People and artefacts. Craft production of ‘testelli’ in the medieval town of Cencelle (VT, Italy): An experimental and traceological approach

• The goal is to investigate the medieval domestic pan known as ‘testello’. • Combining experimental archaeology, trace analysis, and morphological analysis. • Advances in experimental and traceological techniques for studying medieval ceramics. • New insights into the production technology of testelli. • The variability suggests the absence of a standardized and a hand-made production. The goal of this paper is to investigate the medieval domestic pan known as ‘testello’ through an integrated approach that combines morphological analysis with experimental archaeology and the analysis of technological traces. The testello is a flat container with edges a few centimeters high, traditionally used in Italy for crafting bread and flatbreads. We conducted an analysis of a sample of testelli from the medieval town of Cencelle (Viterbo, Italy). The application of experimental and traceological techniques, which have been relatively underutilized in the examination of medieval ceramics in Italy, has yielded numerous new insights into the material culture of Cencelle. This has prompted us to contemplate new methodologies for the production of domestic tools and the dynamics of social organization within a medieval town.