Tecnologia ceramica e comunità di pratica nel Neolitico del Veneto occidentale (VI-V millennio cal. BCE). Indagini petrografiche e sperimentali

This study investigates ceramic production dynamics in the Early and Middle Neolithic of western Veneto through an integrated analytical framework combining typo-chronological analysis, macroscopic and petrographic compositional analysis, and an experiment al analysis on bone tempering strategy. The research spans the second half of the 6th to the early 5th millennium cal. BCE, covering the Fiorano material culture (ca. 5400–4800 cal. BCE) and the subsequent emergence of the Square-Mouthed Pottery culture (SMP). A corpus of over 1500 ceramic sherds from eight sites in the provinces of Verona and Vicenza was examined through systematic macroscopic fabric analysis. A total of 145 archaeological and 18 experimental samples were selected for thin-section petrography, conducted at the Competence Center Archaeometry of the University of Tübingen. The analytical results are interpreted within a community of practice framework, where petrographic fabric groups serve as proxies for shared technological recipes and their spatial and diachronic distribution as evidence of knowledge transmission dynamics between communities. Petrographic results document a predominance of local raw material procurement and the ubiquitous use of grog as temper across all Fiorano sites, pointing to a consolidated and spatially coherent production tradition. The most significant contribution of this research is the systematic identification of bone temper across all Fiorano-attributed contexts, a practice previously considered sporadic in Early Neolithic northern Italy. Crucially, bone temper is entirely absent from Square Mouthed Pottery material culture (SMP) assemblages, where fabric compositions differ substantially despite a similarly local procurement strategy, constituting strong evidence for a genuine technological discontinuity between Early and Middle Neolithic production traditions. The experimental component demonstrates that low-temperature treatment is sufficient to produce bone temper at granulometries consistent with the archaeological record, suggesting preparation embedded in everyday subsistence practices. Overall, this study reveals a complexity in Neolithic ceramic production that is not accessible through typo-chronological analysis alone and opens new questions about the broader connectivity of Veneto pottery-producing communities within regional networks of technical knowledge exchange.