Physicochemical compositional analysis of ceramics: A case study in Kenting, Taiwan

The composition of ceramics does not just reflect the component of some specific, unprocessed, geological, raw material source, but also certain forms of human behaviour involved in its manufacture. The purpose of this research project is to apply the acid-extraction chemical method, complemented by a thin-section petrographic study, to the compositional analyses of certain local ceramic collections (mainly from several sites in the southern Taiwan area). The results present the raw materials that the ceramic manufacturers of the two cultural traditions (O-laun-pi Phase II and Phase III-IV), which overlapped temporally, used. These materials came from the same sources, but the ceramics were manufactured in different ways. Particularly, the people of O-laun-pi Phase III-IV also procured certain materials from either local sources or from somewhere in eastern Taiwan to make their pots. The results also indicate that there might have been a variation in terms of their manufacture among sites of the same cultural tradition.