Technology and Cuisine. Experimenting with Chalcolithic obsidian-tempered pottery from the Southern Caucasus

Abstract

Raw materials such as obsidian and clay, like the lithic tools and ceramic vessels made from them, have been traditionally employed in archaeological research as two parallel and often complementary sources of information to reconstruct past cultures and societies, modalities of production, and regional interaction patterns. Obsidian-tempered ceramics like those found in the Southern Caucasus during the Chalcolithic period (beginning of the fifth – mid fourth millennium BC) have enormous pote..