Polychrome Pottery

This thesis presents the results of analyses conducted on 80 ceramic vessels from the Casas Grandes region (Chihuahua, Mexico) currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). This collection, most of which was donated in 1977, was accompanied with little to no provenience information, and no research has been conducted on the materials since they came to the Museum. Drawing upon published studies of Casas Grandes pottery, a detailed coding scheme was developed in order to record formal and stylistic data that could be used to classify the vessels typologically and chronologically. Fifteen different ceramic types dating to the Viejo and Medio Periods (AD 700-1475) were identified. Iconographic analysis was also conducted to determine the stylistic patterning represented in the collection, thus allowing it to be compared to similar collections at other institutions in the United States, several of which were visited as part of my research. This thesis demonstrates the significant insights that can be gained by analyzing unprovenienced museum collections. It also will allow the Casas Grandes collection to be used at
the Museum or in the Milwaukee community for research, programming, and/or exhibition.

The Halaf and Ubaid ceramic assemblages from Levant contain small quantities of pottery with polychromous decorations with «glocal» character. Even mechanisms for its diffusion have not been fully understood, its presence must be conceived as one of the many products of the interaction complex which is at the base of the wide social and material Halafian and Ubaidian networks.

Paper Presented at the Conference: "Archeologia dell'Asia Centrale. Il Turkmenistan Meridionale dal V al I Millennio a.C." Accademia delle Antiche Civiltà/IsMEO - Milano (June, 4th 2022). Organizers: Adriano Rossi - Barbara Cerasetti
(if you want a copy of the presentation's paper please email me: delbravo.francesco@gmail.com)

Paper presented at the PhD Meeting - Free University, Berlin - June, 6th - 2019 (Prof. D. Bonatz)

It presents a chrono-stratigraphical reassignment of the Susa Soundings: Acropole I (A. Le Brun), Acropole II (J.M. Steve - H. Gasche), Ville Royale I (E. Carter).

IF YOU WANT A COPY OF THE POWER POINT PLEASE E-MAIL ME: delbravo.francesco@gmail.com

In Amazonian archaeological discussion the concept of tradition presupposes a keen connection between pottery styles and specific language groups. Multicultural traditions or transcultural adaptions are often pushed aside. Denise Schaan returned to the concept of horizon in order to explain a number of archaeological phenomena from a wide geographical and chronological perspective. Also in this study the concept of Polychrome Horizon is used, but it is divided between Early and Late Polychrome Horizons. At the same time an entirely new area, eastern Acre, and its archaeological sub-tradition Tequinho, dated 50BC-AD200 with its polychrome pottery, are brought into the discussion. Tequinho is situated in the interfluvial terra firme environment, and by its geographic position mediated contacts between the headwaters of the Amazon, the Ucayali and the Madeira rivers.

Aim of the contribution is to stress the intimate relationship which governs the three types of analysis, named in the title, when applied to material culture, i.e. pottery. Taking as a starting point the polychrome ceramics identified in the Pusht-i Kuh region of modern Iran; a detailed correlation of decoration microstyle morphology, aspects of syntactic structures and aesthetic theory of art, will be mashed together to generate a different vision of the material culture in question, as indicator of: social habits, cultural consumption strategies and stylistic behaviours. Each ot the three levels of analysis mirrors corresponding behaviours in the cultural construct at play, i.e. the society/producer of the materials. So once the evidence is put together a clear description of social mechanisms and cultural meanings should be possible. Reached this first step in testing the hypothesis, a second level of comparison, more stratigraphically oriented, will be presented. At this second level a new chronology for central Mesopotamia is proposed, anchoring each of the chronological subdivisions to " first step " elements in the cultural social continuum under analysis. The stratigraphical reanalysis of major mesopotamian sequences, mainly excavated at the beginning of 20 th century, will be based not only on polychrome potteries, which represent a highly specialized class of material, but on the entire corpus retrieved.

To be presented in the next BANEA 2018 Conference - Durham University, March 27th - 29th

The present contribution will take into consideration the peculiar, geographical and historical, developments that took place in the Diyala region across the Chalcolithic and Early Dynastic periods through the lens of material and textual sources. The analysis will present old and new data that will help envisaging the role this particular liminal area of ancient Mesopotamia had in the creation of an urbanized landscape that: differed from the more widely known south and north Mesopotamia, but at the same time experienced a deep influence coming from the cultural areas of the Piedmont and Iranian Highlands (Lapui and Banesh phases). On the other side, it will try to clarify controversial chronological reconstructions about the material flow across the Diyala region during the first phases of urban developments in the area. Lastly, it will hint at textual data focusing on the blurred relation that occurred between the Diyala and the central Mesopotamian region, specifically the “state of Kish”. Or, to paraphrase a long controversy of our field: was it the Diyala part of the “Territorial State of Kish”?