Archaeometric characterization of Middle Bronze Age pottery from the settlement at Borġ in-Nadur

A major weakness in the research about Maltese prehistoric pottery has been represented by the paucity of archaeometric data for the characterisation of fabrics. Besides preliminary research on technological issues of Maltese prehistoric pottery production attempted by Martha Molitor (1992), the analysis carried out on a group of Late Neolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Age specimens sampled from the University of Malta excavations at Tas-Silġ (Mommsen et alii 2006), remains the only study that has appeared in this field. Without petrographic and chemical reference points the classification of pottery classes and the distinction of fabrics have been invariably based on the macroscopic observation of sherd surface treatment and the composition of core and body as seen through fractures. This traditional approach has significant limitations (Maniatis 2009)