Estimation of firing temperature of some archaeological pottery shreds excavated recently in Tamilnadu, India

An attempt has been made in the present work to estimate the firing temperature of the archaeological pottery shreds excavated from the three archaeological sites namely Maligaimedu, Thiruverkadu and Palur in the state of Tamilnadu in INDIA. The lower limit of firing temperature of the Archaeological pottery shreds were estimated by refiring the samples to different temperatures and recording the corresponding FT-IR spectrum. The firing methods and conditions of firing were inferred from the characteristic absorption positions and the bands observed due to the presence of magnetite and hematite in the samples. In addition, the Scanning Electron Microscopic analysis were carried out to study the internal morphology, vitrification factor and the upper limit of the firing temperature of the potteries fired at the time of manufacture.