Ceramic Production and Geodiversity in Iron Age Iberia: An Archaeometric Study of Pottery from Castrejón de Capote (SW Spain)

ABSTRACT The hillfort of Castrejón de Capote is one of the best investigated settlements of Late Iron Age southwest Iberia. Located in the territory that the classical sources attributed to the Celtici , it was occupied between the early 4th and the 1st centuries bce . The excavations from the 1980s and 1990s have brought to light an extensive and diverse ceramic assemblage, including hand‐made and wheel‐made pottery, elaborate incense burners, spindle‐whorls, storage vessels and several nonlocal ceramic types (Ibero‐Phoenician pottery, black‐gloss ‘Campanian’ ware and amphorae). This article presents the first technological analysis of the site's ceramics, revealing the compositional and technological diversity of this assemblage, which partly relates to the site's geodiverse surroundings. Utilising a broad spectrum of archaeometric methods (ceramic petrography, X‐ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy), this study brings new insights into patterns of local manufacture and exchange of ceramics in Late Iron Age southwest Iberia.