Shades of black: Production technology of the black slip ware from Barikot, north-western Pakistan

The archaeometric analysis of a set of potsherds of black slip ware found at the site of Barikot (Swat Valley, north-western Pakistan), dated between the Indo-Greek and the Kushan phases (middle 2nd century BCE–middle 2nd century CE), was addressed to define the provenance of this pottery and to constrain the production technology of both the ceramic body and the black external slip in terms of raw materials used and firing conditions. A multidisciplinary approach, consisting in the petrographic, mineralogical, chemical and spectroscopic (Mössbauer) analyses, was used to define possible differences between sherds archaeologically classified as grey ware, northern black polished ware and black gloss ware.