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This chapter highlights the considerable and growing body of evidence for Neolithic activity, reliably dated to between c. 3950/3900 and 3700 cal bc in northern Britain (especially Scotland), which is associated with the use of pottery in the ‘Carinated Bowl’ ceramic tradition. The distribution of this type of pottery extends far beyond the area under review, to encompass much of Britain and much of Ireland. It is argued that the appearance of the Carinated Bowl-associated Neolithic package (and indeed that of other strands of Neolithization) is best explained in terms of the arrival of small farming groups from the Continent. An acculturationist, gradualist position on the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition simply fails to account for the evidence to hand. And even though many writers have highlighted the difficulties of pinpointing an area of origin for our hypothetical Continental ‘Carinated Bowl settlers’, it is argued that the search is neither fruitless nor hopeless.

In the Dichin (north central Bulgaria) store-buildings destroyed in about the 480s, the large quantities of imported Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea amphorae typify late Roman military supply (annona) to the forts of the lower Danube limes. A dearth of amphorae at Dichin for most of the sixth century is linked ultimately to alterations in trading patterns in the Mediterranean as a whole. A slight increase in amphorae shortly before the final destruction of c.580 reflects a significant recasting of supply sources. The few imported red-slipped wares are mostly late fifth century and of Pontic origin. During the sixth century, modifications in the local coarse pottery reflect cultural changes in the region — the decline of Romanized eating practices and the impact of the barbarian social traditions. The wider significance of ‘foederati ware’ for the Germanic settlement of the region and its influence on the technology of indigenous ceramics production are also explored.

Chapter 8 details the trade in those products discussed above. As the conditions that rendered surplus production not only likely, but integral to the functioning of the late antique economy, the chapter turns to explore the scale and significance of that trade. Quantitative study based on ceramic finds is supplemented by textual sources that detail the sustained trade in grain, wine, and olive oil that flourished in overseas commerce and allowed large cities to sustain themselves.

John Hurst made an important pioneering contribution in three separate but interrelated fields: medieval archaeology, post-medieval archaeology, and ceramic studies. Before his lifetime's devotion to these three disciplines, they had not been taken seriously in Britain or Europe, either academically or professionally. Medieval archaeology was still the study of major buildings seen through the records of historians and anti-quarians, and of portable antiquities divorced from their context. Post-medieval archaeology was principally the study of industrial relics. Ceramic studies in the post-Roman period was the preserve of art collectors, anxious to understand the output of major factories and firms, though a few people collected medieval pottery as examples of folk art. It is a measure of Hurst's perceptiveness and persistence that all these three fields are now studied more widely and practised seriously.

Clay is the most malleable raw material used by many cultures across the world. Its fired product, ceramics, are commonly studied by archaeologists, art historians, and anthropologists. This introductory chapter describes the various perspectives and how these disciplines study the ceramics of ancient America and the cultures that produced them. Bringing together a variety of approaches and terminologies used by these three disciplines, this chapter reveals the complementarity of the differences of these varied approaches. Since ceramic objects constitute part of the history and identity of a specific group of people, it is also important to consider the archaeological ethics of studying Pre-Columbian ceramics, especially how archaeologists and art historians perform authentication and respect cultural heritage. Summarizing the unique properties of ceramics, the operational sequences of their production, and considerations of both human and material agency, the chapter also shows how recognizing various ceramic production sequences (chaîn opératoire) enables reconstruction of ancient societies through different disciplines. This multidisciplinary approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of ceramics than possible with any single discipline.

This chapter goes into detail on the materials best suited for applications in, and as sensors and actuators in smart structures. The discussion is divided into ferroics, soft matter, and nanostructures. The star performers among the ferroics are PZT, PMN-PT, PZN-PT, Terfenol-D, and Nitinol. Other single-phase materials discussed are magnetic shape-memory alloys, shape-memory ceramics, and piezoelectric polymers. The terms ‘superpiezoelectricity’ and ‘superelectrostriction’ are introduced by analogy with superelasticity. Among composites, the systems discussed are: embedded piezoelectrics, embedded magnetostrictives, and embedded shape-memory alloys. The concept of integrative systems has gained ground steadily, and MEMS are discussed in this context. Systems covered under sensors and actuators based on soft matter are gels, magnetorheological fluids, electrorheological fluids, shape-memory polymers, and artificial muscle. The development of fuel-powered artificial muscles holds great promise for rapid progress in the field of smart structures.

This chapter discusses the physical principle, design, and characterization of piezoelectric scanners, which is the heart of STM and AFM. The concept of piezoelectricity is introduced at the elementary level. Two major piezoelectric materials used in STM and AFM, quartz and lead zirconate titanate ceramics (PZT), are described. After a brief discussion of the tripod scanner and the bimorph, much emphasis is on the most important scanner in STM and AFM: the tube scanner. A step-by-step derivation of the deflection formula is presented. The in-situ testing and calibration method based on pure electrical measurements is described. The formulas of the resonance frequencies are also presented. To compensate the non-linear behavior of the tube scanner, an improved design, the S-scanner, is described. Finally, a step-by-step procedure to repole a depoled piezo is presented.

This chapter discusses the presentation of the patterns of and the changes in exchange, based largely on archaeology, in particular on ceramic distributions. It argues that ceramics are the firmest support from any account of exchange in this period, and that written sources are a poor guide to the real patterns of exchange in this period. The importance of the archaeological argument made here makes it necessary to begin with the development of a set of criteria which allows one to move from archaeological evidence towards wider generalizations. The chapter presents an initial methodological section, an account of late Roman exchange, and the regional analyses of the individual social and economic developments of each of the regions of the post-Roman world.

The materials science aspects of cultural heritage materials are treated in detail, focusing on their physico-chemical and engineering properties, on the production technologies, and on the processes acting upon them. The most common classes of materials are described, including structural materials (lithics, rocks, clay products, ceramics, cements, mortars, binders), pigments and dyes, glass and faience, metals, gems, organic materials (bone, ivory, amber, resins, paper, textiles), photographic materials. Emphasis is placed on their properties and the relation to their use through prehistory and history. The general approach insists on the concept that each material can be analysed at different space–energy scales, thus each technique commonly provides only part of the information needed for the complete characterization of the material and the assessment and interpretation of the processes involved. Clarifying case studies and seminal applications, encompassing provenancing and degradation issues, are treated and referenced in detail.

This chapter argues that the Late Classic/Epiclassic ceramic style known as Coyotlatelco has roots in the eastern El Bajío of Near West Mexico. Coyotlatelco became a widespread ceramic tradition in Epiclassic Central Mexico. Its chief defining characteristic is its suite of unsupported and tripod-supported vessels decorated with red-painted geometric designs on plain brown or cream slipped pottery. Ceramic data and radiocarbon dating produced from Tulane University’s Ucareo-Zinapecuaro (U-Z) Project (1989-1995) shed additional light on the ongoing debate regarding whether or not the Coyotlatelco style originates with the native population or if it shows evidence of the migration of non-local people into the central highlands of Mexico. The ceramic chronology for the U-Z source area throughout the Late Formative and Classic periods in NE Michoacan begins a discussion about shared decorative modes among red on brown ceramic types that connect Michoacan with societies in both the El Bajio and the Basin of Mexico regions, including Teotihuacan. The conclusions drawn suggest that the Coyotlatelco ceramic style has deep roots in the pottery traditions of the eastern El Bajio and, given the equally long history of various modes of regional and back migration, there seems little need to look beyond Central Mexico for the origins of Coyotlatleco.

This chapter identifies some central habitual patterns that James Deetz believed were the organizing thoughts which were reflected throughout the world of New Englanders, focusing specifically on the eating habits, such as the arrangement of the dishes on the dining table. It also presents a study of Annapolis ceramics, which covers the period from 1700 to 1900, and African American ceramic use.

It is generally accepted in Hungarian scholarly literature that Ottoman soldiers stationed on Hungarian territory did not mix with the local Hungarian population during the Ottoman period in Hungary (1541–1699). However, the written historical sources attest direct contact between Ottoman garrisons and the Hungarian population. This chapter attempts to examine how the picture drawn by the historical sources can be supplemented by archaeological evidence, in particular ceramics. This can be seen in the records of shops owned by the Ottoman Treasury and in customs registers. These sources attest that craftsmen and traders settling in the wake of the soldiers and supplying them were employed in the production and sale of goods that were almost exclusively for the satisfaction of basic everyday needs.

This chapter addresses the production of colonoware pottery at a plantation site in South Carolina. The authors are able to explore the ways this ceramic tradition was used by enslaved persons not only to venerate and maintain core West African cultural systems, but also how the household production of colonoware strengthened ties and created competition and differences among households within the community. They illustrate that by producing colonoware for sale, individual households engaged with the internal economy that thrived during the antebellum period of Charleston’s past. By examining what individual households chose to spend their money on, the authors are able to draw attention to what the enslaved may have valued in their own lives. Producing colonoware gave the enslaved limited power over their own labor, allowing them to make independent choices and decisions about how they would work for themselves.

A good way to start to appreciate what acoustic microscopy can do for you is to look at examples which show unique contrast from the elastic structure of the sample. In glass matrix composites such as borosilicate with silicon carbide fibres, there is contrast between the fibre and the matrix, and also from cracks in the matrix and at the interface between fibre and matrix. A phase of crystobalite is visible where the matrix has devitrified. Samples of granordiorite rock containing plagioclase, biotite, and quartz can be seen, together with boundaries of misorientation which occurred to accommodate strain during the geological processes of deformation of the rock. The composite and rock samples show fringes arising from the Rayleigh waves which are a recurrent motif in acoustic microscopy of stiff materials. Hydroxyapatite, the principal crystalline mineral constituent of bone, can be seen in living cells, with the distinctive contrast arising from the elastic properties and structure of the sample.