Recent scientific research, training and consultancy on ancient ceramics at UCL Institute of Archaeology

The UCL Institute of Archaeology (IoA) has a long history of scientific research on ancient ceramics stretching back to the pioneering work of Henry Hodges (1962), which demonstrated the potential of approaches such as thin-section petrography before it was popularised. Hodges was aware of the technological information hidden within sherds, as well as the value of compositional data for the determination of provenance (Quinn 2013, 12). Many of his original slides are still held at the IoA, including those from his experimental studies into the processing of clay by past humans. The UCL thin-section collection also bears witness to occasional projects by staff and students during the late twentieth century. Despite some excellent work on refractories, archaeometric approaches to pottery fell out of favour at the IoA compared to the study of other inorganic artefacts, particularly metals, in which UCL was and still is, a leader. The appointment of Patrick Quinn in 2011, as a permanent member of the research staff focused on the scientific analysis of ceramics, sought to redress this situation by offering the kind of laboratory training, research supervision and commercial consultancy that he had established at his previous institution (University of Sheffield). Within a few years, the IoA was once more a globally recognised centre for ceramic analysis, and it has since continued to build a strong reputation in the field, including the publication of a key textbook on ceramic petrography (Quinn 2013) and a range of studies of some of the world’s most important ceramic collections, such as the Terracotta Army (Quinn et al. 2017, 2020) (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Patrick Quinn characterising the composition of statues of Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Terracotta Army, China, via non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. This research detected chemical differences that are indicative of the production of statues by two separate workshops working on the first emperor’s mausoleum (Quinn et al. 2020)

Today, the Institute has a vibrant ceramics research team with many PhDs and masters-level researchers, undergraduates and post-docs, who work under the umbrella of the IoA’s Archaeomaterials Research Network (AMRN).¹ A wide range of ceramic wares from many archaeological periods and corners of the globe (Figure 2) are analysed scientifically at the IoA. Recent and ongoing PhD projects include pre-Hispanic Venezuela (Lozada-Mendieta 2019), Harappan period India (Ceccarelli et al. 2021), Iron Age Uganda (Page 2021), sixth-century ad China (Huang and Freestone 2017; Huang et al. 2020; Huang 2022), Ubaid Persian Gulf, Inka period Chile, Neolithic Greece and Bronze and Iron Age Jordan. Annually, masters and undergraduate dissertation projects deliver targeted analysis on equally diverse material, some of which is published (for example, Lewis et al. 2020; Sorresso and Quinn 2020; Ho and Quinn 2021; Barouda et al. 2023; Valancius et al. 2023). Such projects integrate a range of analytical methods, such as macroscopic and thin-section petrography, macro-trace analysis, instrumental geochemistry and scanning electron microscopy. These methods are used to compositionally characterise and classify pottery and other ceramic assemblages, interpret their raw materials and identify provenance and reconstruct aspects of manufacturing technology. This information is used to tackle a range of topics from trade and exchange, migration and cultural interaction, craft tradition and cultural identity, the organisation of production and cross craft interaction.

Figure 2

Location of recent scientific research projects on archaeological ceramics at the UCL Institute of Archaeology

A recent highlight has been Maja Miše’s Marie Curie post-doc on trade and economy in the Hellenistic and Late Roman Adriatic (Miše and Quinn 2022). To compositionally link amphorae from both terrestrial sites and shipwrecks, it was possible to study the chemical alteration of the ceramic body in the sea, compared to land (Miše et al. 2021). Fineware production and circulation in the Dalmatian islands has also been studied as part of this project (Miše et al. 2020).

The IoA is very well equipped for a range of ceramics in terms of laboratories for the preparation of ceramic samples and their scientific analysis via the methods mentioned above. Much time and effort have been spent developing protocols for the non-destructive analysis of ceramics via portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (pXRF) in order to apply this approach to the characterisation of complete statues of the Terracotta Army (Quinn et al. 2020), in one of the IoA’s flagship projects. The resulting bespoke ceramics calibrations have been applied widely to a range of other projects. More recently, the IoA’s Wolfson Labs,² where the majority of ceramic research is carried out, have benefitted from the addition of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to its arsenal. This equipment has been calibrated for ceramics research by Mike Charlton and is already being rolled out within projects to obtain geochemical data of high quality and sensitivity. Combined with scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and mainstays such as thin section petrography, the IoA is unparalleled in the UK in terms of the equipment available for the scientific analysis of archaeological ceramics.

This array of approaches is at the disposal of students across the board, for PhD, MSc or undergraduate research. Hands-on lab training in ceramics and other inorganic materials is provided through the IoA’s long-running MSc in Archaeological Science: Technology and Materials.³ A dedicated module on Archaeological Ceramic Analysis (ARCL0102), coordinated by Patrick Quinn, gives students the theoretical background and laboratory skills to undertake their own research projects on ceramic analysis. The ceramic petrography handbook of Quinn (2013) has recently been superseded by a larger text that also covers instrumental geochemistry, SEM-EDS and related techniques (Quinn 2022a, 2022b). This both serves as a complete course book for ARCL0102 and a reference for MSc and PhD research at the IoA and beyond. Bill Sillar’s Interpreting Pottery masters module (ARCL0100) and Patrick Quinn’s undergraduate Archaeological Ceramics (ARCL0046) module provide training in the wider field of ceramics research, including the pottery life cycle or chaîne opératoire and ethnographic approaches. An intensive training course on Thin Section Petrography, Geochemistry and Scanning Electron Microscopy of Archaeological Ceramics⁴ for external participants, which takes place over the summer break is now in its thirteenth year and as popular as ever with ceramics researchers from other institutions and countries looking for specialist training.

The IoA has long-standing collaborations with other institutions for the purpose of research into ancient ceramics. These include the First Emperors Mausoleum Museum in China (Quinn et al. 2017, 2020), the Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego (Burton et al. 2019, 2021), the Department of Archaeology, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece (Barouda et al. 2023) and the Competence Center Archaeometry Baden-Württemberg, Eberhard-Karls-Universitat, Tübingen (Amicone et al. 2019, 2020, 2021). The latter has seen students from the IoA and University of Tubingen visit each other’s labs to gain training or access to additional equipment. Closer to home, recent collaborations include Westminster Abbey and the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. Two current ceramics researchers are funded through the PlaCe (Training the next generation of archaeological scientists: Interdisciplinary studies of pre-modern Plasters and Ceramics from the eastern Mediterranean) Marie Curie Innovative Training Network, a pan-European project that includes the IoA and is coordinated by ex-UCL ceramics PhD Maria Dikomitou from Cyprus Institute.

Patrick Quinn is the current president of the Ceramic Petrology Group, set up by the IoA’s Ian Freestone back in the mid-1980s (Quinn and Freestone 2018). This group has expanded internationally in recent years and hosts a popular annual meeting on scientific ceramics research, which in 2023 was held at the IoA. Our staff, post-docs and PhDs regularly present their ceramics research at key meetings such as the International Symposium on Archaeometry, the Society for American Archaeology, the European Association of Archaeologists and the European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics (Figure 3).

Figure 3

UCL IoA ceramics researchers at the European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics in Pisa, Italy, June 2023

Beyond research and training, a successful commercial consultancy service⁵ has been running since 2011, providing thin-section petrography, geochemistry and SEM analyses on pottery, ceramic building material, refractories and plaster for a range of companies that include all the main archaeological firms in the UK (Figure 4), as well as overseas clients. The content of these scientific reports is often included in journal publications and books (for example, Flaherty et al. 2020; Roberts et al. 2020; Wells et al. 2020; Cotton et al. 2022; Daniel et al. 2021; de Bootman et al. 2021). UCL’s own commercial unit Archaeology South-East has also a strong ceramic specialism under the direction of Roman pottery expert Louise Rayner.

Figure 4

Location of commercial ceramics research consultancy carried out at UCL IoA (Source: www.ceramicpetroloogy.co.uk)