Mineralogical and Geochemical Characterization of Ancient Ceramic Sherds from Dipsizin Cave Karaman, Turkey

Raw materials of two ancient ceramic sherds ceramic-1 and ceramic-2 from Dipsizin cave were analyzed by SEM-EDS in order to characterize ceramic fabrics. Characterization includes separation of temper and clay paste sections, qualitative determination of mineralogical compositions and percentage calculations of raw materials by region sketching. In this perspective, ceramic-1 is characterized as % 41.83 temper quartz, albite, rutile, lime, organic material and % 58.17 clay paste. Then, ceramic-2 is characterized to be % 37.52 temper quartz, anorthoclase, rutile, lime, organic material and % 62.48 clay paste. Clay paste sections of both ceramics include mixture of clay minerals belonging to illite and smectite clay groups. In comparison, percentages of temper and clay paste sections of ceramic-1 and ceramic-2 differ % 4.31 from each other and variety of raw materials making up both ceramic bodies are nearly same except feldspars. But individually quartz and lime percentages between ceramics differ nearly two times. In this opinion we realize that raw materials are mixed by tracking two recipes. These recipes can be explained by different pottery making technologies and/or different archaeological provenances