Ceramic Technology of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age Transformation in Northern and Central Europe

The supplement is a more detailed description of the experiments published. The article itself deals with the experimental production of Funnel Beaker pottery, as well as the type and duration of decoration in comparison to Bronze Age pottery in Northern and Central Europe. Production times, surface treatment and tools are presented. Based on the hypothesis that the decoration of Neolithic pottery is more elaborated than the more simply decorated or undecorated vessels of the Bronze and Iron Ages, the chaînes opératoires were documented, the time for the individual working steps measured and compared.
Ethnographic and archaeological observations are also used to investigate the question of household production. Did every household in the European Neolithic and the Bronze Age have the technological and practical prerequisites to produce pottery? Or was it rather a matter of specialised groups that produced ceramics, so-called workshops, as is taken for granted for metal production? While the article considers the latter scenario to be more plausible, the experiments show that the time required to produce Neolithic and Bronze Age vessels remains almost the same.