Making by Rules—Making by Reflex: Assessing Creative Process and Ceramic Typologies in Neolithic Southern Italy

This study evaluates whether archaeological ceramic typologies correspond to coherent technological practices by analyzing 334 rim sherds from the Middle Neolithic site of Penitenzeria (Calabria, Italy). Conventional categories—Stentinello, Impressed, and Undecorated—are tested against variation in raw materials, forming, finishing, and firing using systematic attribute analysis, bivariate comparisons, and multidimensional scaling. Results show substantial overlap among categories and no consistent association between decorative style and other aspects of the chaîne opératoire. Rather than reflecting discrete production traditions, these types capture tendencies within a shared technological repertoire. We argue that this recombinatory mode of production reflects the broad spaces of action within which potters creatively engaged with materials, techniques, and decorative conventions in the context of small-scale, local Neolithic communities and challenges the continued uncritical use of culture-historical typologies as analytical units. More broadly, the findings suggest that variability was not “noise” but a structuring principle of material practice in heterarchical Neolithic societies, offering insight into everyday social interaction and material engagement.