Potters at ancient Gordion (Turkey) produced a distinctive fine ware with a black glossy finish during at least the period 700-500 BC. Visual examination suggested a sintered slip finish. Study using SEM, EDS, INAA, x-ray diffraction, and refiring has confirmed this hypothesis. The technology was characterized by a relatively low firing temperature, large amounts of flux, a darkening wash added over the slip, and use of both calcareous and non-calcareous clays.

Investigation of many aspects of ancient ceramic production technologies is feasible during an archaeological field season, and requires little equipment. Descriptive variables such as color, inclusions ( temper ), variable textures within the paste, surface finish, hardness, and decorative techniques and style provide technological as well as stylistic or typological data. Residual surface traces, the surfaces of breaks themselves, and their overall patterning relative to both the vessel shape and size provide forming and finishing data. Subsequent laboratory analysis of samples complements the field data.

A brief history of archaeological research at Gordion Piecing together documentary sources from areas to the east and west of Anatolia, historians agree that in the eighth century BC, central Anatolia was dominated by people who spoke an Indo-European language, Phrygian (Mellink 1991: 621; Muscarella 1995: 92 with refs). From historical sources we also know the location of the Phrygians' capital, Gordion: Quintus Curtius (Hist Alex III.1–2) states that the city lay on the Sangarios River ‘equally distant from the Pontic and Cilician Seas’. Using this description, Gustav and Augustus Körte travelled across Turkey more than a century ago looking for the physical remains of Gordion and Phrygia. They eventually focused on a mound lying adjacent to the Sangarios or modern Sakarya. The mound, now called Yassıhöyük, is large relative to others in the region, and lies in the proper geographical setting for ancient Gordion; a series of artificial mounds or tumuli scattered across nearby slopes provides additional evidence of the settlement's importance.

A comparison of methods used for the manufacture of the largest ceramic storage vessels in two independent ceramic traditions over a period of centuries reveals distinctive trajectories in differing socioeconomic contexts. At Godin Tepe, a Bronze Age town in western Iran, an initially unique production sequence was gradually simplified and assimilated to the techniques used for the rest of the ceramic assemblage. At Gordion, an major urban center in Iron Age Turkey, the techniques changed relatively little over time. The degree and pace of change in production methods appear to reflect development of each ceramic assemblage as a whole and to relate to the scale and stability of the basic local economy.

Analyses of the distribution and nature of abrasion on ceramic rings from the third millennium B.C. portion of the Godin III pottery assemblage in western Iran (2600-1400 B.C.) indicate that it represents use wear. Residual scars on pottery vessels and reconstruction of vessel forming sequences support identification of these rings as potter's tools. They provide interconnections among varied sizes of Buff Common ware vessels made using different forming and finishing methods. This strengthens the inference of workshop production by specialist potters who make the full range of Buff Common ware vessels.

Analysis of patterns of breakage and xeroradiographs have shown that ‘wheelmarks’ provide an incomplete and potentially misleading diagnostic for forming methods. The location and distribution of such marks over the entire vessel is crucial. Patterns of breakage reveal the characteristic patterns of weakness in the vessel fabric left by each type of forming method. Examination of both the overall patterns and surfaces of breaks in relation to the vessel profile aids reconstruction of the original forming process. Selective xeroradiography aid this interpretation. Despite the ubiquity and extent of ‘wheelmarks’ on Godin III painted buff ware vessels (bowls and closed shapes), patterns of breakage and xeroradiography demonstrate limited but persistent use of true throwing of small vessels on a potter's wheel (western Iran, 2600-1400 B.C.). All others were built using combinations of hand-forming methods and finished on a tournette.