Scientific director: Prof. Nicolò Marchetti, in collaboration with Dr. Gabriele Giacosa e Dr. Valentina Gallerani
Period: 14-15 January 2026; 21-22-23January 2026; 26 February 2026
Attendance: In presence
Place: Department of History and Cultures, Piazza S. Giovanni in Monte 2, Bologna, Aula Morandi
Admitted students: 15
Email: nicolo.marchetti@unibo.it; gabriele.giacosa3@unibo.it; gallerani.vale@gmail.com.
Aims
The aims of the pottery digitization laboratory consist in:
1) Presenting a comprehensive methodology for the analysis of ceramic assemblages from archaeological investigations in Southwest Asia/Near East, from excavation to publication;
2) Providing the students with comprehensive knowledge of the open-source software Inkscape, for the digitization of ceramic drawings;
3) To offer a demonstration of three-dimensional (3D) documentation of ceramic vessels using open-source software AliceVision;
4) Providing the students with comprehensive knowledge of the open-source software Scribus, for the layout of scientific publications.
Program
The laboratory consists of ca. 25 hours of frontal lessons including theoretical and practical activities and ca. 25 hours of individual activities which will allow the students to apply the digital tools and methods for the digitization and publication of ceramic material, as learned and preliminarily tested during the frontal lessons.
Theoretical module: This module is included in the 25 hours of frontal lessons, and it will be carried out during the first half of each lesson. Students will be provided with a comprehensive knowledge on how to carry out a complete analysis of ceramic material (from post-excavation organisation to the study of morphology and fabrics, to publication). To this end, published and ongoing studies on the material culture of the Middle Euphrates Valley and Northern Mesopotamia spanning from the Bronze Age (2000-1600 BCE) to the Hellenistic and Roman period (330 BCE-250 CE) will be taken as reference.
Practical module: This module is included in the 25 hours of frontal lessons, and it will be carried out during the second half of each lesson. In addition, this module includes the approximately 25 hours of individual activity. During the lessons, participants will be introduced the use of tools and software useful for the documentation and digitization of ceramic material, in particular the open-source software Inkscape for the digitisation of ceramic drawings and Scribus for the layout of graphic content for publication. Then, the following 25 hours of individual activity will consist in the digitisation of 65 ceramic fragments per participant, relating to the periods and contexts mentioned during the lessons.
At the end of the laboratory, students will have acquired a complete framework of the multiple methodological steps in the analysis of material data and an in-depth knowledge of open-source tools for digitizing and publishing ceramic documentation. By learning these features, students will
acquire an important professional skill which is nowadays highly requested in the field of archaeological research, especially for scientific and editorial purposes.
Suggested readings
Hunt, A. 2016., The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Ceramic Analysis, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Orton, C., Hughes, M., 1993, Pottery in Archaeology, Cambridge, University Press.
Rice, P., 1987, Pottery Analysis. A Sourcebook, Chicago, University Press.
