Material Methods; Considering Ceramic Raw Materials and the Spread of the Potter‘s Wheel in Early Iron Age Southern Iberia

in Early Iron Age southern Iberia. The first systematic use of potter’s wheels in the production of
Early Iron Age ceramics in southern Iberia corresponds to the establishment of pottery workshops
associated with Phoenician trade colonies, dating to the period between the end of the 10th and 7th
century BCE. There are still many gaps in our understanding of how technological knowledge was
transmitted between the Phoenician workshops and “indigenous’ communities that adopted the potter’s
wheel. This paper draws upon a growing body of archaeometric and ceramic technological research to
consider clay selection strategies in these new workshops. Secondly, this paper will consider the role of
ceramic raw materials in the development of new “hybrid’ ceramic forms, particularly grey-ware. It will
hereby provide theoretical considerations surrounding the significance of material cultural hybridity
in answering questions raised by postcolonial archaeologists about identity, cultural transmission and
hybridisation in the context of the Phoenician colonial system.