The project, launched by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), aims to trace the origins of thousands of ceramic vessels, even after the kilns in which they were fired have long since disappeared.
A new Israeli research program is using cutting-edge scientific methods to unravel one of archeology’s oldest mysteries: where ancient pottery was made. The project, launched by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), aims to trace the origins of thousands of ceramic vessels, even after the kilns in which they were fired have long since disappeared.
Thousands of pieces of pottery found at excavation sites across Israel will now be examined and cataloged using advanced scientific methods as part of a joint project led by Dr. Anat Cohen Weinberger of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Professor Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv University, according to a recent announcement by the IAA.
The work aims to create a unique “fingerprint” for each ancient production kiln based on the known mineral and chemical composition of ancient pottery. Organizers say they envision creating a national database containing what they call “genetic sequencing” of the kilns, allowing researchers to propose the origins of pottery even if no kiln exists at the excavation site.
Cohen Weinberg said in a statement that such absences are common.
“In most excavations we found large quantities of pottery but no kilns that produced the pottery,” she said. Without a kiln, it is currently difficult for archaeologists to determine whether a vessel was made locally or transported from elsewhere, Cohen-Weinberg added, calling this gap “one of the core challenges” in pottery research.
Signs warning of archaeological digs in Beit Gufrin-Maresha National Park on December 18, 2025. (Photo source: YOSSI ALONI/FLASH90)
The IAA stresses that identifying the origin of a ship is not just a technical matter. It describes origins as key to reconstructing cultural and economic links, trade networks, population movements, technological influences and wider historical processes.
According to Cohen-Weinberg, the first phase of the project focused on pottery associated with known kilns and analyzing them through two complementary scientific methods.
Analysis method of the origin of ancient pottery
One method is petrography, in which ultrathin ceramic sections of the vessel (about 30 microns thick) are examined under a polarizing microscope to identify minerals and rock fragments. The Antiquities Authority said the method could help link raw materials to the geological environment from which they came, and shed light on the so-called potter’s “recipe”.
The second method is chemical analysis using neutron activation analysis (NAA). The IAA describes this as testing tiny ceramic samples in nuclear reactors to measure elemental composition, including rare trace elements. The origin of the sample can then be inferred by comparing the results with samples of pottery from known production sites.
According to the IAA, this combined approach produced a unique outline for each kiln that could later be used as a reference point for pottery found at “kiln-less” sites. In this case, researchers would compare the profile of the unknown vessel to a database and, if a match is found, suggest where it was built, even if it was discovered far away from where it was produced, the announcement said.
Many of the pottery tested in past studies still have no known origin of production because researchers lack comparative data, and the emerging kiln profiles may help resolve this issue, Cohen-Weinberg said in the announcement.
The research is being developed as a large-scale national project, according to the announcement. As part of this, the IAA said it is building a digital “Kiln Atlas” to consolidate the accumulated knowledge and make it available to researchers through a platform being developed by the agency’s Digital Technology Unit. The atlas is intended to serve as a long-term research infrastructure for studying past production, trade and regional connections, the statement said.
Dr. Mechael Osband, head of the petrography laboratory at the Zinman Institute at the University of Haifa, told the Israel News Agency that the project has great prospects. He has nothing to do with the IAA initiative.
“This is a unique project, unparalleled elsewhere. It will provide infrastructure for many studies covering different periods and will make a significant contribution to the understanding of ancient economic and social connections,” he told TPS-IL.
