Inquiring sameness and difference in Early to Late Copper Age pottery production: Examples from the Grotte di Sant'Angelo (Calabria, Italy)

The Copper Age in Italy (3700-2200 BC) denotes a period in which major socio-economic and cultural transformations took place and marked the shift from Neolithic to Bronze Age societies. In the course of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC the material culture constantly changes, and complex dynamics of interrelationships appear on both regional and extra-regional scales. Pottery stylistic variations mirrored these transformations in a way that is only partially understood and served as the cornerstone for the definition of distinct chronological phases. Archaeological sites with ceramic assemblages that cover the entire Copper Age time span are rare but represent case studies of crucial importance. As a matter of fact, such kind of contexts allow to observe continuity and discontinuity among communities that inhabited the same territory and likely exploited the same environment. The underground archaeological deposit at the Grotte di Sant'Angelo (Cassano allo Ionio, Calabria) includes a ceramic assemblage that covers all the phases defined for the Copper Age in Calabria region, testifying to the wide circulation of cultural models occurred during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. This paper inquiries sameness and difference in stylistic, technological, and functional aspects of Early to Late Copper Age pottery production at example of the Grotte di Sant'Angelo archaeological context. The combination of typological, traceological, petrographic, and organic residue analysis revealed to be a successful investigation strategy and allowed to look at pottery materials beyond the simple need for chrono-cultural determinations. This case study contributes to the wider research on the definition and the understanding of the changes that featured the Copper Age in the central Mediterranean basin.