How cool is #RealArchaeology? Well, it's "we now can track down oral #bacteria, human and environmental #DNA from #Neolithic birch #tar which had been chewed thousands of years ago - telling us about Stone Age diet and what this tar was used for" cool. 🙌

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.0092 by A. E. White et al., Proc. R. Soc. B. 292, 2025

Firing the natural colored clays to use for slips did almost as expected.

The gray glauconite wasn't neutral. It fired tan to pinkish tan. The ferromanganese (brown ochre) mixed with the glauconite fired brown. The red & the white are two I've used for slips many times.

I figured the ferromanganese would turn out brown & am ecstatic that it did. Somewhat disappointed that the glauconite didn't stay gray, but tan is useable. #ceramics #archaeology #RealArchaeology

Definitely a slight luster change from the unmodified (1) to the thermally altered (2-4) grainy red jasper. Thermal alteration (heat treating) can result in:

a) No change
b) Change in color, not luster
c) Change in luster, not color
d) Change in both color & luster

#Archaeology #RealArchaeology

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