ANCIENT POTTERY AND PSYCHOLOGY: AN EXPERIMENT IN EXPERT JUDGMENT

Eric C. De Sena and Samuel Carrier

How accurately is pottery from archaeological excavations generally sorted? Would the same group of pottery be sorted in the same manner by two different pottery experts? How well do novices fare against experts? A pottery specialist and a psychologist will try to answer these questions through an experiment in "Expert Judgment" - how people with different experiences and knowledge will approach a problem.

This experiment will be conducted on four groups of people: pottery specialists, professional archaeologists who do not work with pottery, archaeology students and non-archaeologists. The sample group consists of 150 pottery sherds selected from a layer of topsoil at the joint Oberlin College - Oxford University excavations at Monte Pallano (Abruzzo). Participants are given approximately one hour to sort the pottery into what they believe are valid classes and record the information. A preliminary report will be written for the Acta of the RCRF, while a full report will only be completed in about a year's time.

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