 28 August 2011 Keywords: Landscape Raw materials survey Experimental projects Optical microscopy X-ray diffraction Neutron activation analysis Southern Italy abstract Ceramic provenance studies have helped archaeologists examine trade and exchange in multiple scales, the organization of production, and even vessel function. Yet, they may go even further, to provide a venue for the examination of past people’s perception of their landscape. To do so, a methodology is needed that links the choices prehistoric potters made, as reflected in their ceramics, with the choices their landscape could afford them, as reflected in the extent and distribution of local clays, and the physical, chemical and mineralogical characteristics of these clays. Using the region of Bova Marina in southwestern Calabria as a case study, we have combined a raw materials survey with field and labo- ratory experiments, along with chemical and mineralogical analyses of the collected sediments to understand the distribution and the physical, chemical and mineralogical variability of locally available clays and provide baseline data against which prehistoric ceramic materials from the region may be compared. We show that the local sediments can be divided into three major units, based on their macroscopic, mineralogical and chemical characteristics, that correspond well with the major geological units outcropping in the study area. While two of these units have internally consistent properties, the third is variable. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In the last forty years, ceramic provenance studies have revo- lutionized the way archaeologists examine interactions. Under- standing the relation between where ceramics were produced and where they were deposited has allowed us to study trade and exchange at multiple scales e from long distance, to regional, and intra-regional e and to consider the social mechanisms that made possible the movement of pots (e.g., market economies) and were, in turn, enabled by the presence of ‘exotics’ in a community (e.g., status differences based on access to such goods) (e.g., Bauer and Agbe-Davies, 2010; Bishop and Blackman, 2002; Dillian and White, 2010 and references within). Methodologically, such studies tend to focus on the mineral- ogical and/or chemical analysis of archaeological ceramics, using a wide variety of techniques, alone or in combination (e.g., petrography, X-ray diffraction, instrumental neutron activation, X-ray fluorescence or scanning electron microscopy) 1 . The results are then compared with geological maps and the literature to judge whether the ceramic pastes are (in)consistent with the local geology. Some times, daub is used as a proxy for the local mate- rials, since one would not travel far to procure the quantities of clay required for architecture. Less frequently, a few geological samples from the vicinity of a site are also considered to strengthen or refute arguments for local production (e.g., Muntoni, 2002a,b; Skeates, 1992; Williams, 1980; see, however, projects such as Daszkiewicz et al., 2010; Gauss and Kiriatzi, in press; Kiriatzi, 2002; Minc and Sherman, 2011; Vaughn and Neff, 2004 where emphasis was put on the collection and analysis of local sediments). Geological maps, however, are not always created to represent in detail the distribution and qualities of different clays. It is not always known from the examination of a map how (dis)similar the clays associated with different geological units are, or how (in) * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 480 965 6170; fax: þ1 480 7671. E-mail address: kmichela@asu.edu (K. Michelaki). 1 By now the literature on provenance studies from all over the world is vast. Since a southern Italian case is discussed in this paper references will be drawn mostly from the work in that region. Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas 0305-4403/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.08.034 Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2011) 1e13 Please cite this article in press as: Michelaki, K., et al., Using provenance data to assess archaeological landscapes: an example from Calabria, Italy, Journal of Archaeological Science (2011), doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.08.034