Veronika Brychová

Handmade pottery is among the most enduring yet least understood ceramic traditions of Roman Thrace. Long regarded as a simple household craft and primarily interpreted as a marker of local “Thracian” identity, it has rarely been examined as a dynamic cultural practice. To address this gap, this study adopts an integrated multidisciplinary approach to investigate handmade pottery from rural settlements along the Tundzha River in the Roman province of Thrace, focusing on its production, circulation, and use. Petrographic, mineralogical, and chemical analyses identified three distinct ceramic fabrics linked to local clay sources, enabling the reconstruction of regional production zones. Each settlement yielded both locally produced and imported vessels, demonstrating the coexistence of localized production and regional pottery circulation. Notably, all imported vessels originated from the same area of Monastery Heights, approximately 40 km away. Micro-CT analysis of representative samples from all three ceramic fabrics revealed a shared sequential slab-building technique and two interchangeable methods of handle attachment, indicating a common technological tradition across the region. Together, the evidence points to small-scale, decentralized ceramic production based on locally available raw materials. Organic residue analysis indicates that the vessels were primarily used for storing and preparation of animal meat and/or fat, while the presence of beeswax suggests deliberate surface coating. Collectively, these findings reveal a resilient regional craft tradition that persisted within the Roman provincial landscape and indicate that the regional circulation of these vessels was driven by their specialized function.

The study provides a detailed investigation into several representatives of La Tène jewellery. Primarily, it deals with non-metallic decorative inlays from the Late La Tène period, particularly with their application on a metal base. Unique artefacts have been selected for the study, all coming from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. A prime representative of the finds is a torc coming from a La Tène burial site in Prague (Czech Republic, Central Europe). In this geographical context, such finds are rather exceptional. The torc examined is remarkable both in terms of its origin and the production technology utilised, namely the application of decorative inlays made of red opaque glass. Available literature classifies this decorative element as an enamel technique. The highly specific type of red soda high-lead glass applied there was examined using LA-ICP-MS. Based on the trace elements detected, it can be established that the glass is most likely related to contemporary Egyptian production. Other items of the artefact set consist of two Münsingen brooches from Moravia and an exceptional brooch from Slovakia. The latter find was found to be decorated with coral (as confirmed by Raman spectroscopy). Besides identifying the materials of the decorations, we were also able to characterize the binder between individual decorative inlays and their metal base. The analysis of the binder has revealed the presence of birch tar (determined by FTIR and GC/MS). The results obtained expand the knowledge about the production technologies applied to the jewellery from the La Tène period.

Radiocarbon dating is an established method that helps to determine the absolute age of archaeological finds. This topical review presents the basic principles of the radiocarbon method, conventions for selecting samples from archaeological contexts, how to handle samples before sending them to the radiocarbon laboratory, laboratory methods for sample preparation, the AMS measurement procedure, and the cali bration of results. Factors that limit the results of radiocarbon dating, particularly radiocarbon plateaux and the reservoir effect, are explained along with the ways how to recognise and eliminate their influence. The main aim of the paper is to critically evaluate the application of radiocarbon dating to less common archaeological samples (lipids preserved in the pores of pottery, charred bone, dental calculus, iron objects and iron slags, mortar, pollen and phytolith concentrates extracted from sediments or soils). Their dating opens new possibilities for the chronological determination of past natural and cultural processes or events. radiocarbon dating-lipids-charred bones-dental calculus-iron-mortar-pollen and phytolith con centrates

Compound-specific radiocarbon analysis has played important role in the methodology applied in radiocarbon dating since the development of modern analytical instrumentation. Thank to this evolution it is nowadays possible to radiocarbon date samples which would be normally considered as undatable due to their heterogenous nature or secondary contamination. The aim of this review is to introduce molecular-specific radiocarbon dating approach and show some particular applications already successfully tested and used in radiocarbon dating.

The history of radiocarbon dating is defined by several major milestones – its own discovery, the forced revision of basic principles, the discovery of accelerator mass spectrometry and anthropogenic influences. The current capabilities of the method are demonstrated through two forensic applications in the field of crime against humans and endangered species. Historie radiouhlíkového datování je vymezena několika zásadními milníky – vlastním objevem, vynucenou revizí základních principů, objevem urychlovačové hmotnostní spektrometrie a antropogenními vlivy. Současné možnosti metody jsou ukázány na dvou forenzních aplikacích v oblasti trestné činnosti páchané na lidech i ohrožených druzích zvířat.