Kostalena Michelaki - Associate Professor
		Contact Information Phone: 905 525 9140, ext. 23913 Email: michela@mcmaster.ca		Educational Interests Courses Research & Supervisory Interests Publications CV

My research examines human technological decision-making and the factors that affect it in the long term, through the interdisciplinary analysis of archaeological ceramics. I adopt an integrated and holistic stance towards technology, seeing it as simultaneously social, technical and traditional. As a result, I examine the complete production chain as a socially meaningful process, rather than as a mechanically governed series of actions. Instead of focusing on the constraints that mechanical properties of raw materials and performance characteristics of finished vessels place upon a potter, I pay attention to the specific ways in which potters choose to meet these constraints. Central to my research is the ability to observe and interpret the effects of human choices on material culture. To achieve this goal I combine macroscopic, mineralogical (e.g. petrographic analysis and X-Ray Diffraction) and physico-chemical (e.g. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis, Scanning Electron  Microscopy) analyses of archaeological ceramics, with raw materials survey and experimental projects.
 

Pinched bowl	Coil break	Slabs
SEM picture of low fired ceramic	SEM picture: bloating suggests reducing conditions and fast heating rate	Thin section petrographic image of Neolithic sherd from Umbro, Calabria

With Canada Foundation for Innovation, New Opportunities funding I established the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research on Archaeological Ceramics (LIRAC).

LIRAC - Microscopy Room (KTH B130)

LIRAC - Wet Room (KTH-B131)

Alice Pidruczny, Kostalena Michelaki and Ron Hancock at the Instrumental Neutron Activation Laboratory, McMaster Nuclear Reactor.

Pat Nicholson, Kostalena Michelaki and David wilkinson at the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research

  
I am currently involved in the Bova Marina Archaeological Project (Universities of Cambridge and Leicester) in Calabria, Italy. I seek to understand the logic of ceramic technological decision-making in Calabrian prehistory. I explore the ways in which a) environmental, mechanical and functional factors, b) a given social context and c) cultural tradition came together and influenced the intellectual and physical ways in which individuals and communities interacted with their material world. My methodology involves a Raw Materials Survey, Experimental Archaeology and Laboratory Analyses of clays and ceramic samples from five closely spaced archaeological sites on the Umbro Plateau of Bova Marina that range from the Early Neolithic to the Classical Greek period.

Bova Marina, Calabria, Italy

Raw materials survey at the Umbro Plateau

Crushing clay for making experimental pots	Preparing the clay paste
Forming experimental pots	Scraping
Burnishing	Preheating

I am also interested in Iroquoian ceramic technologies and specifically the introduction of shell-tempering techniques to Neutral Iroquoian assemblages.  Available here are my paper and presentation to the May, 2006 CAA conference on this topic.

My interests also include the improvement of scientific methods to better serve the analysis of archaeological material. I currently hold a SSHRC-RDI grant, in collaboration with Dr. David Wilkinson and Dr. Pat Nicholson from the department of Engineering and Materials Science, to improve the way in which we study ancient ceramic bonfire firings.

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Publications

Books

Michelaki, K. 2006 Household Economies: Production and Consumption of Household Ceramics among the Maros Villagers of Bronze Age Hungary. BAR International Series 1503. Archaeopress, England.

Book Chapters and Journal Articles

Michelaki, K.

In press Pottery Making Among the Maros Villagers of Bronze Age Hungary: Considering the Craft in its Social and Technical Context, in Embedded Technologies: Reworking Technological Studies in Archaeology. Edited by B. Boyd and B. Sillar (Accepted in final form: Berg Publishers).

In press Ceramic Pots from the Maros Villages: a Technological and Functional Analysis, in The Villages of the Maros: Excavations in Kiszombor-Új-Élet and Klárafalva-Hajdova by the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. Edited by J. O’Shea (accepted in final form: University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology Press).

2002 Integrating Typological and Physico-Chemical Approaches to Examine the Potters’ Choices: a Case from Bronze Age Hungary, Modern Trends in Scientific Studies on Ancient Ceramics. Edited by V. Kilikoglou, A. Hein, and Y. Maniatis. BAR International Series 1011, pp. 313-322, Oxford.

1996 Ceramic Production Among the Maros Villagers of Bronze Age Hungary, in Craft Specialization: Operational Sequences and Beyond. Papers from the EAA Third Annual Meeting at Ravenna 1997. Edited by S. Milliken and M. Vidale. BAR International Series 720, vol. IV, pp. 77-87, Oxford.

Robb, J. and Michelaki, K.

In press. Agency, Skill, and Creativity: Pottery Decoration in Neolithic Southern Italy, in Excavating the Mind: Cross-Sections Through Culture, Cognition and Materiality. Edited by M. Jessen, N. Johannsen, and J. Jensen. (Accepted in final form: University of Aarhus Press.)

Foxhall, L., Lazrus, P., Michelaki, K., Robb, J., Van Hove, D., and Yoon, D.

In press The Changing Landscapes of Bova Marina, Calabria, in Human Occupation of Upland Landscapes in Sicilian Prehistory and History. Edited by M. Fitzjohn. (Accepted in final form: Accordia Research Centre, University of London.)

Book Reviews

Michelaki, K.

2001 Reading the Past: A Book Review, in Archaeology Odyssey, 2001, pp. 56-58. Biblical Archaeology Society, Washington D.C.

Reports

Michelaki, K.

2004 The Ceramic Technology Analysis, in Bova Marina Archaeological Project Survey and Excavations: Preliminary Report, 2004 Season. Report Submitted to the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Calabria. Edited by L. Foxhall. School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, pp. 40-56.

2002 On-going analysis of Umbro Neolithic pottery: INAA chemical analysis, in Bova Marina Archaeological Project, Survey and Excavations: Preliminary Report, 2002 Season. Report Submitted to the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Calabria. Edited by J. Robb, Cambridge University, pp. 36-42.

Michelaki, K. and Robb. J.

2004 Post-Excavation Analyses of Prehistoric Finds, in Bova Marina Archaeological Project Survey and Excavations: Preliminary Report, 2004 Season. Report Submitted to the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Calabria. Edited by L. Foxhall. School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, pp. 39-40.

1999 Prehistoric Ceramics from Umbro: Initial Functional Analysis, in Bova Marina Archaeological Project, Survey and Excavations: Preliminary Report, 2000 Season. Report Submitted to the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Calabria. Edited by J. Robb, University of Southampton, pp.21-24.

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