One Pot's tale: reconstructing the movement of people, materials and knowledge in Early Bronze Age Sicily through the microhistory of a vessel

This study presents the integration of different analytical techniques and disciplines to trace the biography and microhistory of a vessel from its production to its consumption, restoration and re-use. This integrated approach allows us to discuss the movement of people, materials and knowledge in Early Bronze Age Sicily on a different perspective than the ones previously used. The vessel found at the Early Bronze Age site of Coste di Santa Febronia, in southeast Sicily (Catania), preserves a black resinous substance on the handle and wall fractures. Indeed, the substance was used to repair the vessel after it was broken. Chemical characterization of the substance by GC-MS suggests the use of a heated mixture of birch bark tar and other plants to produce this glue-like material. However, the archaeobotanical study of charcoal samples from the site and paleoenvironmental reconstruction for the region indicate that in the Early Bronze Age birch trees appeared only in marginal areas, such as Mount Etna, where the tree species is still present today. Mount Etna is ca. 70 km from the site of Coste di Santa Febronia, posing the question of whether the vessel or the birch bark tar was exchanged. Petrographic examination of the vessel suggests that the jar was manufactured in the areas nearby Coste di Santa Febronia and, therefore, the birch bark tar was gathered near Mount Etna or swapped amongst communities living between the north Hyblaean and the Mount Etna areas. The tale narrated here through an interdisciplinary approach reinforces the idea that Sicilian Early Bronze Age communities had a deep knowledge of their landscape and raw materials available. More specifically, this study enables us to shed light on the network of people, knowledge and materials between the north Hyblaean and the Mount Etna communities.