Corded Ware and Contemporary Hunter-Gatherer Pottery from Southeast Lithuania: Technological Insights through Geochemical and Mineralogical Approaches

A geochemical and mineralogical approach was used to analyze 3rd millennium BCE pottery from Southeast Lithuania that is attributed the foreign Corded Ware Culture local hunter-gatherers. SEM-EDS, XRF, XRD, FTIR were study peculiarities of develop hypotheses about raw material technology choices present. The amounts ten major elements in bulk clay matrix compositions (XRF, SEM-EDS) eleven trace analytes (XRF) compared with Clarke values tested highlight significance (Mann–Whitney U Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Tests) differences elemental quantities between compositions, lighter darker matrixes. These also revealed advantage Ward’s clustering method using City-block distance as a tool for inter-correlating ceramics attributing them specific communities locations. FTIR, SEM-EDS analyses indicated predominance iron-rich illite clay, quartz, alkali feldspar, addition very low medium firing temperatures. All samples consisted hydromicaceous Quaternary glacial sediments contain weathered granitoid fragments.