Petrography and Micromorphology Face-to-Face

occurring in a myriad of forms. We need only think of pottery, which is a manipulated and fired
sediment, or the different earthen deposits that compose the bulk of many sites. Traditionally, the
study of the microscopic and compositional characteristics of pottery has been the focus of ceramic
archaeometry, while the microstratigraphic analysis of archaeological sediments was always the main
task of geoarchaeology. In this paper, the authors explore the potential of a closer collaboration between
researchers dealing with the same type of raw material and often using the same methods (optical
microscopy), who rarely confront the approaches and expertise of the other field. For this purpose,
two samples belonging to the pre-historic and early historic site of Arslantepe were selected for
a methodological exercise: a fragment of an andiron and a piece of a double-vaulted oven. Ultimately,
the results of this work demonstrate that researchers from both fields can profit from a more intense
exchange: one that takes advantage of the expertise developed in answering distinct but complementary
research questions, and calls for the blurring of strict inter-disciplinary boundaries.