Articles by Alberto Cazzella

The authors identify different kinds of variability in the production of artefacts: a series of socially accepted types within a certain class of products; individual variations due to a low degree of control in the manufacture; sporadic variations for the desire for variation; variations linked to phenomena of auto-identification of single or a few producers and users versus other ones; chronological variations. The authors attempt to make connections between the different kinds of associations of features highlighted by chi square analysis in the ceramic assemblage of Conelle and those kinds of variability.

The ceramic assemblage described in this paper, coming from the Conelle di Arcevia Copper Age ditch, can be divided into four phases. This substantial assemblage (almost 10,000 diagnostic items) allowed us to undertake quantitative analysis. A first step in creating a database is to define the underlying criteria: it is a truism to say that the selected parameters condition the results of the analysis. It seemed to us impracticable to elaborate an automatic classification being able to take into consideration the recognition of the patterns socially accepted by a specific human group. At risk of a higher degree of subjectivity, we choose to create an intuitive typology concerning shapes, decorative techniques and motifs, handles and raw materials/surface treatments. We tried examining the behaviour of each feature and their association, aiming to understand the synchronic and diachronic levels of variability in the ceramic production; moreover our purpose was to discern the international/ stochastic value of each association of features by simple statistical techniques.